The Minnesota RØKKR pulled off possibly the biggest upset of the Call of Duty League season today with a 3-1 victory over the Atlanta FaZe in the Stage Five Major.
Minnesota became the first team to beat Atlanta in fewer than five maps in the 2021 CDL season and are just the fifth team to take down FaZe, joining the likes of Toronto Ultra, OpTic Chicago, New York Subliners, and Los Angeles Guerrillas. Standy, going up against Atlanta’s duo of Simp and aBeZy, looked like he could be the next superstar within the CDL. He made big play after big play and posted a 1.19 K/D along with more than 12,000 damage over the course of the series.
“I think this win is just the start of our major run,” Standy said in the post-match interview. “One thing I’d say is expect the unexpected but at the same time I think this is just the beginning. We were coming in confident for that match so I think we got the job done and now we’ve just gotta put our heads down for the next matches.”
Minnesota have been a team that has shown flashes but have never been able to consistently string together dominant performances. They have an extremely talented roster with a mix of veterans such as Attach and Priestahh, in addition to the young budding superstar in Standy. MajorManiak rounds out the roster with a steady presence at the other AR spot. If they are able to build confidence and momentum, they absolutely can make a run at this Major and at the CDL Playoffs in August.
Atlanta have now been relegated to the losers bracket for the first time in any major this season and will need to make a run if they want to reach their fifth Major grand final or win their fourth Major title of the season. Cellium was the only member of FaZe to go positive as Atlanta was out-slayed by Minnesota by 17 kills.
Atlanta will take on the winner of the London Royal Ravens vs. Seattle Surge on July 31 at 2pm CT. Minnesota will face the defending world champions, the Dallas Empire, tomorrow at 5pm CT.
