CDL 2023 Major 3 Qualifiers betting picks – Friday, February 17

The Call of Duty League (CDL) 2023 season reaches the halfway mark on Friday with the opening round of CDL Major 3 Qualifiers. Check out our selections for Los Angeles Thieves vs Las Vegas Legion, Minnesota RØKKR vs New York Subliners, and Toronto Ultra vs Boston Breach, with esports betting odds courtesy of BetOnline.

Las Vegas Legion confirmed the departure of Byron “Prolute” Vera on Tuesday, February 14, and replaced him with Brendan “2ReaL” Stockdale, who recently won CDC Boston Open 2023 with Decimate Gaming. The 24-year-old joins Legion with some experience competing in CDL, having spent over a month with Florida Mutineers in the summer of 2022, but it’s hard to take much from his short stint in the big league.

2Real can have an impact in Las Vegas Legion, who have not been playing great this season, but it’s tough to say whether the Legion will be any better with a new player. With a 6-10 record, Las Vegas Legion have a lot of ground to make up, but on a more positive note, things can only improve from here.

Los Angeles Thieves are 12-9 on the season, and they enter CDL Major 3 Qualifiers following a final run in Major 2, where they lost against Atlanta FaZe. It was the resurgent run the Thieves needed following a fifth-sixth finish in Major 1, and based on their showings in Boston, the Thieves are back and ready to defend their crown.

Las Vegas Legion should improve, but expecting them to stop the Thieves is a bit too optimistic. At +240 with esports betting sites, we like the reigning champions to win in three straight maps.

Minnesota RØKKR finally beat the “LAN curse” and placed outside the top eight for the first time since Call of Duty League Championship 2021 (4th). Much of their success at CDL Major 2 was thanks to Ben “Bance” Bance, who recorded fifth-best overall K/D and second among SMG players.

But while Bence had an outstanding performance, there are also some questions about this squad. What happens if opponents stop playing RØKKR on El Asilo – Control, when will Cameron “Cammy” McKilligan start posting consistent numbers, and whether the RØKKR will ever figure out how to do well against other teams on Search & Destroy?

CDL Major 2 didn’t treat the Major 1 champions, New York Subliners, kindly. They crashed out of the tournament out top-eight, but they had to deal with weather conditions, which saw them arrive in Boston late with little time to scrim. And then they got eliminated by the eventual finalists, LA Thieves, in one of the closest 0-3 we’ve seen this season.

This is an excellent team and easily one of the main CDL Championship contenders, but the Subliners aren’t that much better than RØKKR and are particularly bad on Search & Destroy. At the offered CDL betting odds, the value is with Minnesota RØKKR.

Toronto Ultra placed fifth-sixth at CDL Major 2, adding to their fourth-place finish in CDL Major 1. The results are there, but it seems like this is the best version of Toronto Ultra we’ll see this season.

Ultra have had some good moments this season, but in Major 2, they’ve only beaten Los Angeles Guerrillas (3-1). Then they got smacked around by Atlanta FaZe (0-3) and Los Angeles Thieves (0-3), adding to their losses against the Thieves (0-3) and OpTic Texas (1-3) in the qualifiers.

Still, Toronto Ultra look better than Boston Breach, who placed 13th-16th in Major 1 and fifth-sixth in Major 2. Their biggest problem is poor map five performances, having lost all six games that went the distance. Confidence wasn’t there, but that might change with the addition of Ben “Beans” McMellon, who got promoted to the starting lineup on Monday.

Toronto Ultra look like a better team, but Boston Breach have the tools needed to finally get over the hump of being good but not great. This is a winnable match for the Breach, and at +137, they’re a solid pick.


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