If there was any doubt as to who the packed crowd at the Esports Stadium Arlington wanted to win in today’s Call of Duty League Stage Five Major matchup between the Seattle Surge and Atlanta FaZe, the chants of “let’s go Surge” and “Surge in five” answered that.
In the most stunning upset of the CDL season so far, Seattle took down Atlanta in a series for the ages with an improbable 3-2 win to advance in the Stage Five Major. For a team with nothing to play for aside from the role of spoiler, the Surge came out and played extremely well—and, most importantly, played together.
Classic played an outstanding series, holding his own against the most formidable SMG duo in the league in Simp and aBeZy. Posting a 1.14 K/D in the series’ five games, he allowed his teammates to roam free from the Tiny Terrors. He was arguably at his best in game five, Standoff Search and Destroy, where he went 12-6 and was vital in the team’s 6-4 win.
In the turning point of game five, the teams were in a two-vs-two scenario with the map tied at 4-4 and under a minute left in the round. Atlanta’s Cellium, one of the best players in the league, went to use his killstreak to try to close out the round but was unable to find either member of Seattle. Once the Seattle players got out with their lives, it seemed like this series was over. They won the round to go up 5-4 and closed the series out with a dominant performance in round 10.
Atlanta find themselves in a precarious situation. They’ve been the best team in the league all season long but head into the CDL Playoffs having lost three of their last four matches. If there’s any team that can turn it around, though, it’s Atlanta, but they’ve struggled over the last two weeks of the season. This also marks the first time this year that Atlanta won’t be in the grand finals of a CDL Major.
Seattle will take on OpTic Chicago later today for a chance at reaching the top four in the Stage Five Major. Atlanta will regroup and look ahead to CoD Champs next month.
