This weekend, all eyes were on OpTic Texas, hosts of the CDL Major III tournament. There were high expectations for the squad, and for the most part, the team delivered. With a dominating display kicked off by a relegation to the loser’s bracket by Boston Breach, Texas went on a streak that saw them devastate some of the top contenders for the trophy. Unfortunately, at the final post, OpTic was beaten by a rested Toronto Ultra fresh off the back of a breezy winner’s bracket run.
There’s rampant disappointment among the OpTic Texas fans – and the Green Wall community at large. While a second-place finish is nothing to be ignored, there are already claims that the CDL Major’s structure offers too big an advantage to those in the winner’s bracket. As OpTic Texas tore through five teams in the loser’s bracket, Toronto Ultra chilled out backstage for hours, having only played three matches before the Grand Finals.
Toronto Ultra Wins CDL Major III… Just
We’d say it was a dominating display, but Toronto Ultra’s run through the winner’s bracket didn’t become all that impressive until the final-most stage. It was almost effortless walking through a discordant Subliners side, who would ultimately go on to leave the tournament empty-handed after a clash with the Florida Mutineers. Subliners lifted the trophy at Major I, so that certainly was a comedown of sorts.
Next, Ultra barely managed to scrape past a surprisingly resilient Boston Breach. It would have been closed out by Boston if the squad had managed to secure just one more map in the first Search and Destroy, but it wasn’t to be. Finally, Ultra sent Atlanta FaZe into the loser’s bracket to be eliminated by OpTic Texas, but despite landing a 3 – 0 victory over the LA Thieves, it wasn’t a monumental tournament for the boys from Atlanta.
It can be argued that Toronto Ultra barely needed to touch the sticks before hitting the Grand Finals, and again, the win came within a hair of switching direction. It was a skin-of-their-teeth victory by Toronto Ultra, picking up a scoreline of 6 – 5 in the final Search and Destroy and 3 – 2 in Control on El Asilo to close it out. It quite literally could have gone the other way with the utmost ease.
Elsewhere in the Major
It was an emotional CDL Major III for some competitors, both good and bad. For example, the event was a relatively miserable one for the LA Thieves, the 2022 reigning champions, as Atlanta FaZe threw the squad down into the loser’s bracket, and surprisingly, Vegas Legion finished them off. However, Legion would fall 0 – 3 against Boston Breach, a team that has proven time and again that it could be a legitimate contender for the 2023 CDL Championship.
Despite being a mid-table side, Breach – along with British rookie, Beans – managed to lay the smackdown against OpTic Texas and Legion, before seeing a revenge story from Texas ultimately take them out. There are high expectations for Breach heading towards Major IV.
It was a soul-crushing experience for some teams at this Major, though. For instance, the New York Subliners dropped out in last place after securing just two maps. It was a similar story for the ill-fated Los Angeles Guerrillas. Only three maps in total were won, adding insult to the recent injury that LAG suffered in the revelation that if the squad doesn’t find a buyer by the season’s end, it’ll be scrapped.
Go Next
Now, we look to Major IV, the behind-closed-doors Major that will be held in Columbus, Ohio between the 20th and 23rd of April. It’s the first Major in a very long time that won’t be played in front of a live audience, which has led to some fans being extremely disappointed. However, since Subliners pulled out of the spot, it seems to have been a challenge for the League to find a new home for the Major.
At present, nobody knows where the 2023 CDL Championship will land, but there are high hopes that it’ll take place outside of North America. It’s always a possibility that the CDL will make an appearance in London, but competitive Call of Duty hasn’t appeared in the United Kingdom since 2018.
Let’s wait and see how the remainder of the 2023 Call of Duty League season unravels.