CDL Major IV: Can The Subliners’ Reverse Sweep Begin Now?

It’s official: the Major IV qualifying stage is well and truly underway. This weekend, all twelve of the top-tier CDL teams played their first matches of the stage, setting the scene for the weeks ahead. It’s now that the competition begins to take on a more desperate image for some, as by the 17th of July, we’ll know which teams are going home empty-handed. As the penultimate stage heats up, we’re keeping an eager eye on certain teams, such as the New York Subliners.

While the NYSL crew has had a damning season so far, there is a glimpse of hope on the horizon. Following this opening stage, NYSL boasts a 2 – 0 record, having beaten down Florida Mutineers and the Los Angeles Guerrillas. Currently, there are just 35 CDL points between the Subliners and the cutoff for qualification to COD Champs. Can the team muster all its strength and produce the mother of all reverse sweeps, bringing themselves back into the running?

Probably not, but we love a good underdog story.

Entering The End of All Things

If you’re a fan of Call of Duty betting, you’ll appreciate the upset that an underdog team can produce. If the New York Subliners could go this entire stage without losing a match and then place high – or even win – at Major IV, it would open up the Call of Duty League Championship to the boys in yellow. It’s not an impossible feat by any means, but there’s a dense concentration of top-tier talent between the Subliners and the top spot in the table.

Over the last weekend, we saw Atlanta FaZe dominate the LA Thieves, producing a remarkable result that showed that the ATL team remains the king of Search and Destroy. Across both SnD games in the fixture, the LA Thieves produced nothing, ending both rounds 0 – 6. If that wasn’t bad enough, Sam ‘Octane’ Larew went through both games without landing a single kill.

It was also an incredibly tough week for OpTic Texas, dropping two matches against both Minnesota Rokkr and Boston Breach. Every fixture that OpTic Texas simply increases the gulf between itself and Atlanta FaZe, the team currently in first place in the CDL standings. While OpTic Texas might boast a roster featuring some of the best Call of Duty players in history, some unfortunate internal circumstances have created difficulties among the squad in recent weeks.

Moving to Major IV

Elsewhere in the Call of Duty League, we saw the likes of Paris Legion struggling once again against Seattle Surge, producing a 0 – 3 loss. For Toronto Ultra, the week started strong but ended on a weak note as the championship-grade squad fell short against the London Royal Ravens. In the first Bounty Match of the series, the LA Thieves beat Boston to take home the $10k prize.

Now, all eyes turn to the second week of the Major IV qualifiers. There are no Bounty Week fixtures coming up until the third week of the stage, but here are our picks for the hottest matches to check out:

• Atlanta FaZe vs. Toronto Ultra (July 1st)
• Seattle Surge vs. New York Subliners (July 2nd)
• OpTic Texas vs. New York Subliners (July 3rd)