The Dallas Empire have narrowly defeated the Minnesota ROKKR at the Call of Duty League Stage 2 Major. It was a back and forth match that culminated with a round 11 Search and Destroy map, but the Empire managed to take down the first seed of Group B.
No matter which team won the series, it could be considered an upset. While Minnesota was the first seed in Group B, and thus the favorite to win, Dallas is always tough to defeat–as shown in today’s match.
Dallas Empire take care of surging ROKKR
Coming into today’s winner’s bracket match, the Empire really needed to focus on their Search and Destroy. The game mode is Minnesota’s specialty and Dallas has struggled with it in recent weeks. Just last week, they lost to OpTic Chicago 6-0 in a total map breakdown.
However, it seems the Empire have put in serious work for the Stage 2 Major. Against Minnesota, Dallas won both the Search and Destroys in 6-5 fashion. The first Search and Destroy on Raid was particularly thrilling, as the team put a novel rewrapping strategy to good use.
https://twitter.com/DallasEmpire/status/1380609021946818572
No one member of the Empire roster put up stellar numbers but Anthony “Shotzzy” Cuevas-Castro did lead the way with a 1.16 K/D in the series. This performance, paired with Ian “Crimsix” Porter’s fantastic finish in the map three Control, allowed Dallas to take down the hottest team in the CDL.
Minnesota didn’t perform as they have in recent weeks. While rookie Eli “Standy” Bentz still played remarkably, posting a 1.17 K/D, the team choked away several chances to win. In the Control, they allowed Dallas to capture the B point with 0.1 seconds remaining on the clock. If not for that, the ROKKR would have likely gone on to win the series.
https://twitter.com/CODLeague/status/1380614997508784130
The ROKKR still showed great promise throughout this series, going toe-to-toe with one of the top teams in the CDL. However, if they want to make the next leap forward, they need to shore up some areas in their gameplay.
Minnesota drops to the loser’s bracket to face the winner of OpTic and Seattle on Saturday, April 1o, at 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time. Dallas moves on to round three of the winner’s bracket to play the winner of Atlanta FaZe and Toronto Ultra on Saturday, April 10, at 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time.
Published: Apr 9, 2021 05:35 pm