The first day of the first Major of the 2023 Call of Duty League season has come to a close and two CDL franchises have already been sent home.
The Boston Breach and London Royal Ravens were among the four teams to go 0-2 today at Major One, ending their time competing in Raleigh earlier than some fans likely expected. The other two teams that will leave Major One with a top-16 placing are two of the Challengers squads: Decimate Gaming and Pollodrom.
Major One, unlike other Majors last year, features the 12 CDL franchises as well as four Challengers teams, giving amateur players a shot to compete against the best. And two of those Challengers teams caused upsets today against Boston and London.
Related: Results for 2023 Call of Duty League Major One
Boston started their Major One campaign with a hard-fought 3-2 loss to Elevate, a European Challengers team featuring ex-London star Gismo. The Breach dropped both Hardpoints and lost a game five, round 11 to drop to the losers bracket in Group D.
Methodz and crew then had to take on the Vegas Legion but with a substitute. Star offseason acquisition Owakening told Boston he wasn’t feeling well before the match and the team brought in Beans to make his CDL debut. Though Beans helped the Breach win both Hardpoints this time, Boston ended up dropping both Search and Destroys and lost 3-2 to Vegas to get bounced from the tournament.
London, on the other hand, opened the event by getting 3-0 swept by the Seattle Surge. Asim actually had more kills (67) than any player on Seattle in the matchup, according to CoD stats site BreakingPoint, but that wasn’t enough to keep the Royal Ravens out of the Group C losers bracket.
And that’s where they squared off against the Los Angeles Guerrillas Academy team, who were coming off a close 3-2 loss to the Atlanta FaZe. LAG Academy, featuring former CoD world champion Assault and 18-year-old JoeDeceives, won both Hardpoints against Atlanta but lost both SnDs.
Against London, however, LAG Academy dropped the Hardpoints but took the SnDs to secure a 3-2 victory and end London’s time in Raleigh.
Boston and London’s early exits guarantee that two Challengers teams will leave Major One with higher placings than at least two CDL franchises. The action at Major One is set to continue tomorrow, Dec. 16, at 3:30pm CT, according to the CDL website.
