The third winner’s bracket match of CDL Major II on Thursday saw the New York Subliners take on Atlanta FaZe. On paper, this match should go to FaZe every single time. However, there was some intrigue with New York coming in with a new roster. Paul “PaulEhx” Avila is the new addition, replacing James “Clayster” Eubanks. With PaulEhx, the Subliners went 3-0 in the qualifiers, looking dominant in Hardpoint.
Of course, none of the teams they won against were near FaZe’s caliber. It turns out that the Subliners aren’t up to Atlanta’s level yet, as they fell in a 3-0 sweep to the defending world champions.
Atlanta FaZe sweep the New York Subliners
New York kept things close in all three maps they played against Atlanta. They lost the first Hardpoint by just over 100 points, with only Paco “HyDra” Rusiewiez going positive for New York. This was a trend that would continue for the rest of the series. PaulEhx didn’t have the best showing against his first true taste of competition with New York. He finished with a 0.68 KD in the series, the lowest on the team by a wide margin.
Of course, it doesn’t help that PaulEhx was going up against four of the best players in the CDL. The only member of FaZe to go negative in the series was Chris “Simp” Lehr, but he singlehandedly won his team the second map of Search and Destroy. He came through with a 1-v-3 and 1-v-2 in back-to-back rounds to set up FaZe to win the S&D.
WELCOME BACK @SimpXO with the EASY 1v3 💢#EZAF | #CDL2022 pic.twitter.com/2Is00Z7fDx
— Call of Duty League (@CODLeague) March 31, 2022
The map three Control saw New York go up 2-0, but they couldn’t close it out. Some costly mistakes by the Subliners strategically made Atlanta’s comeback possible.
FaZe now advance to the second round of the winner’s bracket, where they’ll take on Seattle Surge on Saturday. New York fall to the loser’s bracket and face the LA Thieves Friday.
