A day after each suffered a 3-0 loss, the Los Angeles Thieves and New York Subliners bounced back with victories in the Call of Duty League’s Stage One Major.
The Thieves, who were stunned by crosstown rivals Guerrillas yesterday, swept the Toronto Ultra in losers bracket round three to keep their Major title hopes alive. The Subliners took a different route to get to the same destination, as they reverse swept the Florida Mutineers to get back on track.
In the first losers bracket match of the day, the Subliners fell behind after letting the first two maps slip away. NYSL Clayster said in a post-match interview his teammates’ relative inexperience showed in those games, particularly in their 6-5 loss on Checkmate Search and Destroy.
On Checkmate Control, Mack and DiamondCon came to play, combining for 58 kills. While Mack’s play dropped off on Checkmate Hardpoint, Asim stepped up for a game-high 31 kills. And on Miami Search and Destroy, the whole team chipped in for a 6-3 win, although DiamondCon did seal the victory with a one-vs-one clutch.
Florida’s loss stings a little more because of the performance star player Owakening put on throughout the series. He put up 110 kills over five games, the most of any player in the series, in addition to finishing with a 1.24 K/D.
To finish out the day, the LA Thieves ended their two-match losing streak with a rather commanding win over the Ultra. Neither of the first two maps were particularly close, but an offensive collapse from Toronto allowed the Thieves to steal round five on Checkmate Control and win the series.
The Ultra and Mutineers have been eliminated from the Major in a tie for seventh place, earning themselves $10,000 and 20 CDL Points each. As for the Subliners and Thieves, they will attempt to continue their losers bracket run tomorrow.
New York faces the Los Angeles Guerrillas, who were swept by the Atlanta FaZe today, while the Thieves have OpTic Chicago on the schedule. OpTic lost in the 11th round of the fifth game against the Dallas Empire today in the winners bracket semifinals.
The CDL Major will continue tomorrow at 2pm CT with the winners bracket finals matchup of the Empire vs. FaZe.
