The Call of Duty League just wrapped up its first weekend of matches for Modern Warfare 2. Not only was this the start of a new game but also the first look at most of the revamped teams—and the action was non-stop.
OpTic Texas turned heads all weekend in more ways than one, the M4 proved to be the superior weapon in the meta, Twitch breathed new life back into the Call of Duty scene, an SAE killstreak bug divided the community, and the Vegas Legion continued its losing streak. While there was a lot of action this weekend, here are our main takeaways from the CDL’s opening weekend that should keep those who couldn’t watch in the loop.
Aftermatch of OpTic forfeiting due to killstreak bug controversy
After a fiasco of an offseason, OpTic Texas fans were anxious to see how their team would perform on the latest title, especially after Scump announced that this will be his final season as a pro. OpTic’s first match against the Minnesota RØKKR on Friday, Dec. 2 was the talk of the weekend when the team decided to forfeit the match after being up 2-1 in the series. An SAE killstreak bug toward the end of the Control resulted in a replay ruling in favor of the RØKKR. OpTic declined to play the map over, giving Minnesota the map win. They then declined to play the rest of the series after that, forfeiting the match and resulting in their first loss of the year.
The SAE killstreak bug was then debated and meme’d by the community after it was used in the OpTic and RØKKR match. This bug freezes players for upwards of 15 seconds in their killstreak screen after pulling it out. The bug was known by players before the games started and had also been GA’d from use in the CDL. Cammy accidentally used it during the Control, which resulted in the controversial replay and eventual forfeit from OpTic.
At the bare minimum, this situation showed that the devs need to urgently address this bug or make it so players aren’t forced to equip the SAE streak so issues like this can be avoided moving forward.
M4 becomes the superior weapon
It was expected by many in the community that MW2 would be an AR-heavy game. Multiple teams had been seen using multiple ARs during scrims, with some running upwards of three depending on the map and mode.
Despite many fans and pros calling for the M4 to be GA’d from play, the gun was clearly the favorite among teams this past weekend. It was the player-favorite gun and multiple pros showed just how broken it could be. The strength of the M4 could lead to adjustments to the meta in the near future, if changes are made to the gun or the pros do decide to GA it.
Twitch brings back CDL viewership
After three long years of streaming exclusively on YouTube, the CDL made its official return to Twitch this weekend. And Twitch has proved to be the more lucrative platform so far, drawing in tens of thousands of views to the matches, with some series topping out at over 150,000 viewers at once.
These numbers are much better than the measly 30,000 to 40,000 that the league used to average on YouTube. It also allowed pros to hop on Twitch after their matches concluded to co-stream the games, letting them build their own brands too.
Vegas continue to struggle despite revamp
Finally, despite moving locations and signing a competitive team, the Vegas Legion continues to struggle in the CDL. Many fans thought this year would be an upturn for the Legion after it signed veteran talents like TJHaLy and Clayster to the roster. But with two close losses to the defending world champion L.A. Thieves and the Florida Mutineers, the organization has now officially surpassed over 200 days since its last win. The last time the Legion took home a victory was against the Toronto Ultra during the Vanguard season on May 6.
From upsets to the CDL’s first forfeited match, MW2 showcased just how action-packed this year could be. The qualifier matches continue later this week as teams battle it out for the best seeding possible before the first Major in Raleigh, North Carolina from Dec. 15 to 18.
