LA Thieves announced that Cuyler “Huke” Garland will not be playing during the first Call of Duty LAN in over a year due to a missed COVID-19 test.
Huke will be replaced by rookie substitute Zack “Drazah” Jordan, who was allegedly tested in time before the event. LA Thieves made the sudden announcement via Twitter midway through the London Royal Ravens vs. Seattle Surge match. This was just an hour before LA Thieves were to debut their veteran roster on LAN.
Due to COVID-19, the Call of Duty League has been unable to host tournaments offline, as they had in previous years. The last LAN event for Call of Duty was during the shared Los Angeles Home Series in 2020 between OpTic Gaming and LA Guerrillas. Now, over a year later, the CDL has been able to hold another offline event, which Huke will not be able to participate in.
LA Thieves continue to switch up rosters
The LA Thieves have made the most roster changes throughout the year. Recently, the Thieves benched rookies Drazah and Carlos “Venom” Hernandez for Huke and Austin “SlasheR” Liddicoat. This roster move was to bring back veteran talent in time for online tournaments to end. However, that has, of course, now been shut down due to a missed COVID-19 test.
“For our match today vs. the Guerrillas, Drazah will be starting in place of Huke. As part of the CDL’s COVID guidelines, players are to be tested the night before the match to determine eligibility. Huke was not available to be tested at the dedicated time.”
Why are you twisting this into some fan fiction conspiracy when it’s just black and white. Cuyler spelled his name wrong on his COVID test from last night so it was invalid. Then showed up to the venue without his ID and wasn’t able to be tested again.
— 100T Nadeshot (@Nadeshot) June 17, 2021
Huke was originally removed from the Dallas Empire due to complicated circumstances; he recently came forward about his Adderall abuse. According to LA Thieves’ CEO Matthew “Nadeshot” Haag, Huke spelled his name wrong on his original COVID test and then forgot to bring his ID to get tested in time before the team’s first match on June 17.
