Predicting who will take home the win at CDL Major II

Teams have touched down at the Mystic Lake Center in Minnesota for the Call of Duty League Major II. This is the second major tournament of the 2022 season and will work the same as Major I did one month ago. However, the landscape of the CDL has changed dramatically since that event.

While OpTic Texas are still the clear favorites with the Atlanta FaZe not far behind, the rest of the field has shifted to a large degree. The LA Thieves and Toronto Ultra went a combined 1-10, the Boston Breach look like legitimate title contenders and the New York Subliners could be an ultra-dark horse thanks to more roster changes.

Between all of this, Upcomer will attempt to predict which team will take home the victory at CDL Major II.

The non-contenders

For starters, let’s get the non-contending teams out of the way. It’s tough to envision the Florida Mutineers, Seattle Surge, Paris Legion, Minnesota ROKKR or LA Guerrillas making it too far. Florida, Seattle, Paris and Minnesota looked rough during the Major II qualifiers and LAG are playing without Pierce “Gunless” Hillman, who’s dealing with a medical issue.

Out of these teams, we can only envision Seattle going on a run if they manage to defeat the red-hot OpTic Texas.

In addition to those five teams, it would take a miracle for either the LA Thieves or Toronto Ultra to make a loser’s bracket run. However, we can’t totally dismiss either of those teams simply due to the myriad of talent on both rosters. That leaves the following teams in true contention for the Major II title: OpTic Texas, Atlanta FaZe, London Royal Ravens, Boston Breach and New York Subliners.

The true contenders of CDL Major II

You might be surprised to see the New York Subliners on the list of contenders. However, New York are looking like a completely different team with Paul “PaulEhx” Avila on the roster. They went 3-0 with him and are riding a mountain of momentum heading into the winner’s bracket. We don’t see it as a longshot for the Subliners to make a run.

Now for the top-tier contenders. The London Royal Ravens and Boston Breach have a legitimate chance to take home their first CDL tournament win. London continues to look sharp in every facet of the game, only truly struggling on some Search and Destroy maps, such as Berlin, and in Control.

Boston, on the other hand, was 4-0 before dropping to London in the final match of the qualifiers. If Boston can shore up their weak areas, mainly on Control, they have a real shot. We have these two teams tied in terms of their chances to win the event. That leaves Texas and Atlanta.

Predicting the winner

The OpTic are riding a giant 12-game win streak and we don’t see that ending until the later rounds of the major. If both OpTic and FaZe win their round one matchups, they play each other in round two. Our prediction is whoever wins that match makes it to the grand finals without much trouble.

For the other spot in the grand finals, we predict either Boston or London will take down Texas/Atlanta in the loser’s bracket finals. In the grand finals, it’s hard to pick against OpTic or FaZe for the likes of London or Boston.

Our official prediction is an OpTic Texas vs. London Royal Ravens grand finals, with OpTic taking the hard-fought win 5-3. London wins a pair of Hardpoint maps and a Search and Destroy but Texas’ roster is too strong in the end.