One of the top teams in the 2023 Call of Duty League standings has made an unexpected roster change.
The Toronto Ultra has benched Standy and will replace him with European amateur player Hicksy, the organization announced today. Toronto’s starting lineup will now feature CleanX, Insight, Scrap, and Hicksy.
The 23-year-old joined the Ultra last year as a substitute and he did make at least one appearance for the CDL team in 2022. Hicksy remained under contract with the franchise heading into the 2023 season.
Now, he’ll officially enter the starting lineup for a Toronto team that’s in third place in the CDL Points standings. But the Ultra are coming off a top-six placing at Major Two in Boston earlier this month where they were swept in two consecutive matches by the eventual grand finalists, the Atlanta FaZe and Los Angeles Thieves.
Results: Results for 2023 Call of Duty League Major 3 qualifiers
Most recently, however, Toronto lost their opening series of the Major Three online qualifiers yesterday. The Ultra fell to the Boston Breach, who was debuting its own new lineup featuring another European amateur in Beans, 3-1.
Though one online series likely wasn’t the main reason for this roster change, Standy did produce the lowest K/D on Toronto in yesterday’s match with a 0.86, according to CoD stats site Breaking Point. But the 21-year-old has posted a 1.05 overall K/D so far this year, according to Breaking Point.
Standy commented on the move on Twitter. “Benched,” he said. “Just gotta work on myself and become the player I know I’m capable of.”
“Had my own homie backstabbing me,” Standy added in a second tweet that he’s since deleted. “We move forward.”
Toronto will play its first online qualifier match with its new lineup tomorrow, Feb. 19, against the Vegas Legion.
