Familiar foes: Atlanta FaZe, Toronto Ultra set up winners finals matchup at CDL OpTic Texas Major

After both winning in 3-2 fashion today, the Atlanta FaZe and Toronto Ultra will square off in the winners bracket finals of the Call of Duty League’s OpTic Texas Major. 

Atlanta had a bout with the Seattle Surge, a team that have struggled at times in the 2023 season but have two of the best young stars in the league in Sib and Pred. Things got off to a great start for the side of Atlanta, beginning with the Embassy Hardpoint. Cellium, the league’s MVP award winner for the 2022 season, has had a great start to his 2023 campaign—and that continued today. 

He posted an absurd 2.14 K/D in the series’ first map, helping his team take a 1-0 lead in the match with a 250-185 win in the Hardpoint. After going up 1-0, the confidence from FaZe was felt on the main stage as the team headed to their best game mode, Search and Destroy. Coming into their match with Seattle, the team had won 13 consecutive SnDs. 

Related: Results for 2023 Call of Duty League Major 3

That win streak was in no jeopardy of coming to an end against Seattle in game two as FaZe took the Hotel SnD by a count of 6-3 to earn a commanding 2-0 lead in the series. Cellium and aBeZy were impressive with the duo combining for 18 kills to only nine deaths.

While FaZe jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead, Seattle continued to fight back. The Surge managed to snag the two next maps, Hotel Control and Fortress Hardpoint, to bring it to an even 2-2 count. 

But for FaZe and its veteran-heavy team, winning a game five was no problem. The map did go to a round 11, but in the end, it was the 2021 world champions taking the map to clinch the series by a count of 3-2 to punch their ticket to the winners bracket finals. 

Following the FaZe vs. Surge matchup, Toronto faced off with the Boston Breach. Boston, who beat OpTic by a count of 3-0 earlier in the tournament, were looking to make it to the winners bracket finals of a tournament for the first time since their inception in 2021. Just like Atlanta, Boston got off to a fast start. 

On Fortress Hardpoint, Boston took a 1-0 lead with an impressive 250-213 victory. Behind 62 kills from their sub-duo, Nero and Vivid, the Breach were flying around the map to strike first. The series then pivoted to Search and Destroy, with Fortress playing host for the second map of the match. With a 5-4 lead, Boston’s Owakening was left in a one-vs-two with the bomb down for a chance to take a 2-0 lead in the series. 

Owakening managed to take down Insight, who had tried to hop on the bomb, leaving CleanX as the last player alive for Toronto. Owakening tried to make a wide flank through the bottom building, but CleanX had already hopped the defuse. He managed to defuse the bomb before Owakening could get shots onto him, tying the map at 5-5. 

Toronto managed to snag the round 11 and knot the series at a map apiece with the SnD victory. In the El Asilo Control, Toronto were simply perfect. They swept the map with a clean 3-0 and out-slayed Boston by 25 kills. Insight went triple-positive with a staggering 24-8 statline. After falling behind 2-1, Boston managed to grab the next map in a back-and-forth Hardpoint on Hotel by a count of 250-243. 

While their previous SnD matchup went to a round 11, game five was not particularly close. Toronto jumped out to a great start and never looked back with a 6-2 victory on Hotel Search and Destroy. The rookie of the year frontrunner, Scrappy, had an incredible map five with 11 kills to just four deaths. 

Atlanta and Toronto have been familiar foes over the last three seasons, but especially during the Cold War season that saw the two face off in the winners bracket finals of the Stage Two Major as well as the CDL Championship. Toronto won the Stage Two Major championship in 2021, but ultimately FaZe had the last laugh as Atlanta knocked off the Ultra to claim the season championship. 

The two teams will match up with a spot in the 2023 CDL Major Three grand finals on the line on Sunday, March 12 at 12:30pm CT.