Over the weekend, rostermania for the Call of Duty League truly began.
This past Sunday, Aug. 14, was the last day for teams to exercise team options on players with 1+1 contracts. If a player tweeted out they are a free agent for the 2023 season, then their former team decided to not exercise their team contract. The New York Subliners were one of several teams to not exercise options on some of their players. There were two players from the Subliners that are now free agents, Ian “Crimsix” Porter and Paul “PaulEhx” Avila.
Unrestricted Free Agent for 2023 and onward.
— FaZe Crimsix (@Crimsix) August 15, 2022
Restricted F/A, if any teams are interested let me know.
— Paul (@PaulEhx_) August 15, 2022
Crimsix and PaulEhx reveal New York Subliners drama
Crimsix and PaulEhx both tweeted out they are free agents on Sunday night, before going on The Flank podcast and spilling some serious drama about the 2022 season.
Crimsix is an unrestricted free agent for 2023, meaning he can sign with any CDL team without any restrictions. PaulEhx is a restricted free agent, which essentially means NYSL still has control over him. This puts PaulEhx in a sticky situation, as needs to work with the Subliners to potentially find a home for 2023 outside of a Challengers team. Paul revealed that he’s a restricted free agent because New York signed him as a substitute, even though he was a full-time starter.
After the pair of former teammates announced they were free agents, they went on The Flank podcast to dish all manner of drama. The common sentiment among the players, and eventually their former coach DREAL, was that NYSL was a dysfunctional roster all throughout the season. The players, namely Crimsix, felt they couldn’t trust the coaching staff and even their teammates. Paco “HyDra” Rusiewiez, a current member of NYSL, later joined the podcast to defend himself from the barrage of insults thrown his way by Crimsix.
NYSL allgedly eyeing Skyz for 2023 roster
Aside from all of the drama, we did get some roster rumors for NYSL. According to both PaulEhx and Crimsix, New York is apparently going after Cesar “Skyz” Bueno. Skyz has competed for the Florida Mutineers for three years, but looks to be leaving the Sunshine State for 2023. HyDra and Skyz reportedly played VALORANT together all throughout the season and were seen hanging out with each other on multiple occasions. While this roster move isn’t confirmed, it seems extremely likely to happen.
With Skyz presumably in the mix, HyDra and perhaps Matthew “Kismet” Tinsley make up the current New York Subliners roster for 2023. However, the team will need to find another AR player to put alongside Skyz if this reported roster comes to fruition.
CDL teams cannot sign free agents to new contracts until Aug. 22, so teams will not announce anything official until then.
