Published , by Donovan Erskine
Published , by Donovan Erskine
We’re here at the Call of Duty World League Championship in West Hollywood, California and have had a front row seat to all of the craziness the Esports tournament has provided so far. It’s only the first day of the main brackets and we’ve already seen major upsets and historic moments. With teams from all over the world vying for a piece of the $2,000,000 grand prize, competition is at its peak.
We kicked off the winners bracket with Team Envy vs Units. The very first match of the series was a thrilling game of Hardpoint that came down to the final moments. With Units up 249-234 Envy seized their last opportunity to make a play and pushed their way onto the hardpoint. DeCeMaTe got to the objective in just enough time to contest, and then single-handedly held the point while fighting off enemies to secure a 250-249 victory. Unfortunately, the magic ran out for Team Envy shortly after and Units took the series 3-2.
Following the opener, we saw several teams fall to their opposition 3-1. This includes Splyce losing to Evil Geniuses and Team WaR getting knocked off by eUnited. The biggest story of the day however is that of 100Thieves. The up and coming Esports org had a true rollercoaster of a day here at the CWL Championship. We were all shocked when Luminosity sent the 100T boys packing after a pretty easy 3-1 series finish. That’s no knock to Luminosity, but 100T are some of the best in the league, and many saw them as a legit contender to win it all. Finding themselves in the losers bracket on day 1, they knew it would be an uphill battle in the fight for placement. Of course, the cookie crumbled in such a way that 100Thieves would have to square off against none other than FaZe Clan in the opening round of the Loser’s tourney.
FaZe started off the series with a commanding 2-0 lead after besting 100Thieves in Hardpoint and Search & Destroy. At this point, backs were against the wall and FaZe only needed to take one more map to completely eliminate 100Thieves from CWL Championship contention. When it was time to do or die, the 100T boys were able to win the game of control thanks to a supreme effort from Priestahh in order to buy themselves another game. In the second run at hardpoint both teams stayed on their toes, trading leads throughout the match. 100Thieves was able to hold FaZe off in the end and force a game 5. At this point, all the momentum had shifted and FaZe went from having their foot on the neck of one of Esports hottest new organizations to being on the chopping block.
The last game of the night was a good old match of Search & Destroy. With a comfortable lead of 4-2, Octane gave everyone a 101 in clutch when he pulled off a grim looking 1v3 to steal a win away from FaZe, pushing 100Thieves lead to 5-2. At this point, the energy here at the CWL Champs had shifted so strongly in favor of 100Thieves, it felt like they’d already won. With one more game needed to put the series to bed, 100T made quick work of their enemies to win the series and put the final nail in the coffin of FaZe Clan’s CWL run.
100Thieves pulling out a legendary reverse sweep to defeat FaZe and keep their CWL hopes alive was the perfect way to end day 1 of bracket play. The drama continues tomorrow when the Call of Duty World League Championship continues. We’ll be right here to keep you updated on all the action coming out of West Hollywood.