The Los Angeles Thieves have picked up their first Call of Duty League victory over OpTic Chicago.
The Thieves took down OpTic 3-1 in today’s Stage Three group play showdown. Chicago tried out some off-meta weapons, such as the FFAR and Milano. And even though Dashy and Envoy each made some highlight-reel plays with these guns, it wasn’t enough to keep OpTic undefeated in Stage Three.
Related: Group play results for Stage 3 of 2021 Call of Duty League
The only other time these two franchises have faced off in the regular season this year was at the Stage One Major, where OpTic beat L.A. 3-1 to eliminate Nadeshot’s organization from the tournament. In that series, L.A. only won the Search and Destroy while OpTic won all three respawn maps. But today, the Thieves flipped the script.
L.A. kicked off this series by taking map one, Checkmate Hardpoint, 250-205 behind a 29-kill performance from Drazah. This marked OpTic’s first loss on Checkmate Hardpoint of the season—they were previously 6-0 on the map and mode combination.
OpTic immediately responded, however, by winning Express Search and Destroy 6-3. Dashy, using the unconventional FFAR assault rifle throughout the map, led the lobby with 12 kills, while Scump went 11/4 and picked up an ace in the final round.
In map three, Raid Control, L.A. built a 2-0 lead. OpTic answered back by winning two straight rounds of their own. But then the Thieves closed out the map with a strong offensive push in overtime to secure the 3-2 victory.
With all momentum on their side, L.A. ended the series with a strong 250-117 win on Apocalypse Hardpoint. Kenny went 25/13 in map four to help the Thieves pick up the 3-1 series victory over OpTic. This win pushed L.A. into first place of Group B in Stage Three with a 3-1 record, while OpTic drop to 2-1.
The final week of Stage Three group play will begin on Thursday, May 6. OpTic will face off against the New York Subliners and Atlanta FaZe next week, while L.A. only have one match against New York.
