The Seattle Surge moved to 2-1 in the Call of Duty League’s Major Three qualifiers for the 2022 season after completely dismantling the Los Angeles Thieves in 3-0 fashion this afternoon.
After a rough outing at the CDL Pro-Am Classic that saw Seattle go 0-3 in group play, including a 3-1 loss to Challengers team Strike X, the team have turned their fortunes around at the beginning of the season’s third stage. Seattle lost a close series to the Toronto Ultra in their first match of qualifiers 3-2, but since then, they’re yet to drop a map.
On their best days, Seattle look like a championship contender, and on their worst, a bottom four team. The Surge team that have been so dominant over the last two matches, however, are a team that can contend with OpTic Texas and Atlanta FaZe. Sib, who helped lead Seattle in slaying with a 1.40 K/D and more than 7,200 damage over the series’ three maps, knows that consistency is key to his team making deeper runs at majors.
“It’s a consistent system. Before we were only doing the right thing sometimes. You do that sometimes, it’s never going to work. So we have to do the right thing every single time. High percentage plays every single time so we can guarantee wins like this,” Sib said after the match. “I think if we keep working on our craft and making sure we have a consistent system and we keep doing the same thing, we’ll be straight.”
Accuracy and Mack were also massive in the slaying department for Seattle, posting 1.32 and 1.44 K/Ds in the series, respectively. The slaying mismatch was the biggest factor in this series and it got ugly for the Thieves. Seattle outslayed L.A. by 44 kills over three maps, while the Thieves had two players, Envoy and Kenny, post 0.63 K/Ds.
Unfortunately for L.A., a team that made a run to the finals at the Pro-Am Classic earlier this month, their success at the exhibition tournament has not translated to the qualifying stage. They started off hot with a 3-0 victory over the London Royal Ravens but have now been swept in back-to-back matches to fall to 1-2.
Los Angeles have a chance to right the ship when they take on the Boston Breach on May 28 at 5pm CT. Seattle will be back in action on May 27 at 3:30pm CT against the Florida Mutineers.
