The London Royal Ravens overcame a 2-1 deficit to take down the Toronto Ultra with a 3-2 victory during their Call of Duty League qualifying match.
After dropping their first two matches of stage three, the Royal Ravens have now won two of their last three as the team has some momentum heading into next week’s OpTic Texas Major. The win over the Ultra, who have been performing as well as any team in the league, is monumental for a London team who have not had the best start to their 2023 season.
The series did not start in the best fashion for the Royal Ravens either, with the series starting on Mercado Hardpoint. Toronto handled London with relative ease, behind massive performances from Hicksy, Scrappy, and CleanX, by a count of 250-157. The trio were a combined 16 kills positive, with CleanX and Scrappy dropping 27 kills each.
While London struggled in the opening Hardpoint, it was their Search and Destroy that gave them a huge boost. In the series’ second map, Hotel SnD, Asim dropped the first of two dominant Search performances. The SMG player led the lobby with 11 kills to just six deaths, while dealing the most damage in the lobby. The Royal Ravens rode his performance to a 6-4 victory to knot the series at a map apiece.
El Asilo would be the setting for the series’ third map, this time for Control. After jumping out to a 2-1 lead early in the map, Toronto put on a dominant offensive performance in the fourth round to take the Control and put themselves just one Hardpoint win away from clinching the series. But after a relatively one-sided affair in the first map of the series, these two teams were going to battle in the Fortress Hardpoint.
Thanks to another massive performance from Asim, who posted a 1.35 K/D in the map, London kept the series alive with a 250-232 victory. Despite the close score, the slaying statistics were another story. The Royal Ravens were 19 kills better in the 18-point victory, giving themselves another chance at Search and Destroy, this time with the map on the line.
On the Fortress SnD, the Royal Ravens were up 2-0 in map count with Nastie facing a one-vs-two retake situation against Scrap and Hicksy. Nastie popped his dead silence right as Toronto planted the bomb A. He immediately put shots onto Scrap to bring it to a one-vs-one. He escaped with his life, got upstairs, and jumped down to bottom maps, where he found Hicksy. Nastie got the kill and had plenty of time to defuse the bomb to put his team up 3-0.
After Toronto brought it to a 4-2 count, Asim had one of the biggest moments of the stage for his London team. He found all four players to give his team the round and a 5-2 lead on the back of his ace. London snagged the next round, giving them the upset they have so desperately needed in the 2023 season.
While London will still start in the elimination bracket after winning two of their five qualifiers, the team have as much momentum as any team in the league. Meanwhile, Toronto finish their online qualifiers with a record of 3-2.
