LA Thieves ride their OpTic high into Minnesota RØKKR domination as CDL Major 2 decider looms

The Los Angeles Thieves stayed hot today with a dominant 3-0 victory over the Minnesota RØKKR, punching their ticket to the grand finals of the Call of Duty League Boston Major.

In the series’ first map, Hotel Hardpoint, Los Angeles continued to ride the momentum from their previous victory over OpTic Texas, winning massive gunfights and key rotations. Behind a 25-17 performance from Drazah and an equally strong 26-21 performance from Envoy, L.A. got on the board first with a 250-169 victory.

One of the talking points around the CDL popped up again with L.A. playing in the elimination bracket finals just moments after their victory over OpTic, while Minnesota sat waiting after their loss to Atlanta FaZe in the winners finals earlier in the day. Some think it’s an advantage for the team making a losers bracket run to stay hot while the team who lost in the winners final has to wait to play in the elimination bracket.

Fair or unfair, the Thieves were red-hot throughout the early goings of the series, seemingly confirming the advantage that comes with playing in the lower bracket.

Minnesota held an early 3-2 lead in the Hotel Search and Destroy, looking to push to a two-round lead with a two-vs-one advantage. Unfortunately for the RØKKR, Octane was the lone player left for Thieves and he made a massive play to pick both his remaining opponents for Minnesota to tie the map up at 3-3. 

He wasn’t done making massive plays either. In the very next round, Octane found all four Minnesota players for the ace and, more importantly, the 4-3 lead. While the RØKKR did grab the next round, the Thieves stole the next two to take a commanding 2-0 lead in the series. Octane was massive for his team in the victory.

L.A. started off piping hot on the series’ third map, Fortress Control. The team had captured the B point nearly immediately and a massive three-piece from Drazah opened the door for the Thieves to stack the A point and grab a huge offensive round win to go up 1-0.

Minnesota were not as fortunate on their first offensive round, with L.A. all over the map making things difficult for the RØKKR. Minnesota were unable to make any progress at either point and moved to a 0-2 deficit and into the elimination danger zone.

Minnesota managed to get on the board in their defensive round, but unfortunately for the RØKKR, they had no answer for Envoy. The young SMG player killed everything that moved in the map’s final round, finishing with a ridiculous 32-15 stat line in the map that sent Los Angeles through to the grand finals of the CDL Boston Major, where Atlanta stand between the Thieves and their third championship in the last four events.