A team that many fans considered to be one of the heavy favorites to win the tournament were one of the four squads sent home from the 2018Â Call of Duty World League Championship today.
Rise Nation were eliminated from CWL Champs today following losses to Team Kaliber and Luminosity. Despite having some of the best players in the world, Rise went winless Friday.
Despite having a somewhat shaky pool play, the CWL Anaheim Open champions still finished atop Pool B. Rise came into bracket play to face Team Kaliber, the team they lost to in the CWL Pro League’s Stage Two grand finals.
With another loss to Team Kaliber, they were sent to the losers bracket. There they were met by Luminosity, who lost to Elevate in the opening round of the championship bracket. With several former world champions across the stage, it was a tough matchup for Rise—and it ultimately proved to be too much.
Rise came out powerfully, taking the first two maps to put LG’s backs against the wall. But Luminosity fought back to even up the series after winning both the Capture the Flag game and the second Hardpoint map. And unfortunately for Rise, LG came out on top in Valkyrie Search and Destroy, 6-3.
The loss not only eliminates Rise, but it hands them their worst placing of the year. Since the current roster formed in the spring, Rise had not finished outside of the top two of any event—and in this one, they finished top 16.
Another one of Friday’s fallen was compLexity Gaming, who lost to UNILAD and Red Reserve to dash Doug “Censor” Martin’s hopes of winning CWL Champs.
While Rise and compLexity were bounced from the biggest tournament of the year, Lightning Pandas, Evil Geniuses, and eUnited quickly moved to the quarterfinals. Team Envy, Ghost Gaming, UNILAD, Elevate, and Team Kaliber join them.
Tomorrow, UNILAD will have a chance to avenge their Stage Two playoffs loss against eUnited, while Lightning Pandas will try to continue their undefeated streak against Evil Geniuses.
Published: Aug 17, 2018 06:49 pm