In the final match of Call of Duty League Stage Two group play, OpTic Chicago defeated the Dallas Empire, shaking up the top three in Group B.
With a 3-2 victory, OpTic secured their second-place finish in Group B and knocked the Empire down to the third seed ahead of the Stage Two Major. In addition to being a massive win in terms of group standings, today’s win represents some revenge after OpTic lost to Dallas during the season’s first Major.
Coming into the series, the Empire were 6-1 in Hardpoint during Stage Two. And despite a strong effort from OpTic on Moscow, Dallas improved to 7-1 with a 250-244 win. OpTic evened up the series in Search and Destroy, however, a game mode in which neither team had much success this stage.
In Stage One, OpTic proved to be the best Control team in the CDL, winning their first eight maps in the game mode. Regardless, Dallas took back the series lead with a hard-fought 3-2 win on Checkmate. The Empire’s inconsistency continued, though, as OpTic dominated the subsequent Hardpoint to force a map five.
On Checkmate Search and Destroy, the same map the Empire defeated OpTic on during the Stage One Major, OpTic punished Dallas to finish the series. Scump and FormaL, in particular, combined for 17 kills in the 6-1 win.
Had the Empire won this series, they would have been the top seed in Group B and earned a first-round bye in the Stage Two Major. With the loss, however, they will now have to face the New York Subliners, the No. 2 seed in Group A, in winners bracket round one. OpTic will face the Toronto Ultra in the other round one match.
The $500,000 Stage Two Major will begin on April 7 at 3pm CT.
