The two most popular teams in the Call of Duty League clashed in the losers finals of the 2020 Call of Duty League Championship today, meaning only one could move on to the grand finals.
In a match nearly 200,000 concurrent viewers tuned in to, Atlanta FaZe took out the Chicago Huntsmen in four games to secure a rematch against the Dallas Empire in the CDL Champs grand finals. The Huntsmen, arguably the league’s most popular team, finishes the tournament in third place.
Despite the series not going to a fifth game, the two teams were evenly matched. Other than an 84-point Huntsmen win in the opening map of the match, very little separated the squads. On Arklov Peak Search and Destroy, FaZe won in the 11th round, giving fans Chipotle burritos in the process.
In the subsequent respawn game modes, Atlanta again pulled out close wins on Gun Runner Domination (21 points) and St. Petrograd Hardpoint (11 points). This was FaZe’s second win over Chicago during this tournament, with the first coming in the winners bracket semifinals.
With a third-place finish, the Huntsmen earned $600,000, although the money likely pales in comparison to the feeling they would have had if they had advanced to the grand finals.
The Empire and FaZe will face off in a best-of-nine series tomorrow for the chance to win the first CDL Championship and the grand prize of $1.5 million. Since Dallas is coming in from the winners bracket side, they will have a one-map advantage against FaZe, meaning they will only need to win four more maps to become champions. In their matchup in the winners finals, Dallas defeated Atlanta 3-2.
The grand finals will begin at 3pm CT tomorrow. You can watch via the CDL’s official YouTube channel.