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The first day of the Call of Duty League Major One event came to an end with four CDL teams biting the dust and exiting the tournament.
Boston Breach, London Royal Ravens, Pollodrom and Decimate Gaming all failed to secure a win in their respective group stage outings. Their run in the tournament came to an end earlier than expected with a 0-2 record each. They will be finishing the tournament with a 13th-16th placing on the Major One standings with no prize money attachments.
The 2023 CDL Major One tournament, which includes four amateur teams alongside the 12 CDL franchises, saw two of these Challengers teams pull off upsets against Boston and London on the first day of competition. This differs from previous Majors, which did not give amateur players the opportunity to face off against top-ranked teams.
In their first game of Major One, Boston put up a strong fight but ultimately fell 3-2 to Elevate, a European Challengers team with former London player Joseph “Gismo” Evans. Boston lost both Hardpoints and a game five, round 11, sending them to the losers bracket in Group D.
Anthony “Methodz” Zinni and his team faced off against the Las Vegas Legion in their elimination match, but with a substitute due to the offseason addition, Joseph “Owakening” Conley feeling ill. Ben “Beans” McMellon, a new addition to the team, made his CDL debut as a replacement. Despite his efforts in helping the Breach win both Hardpoints, Boston ultimately lost both Search and Destroys and was eliminated from the tournament after a 3-2 defeat to Vegas.
London started off the event with a rough loss against Seattle Surge, who swept them 3-0. Despite having a high number of kills (67), Obaid “Asim” Asim couldn’t prevent the Royal Ravens from being placed in the Group C losers bracket.
The Los Angeles Guerrillas Academy team faced off against the London Royal Ravens, coming off a narrow 3-2 defeat to the Atlanta FaZe. The LAG Academy team, which includes former CoD world champion Adam “Assault” Garcia and the 18-year-old Joseph “JoeDeceives” Romero, won both Hardpoints against Atlanta but lost both Search and Destroy.
Despite losing the Hardpoints against London, LAG Academy managed to win the Search and Destroys and claimed a 3-2 victory, effectively eliminating London from the Raleigh event.
Pollodrum’s run in the tournament started with a Group B opening fixture against the Toronto Ultra. The amateur team stunned Toronto with an early 2-0 lead, but the lead fast turned to a loss as Toronto reverse swept Pollodrum to secure the win.
Their loss to Toronto guaranteed them a spot at the elimination match against the Florida Mutineers, who were deprived of a game-one win by OpTic Texas. In a four-game series, Florida claimed victory, eliminating Pollodrum from the event.
Decimate Gaming, on the other hand, were the only team in the entire tournament that failed to win a map. Their first outing in the Group A matchup against Minnesota RØKKR ended with a 0-3 loss, pushing them a step closer to elimination.
Their second fixture saw them go up against the Los Angeles Guerrillas, who had also suffered a 3-0 sweep in their previous matchup with the New York Subliners. The Guerrillas got the better of them, rampaging through them in a clean sweep, thereby leading to their eventual elimination.
