The Los Angeles Thieves have earned a bit of revenge on the Atlanta FaZe, taking down the defending Call of Duty League Boston Major champions on Sunday afternoon.
In a rematch of the grand finals of the season’s second Major that saw Atlanta claim the championship with a 4-2 victory over Los Angeles, it was L.A. getting the win this time, albeit for lesser stakes.
The Thieves came out hot in the series behind a massive performance from Envoy, who led Los Angeles with 23 kills to just 18 deaths in the series’ first map, notching the Mercado Hardpoint by a score of 250-172. While Atlanta lost the map, it was not for lack of trying from their superstar, Simp, who went 23-14 in the map, good for a 1.64 K/D.
While FaZe were down in the series 1-0, they roared out of the gates in El Asilo Search and Destroy. Behind 8-3 and 8-4 performances from SlasheR and aBeZy, Atlanta rolled to a 6-1 victory to bring the series back to even. Every single player for the side of FaZe was positive and the team ended +14 in the slaying category in just seven rounds of SnD.
In the series’ third map, Hotel Control, it was the Drazah and Envoy show. The AR and SMG duo combined for 58 kills to just 34 deaths in the 3-2 L.A. victory, each posting the same stat line of 29-17. After the Thieves took a 2-1 lead, Atlanta had to win another respawn to get to a decisive game five and a Search and Destroy for the key match. Unfortunately for FaZe, Octane and Drazah were dominant.
Initially, it was a back-and-forth affair on the series’ fourth map, Embassy Hardpoint, with both Los Angeles and Atlanta remaining within a few points of each other through the map’s first set of rotations. But after a chaotic Hardpoint at the P1, the Thieves won the rotation to P2, setting themselves up for a good amount of time on the hill. FaZe did manage to bring it within 100 points but in the end, L.A. was too much in the rematch.
Drazah and Octane put up 27 kills a piece, to only 20 and 21 deaths, respectively, in the 250-195 victory that clinched the 3-1 series for Los Angeles. Drazah led all players in the lobby with a 1.20 series K/D while dealing more than 8,600 worth of Damage in the Hardpoint. The win gets L.A. revenge after losing to Atlanta in the finals earlier this month, but more importantly, gets them back on track for the season’s third set of qualifiers.
Atlanta will have a chance to get back on track when they take on the London Royal Ravens on Friday, Feb. 24 at 2pm CST.
Meanwhile, the Thieves will battle with the Seattle Surge on Saturday, Feb. 25 at 3.30pm CST as the CDL inches closer to its third major tournament of the 2023 season.
