After four days of some of the most competitive, upset-heavy games a Call of Duty Major has ever seen, we have our victor at the Mattamy Athletic Centre.
After losing their first match in five to the Toronto Ultra, the New York Subliners went on to fight through the entire lower bracket and defeat Atlanta FaZe in the CDL Major Grand Finals 4-3 on May 28 to claim their second CDL title in 2023.
This makes New York the only CDL team to have won two titles this year.
Over the course of the Toronto tournament, the two players that really fried across all game modes were HyDra and KiSMET, especially in the sweeps. That didn’t change in the last series against FaZe either, despite the fact it was another close fight for the Subliners. In the end, their skills proved the difference on the way to the team’s second title.
On top of a hot Toronto day, tiredness from the Subliners’ march—the seven-map slugfest at the Mattamy Athletic Centre was the first of the 2023 CDL season—finally began to show through after their win.
“Second time out of thirty tries, right?” Subliners player Skyz said about the first-round loss lower bracket run to the media. His teammate Priestahh echoed that sentiment, saying: “I want to take a nap.”
The grand finals seemed on the edge from the start and required every bit of New York’s energy to complete.
In particular, that showed when the series was tied at 2-2 heading into El Asilo Search and Destroy. At first, Atlanta and their Search and Destroy masterclass over the season on the map was prevalent. FaZe quickly hopped to a 5-2 lead, thanks to some key frags from Tyler “aBeZy” Pharris. But, NYSL were determined, coming back to win the map 6-5 and take a lead in the series. It was a complete shift, as everything NYSL planned for was getting countered. Then, from those first seven maps to the last four, KiSMET was the mastermind behind the needed comeback.
“It felt insane,” KiSMET said. “I don’t take full credit, these guys beside me did well too, but my adjustments were super on the fly. My teammates trusted my calls to do things we never practiced, changes to what FaZe were doing. That led to the win.”
While KiSMET was the brain, HyDra was the brawn in the brawls across Major Five. He led both teams in both kill/death ratio at 1.23 and kills at 130. KiSMET wasn’t too far behind him, but HyDra was the one who whittled teams one by one in their run, and FaZe was no exception. From his quick movements on SnD leading to easy round wins to his pure fragging ability against competent fraggers on FaZe, he was the linchpin for Subliners.
Looking back at the whole run, from start to finish, the entire run, for him, was built on forgetting the past and focusing on the present, or at least, the near future. “The first thing I said to my team after the loss to Toronto was: don’t even look at the VOD. We messed up on Control, and they played well just as we did. We moved on, and it helped as we went to the final. I wasn’t even calling out at the end, keeping silent. I was just playing.”
Related: CoD Champs teams locked in as Seattle takes final spot in $2.3m tournament
This win has left NYSL on the highest high possible heading into Championship Weekend, which will be coming up just weeks after the end of Major Five. The win is a great culmination of the effort the star CoD players have given since their first title win at Major One, but the goal is still in the future for the New York team.
Both Priestahh and Sender mentioned how Vegas and the 2023 Championship is the main goal, so excitement was high, but the job isn’t done.
They believe they are the team to beat heading into the 2023 Championship Weekend in June, and after their lower bracket run, it’s hard to argue with the results.
Published: May 28, 2023 10:40 pm