The Los Angeles Thieves dominated a red-hot OpTic Texas team, taking two Hardpoints from the hottest team in the league for a 3-1 victory, pushing them to the grand finals of the Call of Duty League’s Major 4.
Coming into Sunday, OpTic held a tie for the most consecutive Hardpoint wins in the history of the CDL with 11 straight maps. On the other hand, Los Angeles have been one of the best teams in the league when it comes to the game mode, winning 37 of their 60 Hardpoints during the 2023 season.
The series kicked off with the water-heavy map, Hydro, with both teams coming out swinging on the first Hardpoint. After OpTic had an opportunity to get to the 250 points needed on P2, L.A. were able to contest enough time in the hill to stretch it to the next Hardpoint. At P3, it was an extremely chaotic scene with both teams running into the point, trying to win the trades battle. Ultimately, it was Los Angeles that managed to outlast Texas, taking a thrilling first map by a count of 250-244.
After a disappointing loss in the first map, OpTic needed to reset to bring the series back even on one of their best Search and Destroy maps, Fortress. Things started off perfect for Texas, as they found all four members of the Thieves in the first round for a flawless round one and a quick 1-0 lead. Unfortunately for the Green Wall, that lead would be short-lived. L.A. were well-prepared in the scouting department, countering every single strategy that OpTic had had success with in prior Fortress SnDs. They rattled off six of the next seven rounds to take a commanding 2-0 lead with the 6-2 victory.
If OpTic had any chance to turn the series around and make the grand finals from the winner’s bracket, it would start on Expo Control. It was about as great of a start as they could have hoped for, as they won the first two rounds to take the 2-0 lead, needing just one more round to push it to a map four. The Thieves did manage to take the next round, but OpTic were too strong in the fourth, with a suffocating defensive win.
After the win in Control, Texas had a chance to start a new Hardpoint win streak, with the series shifting gears to Mercado Hardpoint. But Los Angeles had other plans. The killfeed lit up red for what seemed like the entirety of the map. As great as OpTic’s sub-duo of Huke and Shotzzy have played over the last two months, they were equally as bad on map four.
The two combined for just 28 kills to 57 deaths, while L.A.’s Envoy put up 31 kills by himself. It was a struggle for Texas to win rotations or break into setups with their subs struggling so much, and the scoreboard reflected this in a 250-149 victory for the Thieves. With the victory, Los Angeles advanced to their fifth grand finals in their last nine events and will await the winner of the elimination bracket finals later today.
Despite the loss, OpTic are still just one series away from reaching the grand finals themselves, and they are no stranger to coming back from the bottom side of the bracket. Last Major, they made an impressive run in the elimination bracket to advance to the grand finals before ultimately falling to the Toronto Ultra.
There is also no bracket reset, so the only disadvantage to coming from the elimination bracket is the map vetoes, plus the debatable effect of having an extra series played.
However, the point is moot if OpTic cannot win the elimination bracket finals. They will be awaiting the winner of the Atlanta FaZe vs. New York Subliners matchup happening now. The elimination finals will take place later today at 3:30pm CDT.
