The London Royal Ravens outlasted the Toronto Ultra today in a marathon series marred by technical issues at the 2022 Call of Duty League’s OpTic Texas Major.
The series started with an incredibly entertaining Gavutu Hardpoint. With both teams throwing their bodies into the point, it felt like neither squad established a substantial lead throughout the map. London were finally able to break into P1 and soak up the remaining time needed for the 250-235 victory.
Unfortunately, the second map of the series was marred by numerous technical issues that caused the game to crash three separate times, which led to over 30 minutes of delays. It’s not uncommon to have issues while competing in an online setting, but it’s rare to have the game crash multiple times in a LAN setting.
Thankfully, the Berlin Search and Destroy did resume and was completed. After beginning the restart down 3-1, Toronto were on the brink of dropping the map since the Royal Ravens had taken a commanding lead. But the Ultra clutched up and came away with a massive 6-5 victory in a map they absolutely had to have. Thanks to a kill streak from Cammy, the Ultra eliminated the last London player on the map with a Glide Bomb and closed out the game.
London could have easily chalked the series at that point. After having to deal with numerous restarts in a map they had a stranglehold on, no one would have blamed them if they struggled the rest of the way. But they showed a lot of resolve on Gavutu Control, putting on a clutch performance in the game’s final round to win 3-2.
At that point, the Royal Ravens recaptured any of the momentum Toronto had gained in the SnD victory. While the Ultra fought valiantly on Berlin Hardpoint, London lit up the kill feed during Toronto’s final push to close the series with a 250-213 win in map four.
If there were any questions about London’s legitimacy and ability to compete for championships, they should be answered. They have beaten both OpTic Texas and Toronto this year and they avenged their only loss of the regular season to the Los Angeles Guerrillas. They’re playing Hardpoint at an elite level and Afro is becoming a superstar in real-time. Zer0 continues to play at an elite level as well, posting a superb 1.38 K/D over the series’ four maps.
London are now in the winners bracket finals and await the victor of OpTic and Atlanta FaZe. They’ll play on Championship Sunday at 2pm CT.
