In one of the largest tournaments in Call of Duty history, the top four open bracket teams at the CWL New Orleans Open have been determined and placed into pool play.
Lightning Pandas, GGEA Blue, GGEA Orange, and Dallas pool play team Evil Geniuses have secured spots in pool play after half a dozen matches in the open bracket. In pool play, they will join 16 of the best teams in the world in round-robin play.
Lightning Pandas—Jevon “Goonjar” Gooljar-Lim, Matthew “Royalty” Faithfull, Nicholas “Proto” Maldonado, and John “Xotic” Bruno—defeated open bracket No. 1 seed DooM Clan to clinch a spot in Pool A.
Evil Geniuses—Patrick “ACHES” Price, Bryan “Apathy” Zhelyazkov, Ian “Enable” Wyatt, and Anthony “NAMELESS” Wheeler—took out Australian squad Taboo in their final open bracket matchup to move on to Pool B. There, they will play against fellow American teams OpTic Gaming and Team Envy.
The two GGEA teams round out the group stage in Pools C and D. GGEA Orange, formerly of Team Allegiance, includes Mehran “Mayhem” Anjomshoa, Tristan “Spoof” Green, Dakota “Nova” Williams, and Austin “Believe” Smith. The team reverse swept the best lineup in Spain, Giants Gaming. Orange will slot into Pool C, while their sister team, GGEA Blue, will enter Pool D.
John “Johnny” Cookson, Steven “Stamino” Damiano, Ethan “FA5TBALLA” Wedgeworth, and “SupremeAgility” of GGEA Blue surprised many with their open bracket run, taking out CWL Pro League contender Team Infused in round five before clinching pool play with a 3-1 win over Lethal Gaming.
Although the winners side of the open bracket is complete, this tournament is far from over. CWL New Orleans action is just heating up as these four teams try to make their way through pool play.
