After two days of intense play and sixteen teams rising to the top, the final elimination rounds of the Call of Duty World League Championship have begun. There was plenty of grit and fire to be found in Friday’s match-ups as members of both the winner and loser brackets fought with everything they had to stay in the race.
In this tournament, each match consists of five rounds on five different maps. Teams compete in up to two rounds of Hardpoint, two rounds of Search and Destroy, and one round of Capture the Flag. The first team to secure three wins takes the match and moves onto the next round of the winners bracket. The other team gets sent to the loser bracket. From there they still have a chance to make it to the championship match, they just have to fight through more games in order to do it.
FaZe Clan vs. Team EnVyUs
It was FaZe Clan and Team EnVyUs that kicked off the days events. Though both teams struggled valiantly throughout, it was Team EnVyUs that managed to emerge victorious, taking their match with an overall score of 3-2. At the same time, Ghost Gaming took on Team Sween. Team Sween managed to take a round, but Ghost Gaming proved too much for them in the end. Ghost Gaming took the match 3-1.
Evil Geniuses and Team Vitality win
Next up was Evil Geniuses vs. Team Vitality and Lethal Gaming versus Lightning Pandas. Both matches ended in total victory for Evil Geniuses and Lightning Pandas, each smashing their competition with overall score of 3-0. Following their lead, eUnited shut out Red Reserve three to nothing. Unilad’s match versus Complexity wasn’t quite so one sided, but Unilad still prevailed with a 3-1 win against their opponents.
Following this, Team Kaliber took the stage against Rise Nation. Rise Nation immediately took the initiative and gained an early lead in the first round of Hardpoint. However, they weren’t able to hang onto it. Team Kaliber spent the whole round eroding that lead before finally overcoming it at the very end. They then kept their momentum and rode it to a second win. Rise Nation rallied in the third round and won, but were unable to turn the match around. The fourth and final round was Hardpoint once again, but this time it was Team Kaliber that took the early lead. Unfortunately for Rise Nation, Team Kaliber seemingly had little difficulty holding onto it. Team Kaliber took the match 3-1. The final match of the winners bracket placed Luminosity against Elevate. Luminosity put up a great fight in each round, but it was Elevate that took the win each time. The match concluded 3-0 in Elevate’s favor.
The Loser’s Bracket
Things were quite intense in the loser bracket too. FaZe Clan didn’t take their earlier loss sitting down and put up a great effort against Team Sween, taking the match 3-1. It was Lethal Gaming versus Team Vitality in the next match, and both teams did their absolute best to stay in the running. Lethal Gaming just barely won the first round of Hardpoint, and the same was true for the second. Both rounds played out like a mighty game of tug o’ war. Vitality finally made their move in the third round, winning it with a commanding lead in CTF. Having taken the initiative, Vitality took an early lead in the fourth round and just barely managed to keep it. The fifth and final round was Search and Destroy, and both teams pulled out all the stops. The round ended in a tie and eventually moved to sudden death wherein Team Vitality finally managed to secure the win. The match closed out 3-2 in Team Vitality’s favor.
Following this was another close match between Rise Nation and Luminosity, with Luminosity eventually defeating Rise Nation with an overall score of 3-2. It was Red Reserve and Complexity that closed out the days events, and Red Reserve seemed to have decided that they wanted to take no prisoners. They shut out Complexity with and overall score of 3-0.
There are still several full rounds to go before the Championship Match on Sunday. The winners may seem clear cut, but if there’s anything about sports that’s always held true it’s that anything can happen. That’s what keeps it exciting, right?
