The third elimination match of the day at CDL Champs featured two previous major winners facing off: Seattle Surge and OpTic Texas. These two squads match up evenly, both boasting dominant SMG duos and great main ARs. In the battle for a spot in the loser’s bracket finals, the Seattle Surge emerged victorious against steep odds.
Seattle kicked off this series as they have this entire tournament – with a win on Tuscan Hardpoint. Unlike their previous two matches on this map, though, Seattle didn’t need late-game heroics to win. Instead, they rode huge performances from Lamar “Accuracy” Abedi, who surprisingly used the MP40, and Daunte “Sib” Gray to completely blow out OpTic by over 100 points.
OpTic was also blown out in the map one Hardpoint by the LA Thieves yesterday and that completely dismantled their confidence for the rest of the series. However, today was a different story, as Texas regained beautifully to dominate the map two Search and Destroy on Bocage. Indervir “iLLeY” Dhaliwal went huge, dropping 10 kills and securing multiple clutch kills. No member of Seattle went positive on a map they needed to forget quickly.
Map three was Tuscan Control, a map that Seattle Surge have dominated all season long. OpTic found their first taste of success in Control earlier today against NYSL, but lightning wasn’t able to strike twice. After a back-and-forth affair, OpTic found themselves in a 2v1 situation on offense in round five. With Brandon “Dashy” Otell and Seth “Scump” Abner on the point versus Amer “Pred” Zulbeari, the Texas players lined up for Pred, and he killed them both simultaneously. It was flashes on Moscow Search and Destroy for OpTic, and Seattle went up 2-1 in the series because of Pred’s clutch.
THEY LINE UP 🤯@SeattleSurge are now at match point versus @OpTicTexas.#DrownThemOut | #CDLChamps pic.twitter.com/VSfYuh3iQi
— Call of Duty League (@CODLeague) August 7, 2022
With Texas’ season on the line, it was Berlin Hardpoint for map four. This is OpTic’s worst Hardpoint map, but they now needed to win it to extend their season. While Texas was in control of Berlin for a large duration, they completely collapsed at the second P5 and third P1. They allowed Seattle to gain nearly 80 consecutive points, with Mackenzie “Mack” Kelley being the main player to keep them out of the objective.
It’s a crushing blow for OpTic, who easily could have won the series if they close out maps three and four stronger. The loss ends the season for OpTic Texas, who place fourth at Champs and walk away with $160,000. On the other hand, it’s a massive win for the side of the Seattle Surge. They will play Atlanta FaZe for the right to advance to the grand finals.
We’ll be recapping every CDL Champs match throughout the weekend on Upcomer, so stay tuned for more action.
Published: Aug 6, 2022 11:26 pm