We’re only roughly one month into the 2022 Call of Duty League season, but the top teams are starting to separate themselves from the pack. The Atlanta FaZe are looking dominant in their CDL Championship title defense while the Los Angeles Thieves and London Royal Ravens are right on their heels in the standings.
All 12 of the teams in the CDL have played five online series so far in the 2022 regular season and those matchups have given us some insight into the pecking order that could be seen the rest of the year. The OpTic Texas Major, the CDL’s first official LAN tournament of the Vanguard season, begins this week in Arlington, Texas, and the Dot Esports staff gave their power rankings based on the first part of the season.
Here are our power rankings ahead of the 2022 Call of Duty League Major One.
| Rank | Team | Rank change |
| 1) | Atlanta FaZe | — |
| 2) | Los Angeles Thieves | — |
| 3) | London Royal Ravens | — |
| 4) | OpTic Texas | — |
| 5) | Seattle Surge | — |
| 6) | Toronto Ultra | — |
| 7) | Los Angeles Guerrillas | — |
| 8) | Minnesota RØKKR | — |
| 9) | Boston Breach | — |
| 10) | Florida Mutineers | — |
| 11) | New York Subliners | — |
| 12) | Paris Legion | — |
12) Paris Legion
Another year, another disappointing start to the season for Paris. The Legion have struggled to gain traction since the CDL’s inception in 2020, and this year is no different. Paris are 0-5 and have won five maps over their five series played thus far. The franchise just announced its decision to drop Decemate in favor of GRVTY, though. GRVTY will play with the Legion at the upcoming Major, where the team will start in the losers bracket.
11) New York Subliners
The Subliners have struggled mightily so far in 2022. After falling to 0-2 and winning only one map during the season’s opening weekend, New York made the decision to bench Neptune and replace him in the starting lineup with Royalty. The Subliners did knock off Boston but finished 1-4 and sit in 11th place in the CDL standings. New York has two of the greatest CoD minds to ever play in its lineup, but the squad looks like a bottom-two team heading into Major One.
10) Florida Mutineers
Florida stumbled out of the gate, starting 1-3 in the first Major’s online qualifiers. But the Mutineers most recently pulled off a huge upset over the Seattle Surge in dominant 3-0 fashion. The team has been playing much better recently and rookie Davpadie has been extremely solid with the Automaton in his hands. Florida will start Major One in the losers bracket, though.
9) Boston Breach
Boston started their 2022 campaign on a win streak, knocking off the Guerrillas and Paris to go 2-0. But now, the Breach come into the Major on a three-game losing streak. Fortunately for Boston fans, Capsidal has been one of the best rookies in 2022 and could be a star for the team to build around. The Breach will open Major One with a tough matchup against the Atlanta FaZe.
8) Minnesota RØKKR
Minnesota have not played to the level that many expected following their end to the 2021 season. They did knock off OpTic in a dramatic game five but are 1-3 in their other series. Standy and Attach, the team’s SMG duo, have played at a high level thus far but the team’s ARs have lagged behind a bit. If either Priestahh or MajorManiak starts hitting their stride, the RØKKR can be a dangerous team.
7) Los Angeles Guerrillas
Los Angeles came into the season with quite a bit of hype after signing a new roster. While there have been glimpses of brilliance from the Guerrillas, the team has been inconsistent over the first part of the season. The star power is there for L.A., though. They just need to bring their level of consistency up.
6) Toronto Ultra
Last year’s CDL Championship runners-up have not been as dominant as they were in the latter half of the 2021 season, but it’s far too early for concerns. The Ultra still have the talent and experience to make a championship run and Cammy dealt with health issues during the online qualifiers that caused the Ultra to play their substitute Hicksy for a series. Toronto’s opening match of the first Major will be against the L.A. Thieves, who beat the Ultra 3-1 on Feb. 19.
5) Seattle Surge
There was a time at the beginning of the season when many pundits had Seattle as the best team in the CDL, especially after the Surge raced out to a perfect 3-0 record. They’ve come back down to Earth a bit after losing their last two series of the online qualifiers but are still a dangerous team. Seattle has two of the best rookies in the league, Sib and Pred, along with Mack and a veteran leader in Accuracy. Seattle should be a tough out for anyone at the Major.
4) OpTic Texas
The league’s most popular team lost their first two series of the 2022 season to the Royal Ravens and RØKKR in game five, round 11 scenarios. Since then, though, the Green Wall have been strong, ripping off three straight series to lock in the fourth seed at this week’s Major. Shotzzy has been a major catalyst for the team’s turnaround and is in the early running for MVP this season. OpTic’s first match of Major One will be against Seattle.
3) London Royal Ravens
Perhaps the most surprising team in the CDL thus far, London have looked incredible at times behind budding superstars Afro and Gismo. London’s most impressive performance in 2022 came against OpTic Texas, who they reverse swept to clinch a 3-2 victory. The Royal Ravens are one of the hottest teams in the league and have a great chance to get to Sunday in Arlington.
2) Los Angeles Thieves
After starting their season with a loss to Atlanta, the Thieves have rattled off four straight series to head into the upcoming Major with a 4-1 record. Kenny has been playing like a superstar so far this year and the rest of the squad is playing good, sound Call of Duty. Nadeshot’s squad will be a threat to make it to Championship Sunday this weekend.
1) Atlanta FaZe
There’s no surprise here. Atlanta have been dominant in their 5-0 run to open the season and that’s with superstar SMG player Simp starting his 2022 slower compared to his standards. Cellium has been the story of FaZe so far, boasting over a 2.0 K/D in Search and Destroy on the season, according to Breaking Point. Atlanta posted a 15-5 map record in the first Major’s qualifying matches and look to be the odds-on favorite at the first official LAN of the Vanguard season.
The OpTic Texas Major begins on Thursday, March 3 at 2pm CT when the Royal Ravens take on the Guerrillas. The tournament can be watched on the Call of Duty League’s official YouTube channel.
