Call of Duty World League power rankings: April 21

After a long wait, the first stage of the Call of Duty World League Global Pro League is here. The world’s 16 best Infinite Warfare teams will be pitted against each other over the next several weekends to decide who will be crowned S1 champions and who will head into the CWL Anaheim a whole lot richer.

Rankings were determined by a point system that calculated seven Dot Esports staff members’ votes. The staff was asked to rank the 16 teams in order from best to worst, with No. 1 the best and No. 16 the worst. Points will be rewarded to mirror a team’s ranking. For example, the first place team will receive 16 points per person, while the last team will receive one point for each vote.

Before S1 playoffs begin, we will release another rankings list.

16. Elevate (21 points)

• Rhys “Rated” Price
• Jordan “Reedy” Reed
• Josh “Watson” Watson
• Zach “Zed” Denyer

This is definitely not the place you want to begin the power rankings. Coming in at last, Elevate received 21 points. The European team has gradually regressed over the course of Infinite Warfare. Starting with a ninth-place finish at the CWL Las Vegas Open, Elevate failed to keep their momentum up in offline competitions. They finished ninth again at CWL Atlanta but 13th at the following week’s CWL Paris Open. Following Paris, Rated was added to the roster in place of Sean “Seany” O’Connor. Their first offline appearance resulted in an embarrassing 21st-place finish. They’ve made some adjustments recently, and that’s seemed to help out, with the team placing fifth at the CWL Birmingham Open.

15. Mindfreak (22 points)

• Mitchell “BuZZO” Mader
• Cody “Excite” Rugolo
• Lincoln “Fighta” Ferguson
• Conrad “Shockz” Rymarek

Not a lot of respect for the lone Australian team. ANZ’s most successful team in history has had limited playing time against North America and Europe’s best in offline tournaments. By dominating Australian offline and online competitions, Mindfreak became the top team in the region. Their inexperience against top teams may come back to hurt them. The team has only competed in two NA major events, placing 17th at Atlanta and ninth at Dallas.

14. Epsilon Esports (23 points)

• David “Dqvee” Davies
• Billy “Hawqeh” Harris
• Joshua-Lee “Joshh” Shephard
• Stephen “Vortex” Allen

Epsilon is coming off an upset title victory at the CWL Birmingham Open but the rankings really don’t reflect that. Despite double-sweeping a powerhouse like Splyce in the grand finals, Epsilon still sits at 14th. The reason? The team didn’t show up until Birmingham and, even then, it was an EU-only event. In the last international tournament, Epsilon flamed out in 21st. That poor showing can be chalked up to some subpar communication after changing a roster member by adding former Splyce player Joshh to the team. But it doesn’t erase the result.

13. Cloud9 (35 points)

• Patrick “ACHES” Price
• Adam “Assault” Garcia
• Andres “Lacefield” Lacefield
• Richard “Ricky” Stacy

Many believed that Cloud9 was destined to be a top team in IW after a hot start to the game with a second place finish at CWL Las Vegas. C9 failed to follow up their good start and were shockingly dismantled at CWL Atlanta and Paris, finishing 17th at both events. ACHES assured the world that the roster was not the issue following Paris. He was true to his word as C9 returned to respectability with a ninth-place finish at CWL Dallas.

12. Evil Geniuses (38 points)

• Colt “Havok” McLendon
• Jared “Nagafen” Harrell
• Anthony “NAMELESS” Wheeler
• Jeremy “StuDyy” Astacio

Evil Geniuses re-entered the Call of Duty world at the beginning of IW with so much promise after assembling a fan-favorite roster. Starting out with a seventh-place finish at Las Vegas, the team looked on track to become one of the best in the game. They stumbled in Atlanta though, placing 17th. EG bounced back the next weekend and finished in the money at seventh at the CWL Paris Open. Another seventh place finish at Dallas secured let them become the final North American team to qualify for the Global Pro League. Many believe they have the potential to be a top-four team with their level of natural talent, but they’ve yet to realize that potential.

11. Rise Nation (43 points)

• Ulysses “Aqua” Silva
• Brice “Faccento” Faccento
• Tyler “FeLonY” Johnson
• Daniel “Loony” Loza

How the mighty have fallen. Winning the first major title of the game usually is a good sign, but it seems that the title cursed Rise Nation and caused them to falter over and over. After being crowned CWL Las Vegas champions, Rise finished ninth at CWL Atlanta. They then came alive at CWL Paris the following weekend to finish third. Despite having a poor event in Atlanta, there was a sense of belief in Rise going into CWL Dallas. There shouldn’t have been. The team played well against good teams but ultimately failed to win their games. Rise finished 17th.

T9. Fnatic (45 points)

• Matthew “Skrapz” Marshall
• Gurdip “SunnyB” Bains
• Tom “Tommey” Trewen
• Bradley “Wuskin” Marshall

Fnatic returned to Call of Duty after a hiatus of five years. The historic League of Legends and Counter-Strike organization signed a roster that included young and promising talents, partnered with veteran and former champion Tommey. The team has done as expected, finishing within the top 16 in major tournaments and near the top in European play. They may be able to surprise some at the Global Pro League with many underestimating them.

T9. Enigma6 (45 points)

• Jordon “General” General
• Kade Jones
• Mike “MRuiz” Ruiz
• Nicholas “Proto” Maldonado

Enigma6 has been a very middle-of-the-road team thus far in IW. Their ranking reflects that, putting them in the middle of the pack. By finishing seventh, 13th, and ninth twice in major tournaments, E6 has shown that they can beat basically any team on the fringe of breaking into the top teams. But they can’t break into the discussion as one of the best teams.

8. Millenium (53 points)

• Mark “MarkyB” Bryceland
• Tom “Moose” Handley
• Nick “Nolson” Nolson
• Adam “Peatie” Peate

The Call of Duty community was shocked when they learned the news of Team Infused parting ways with their roster prior to CWL Dallas. Shortly after releasing their French team, Millenium acquired Infused’s U.K. squad. The Millenium jerseys must’ve had some bad luck for the Brits as they finished 13th at Dallas. This came after successful showings at both CWL Atlanta and Paris, finishing fifth and fourth, respectively. The voters obviously believe that they are better than that 13th-place finish though.

7. Red Reserve (61 points)

• Joe “Joee” Pinnington
• Niall “Niall” Sunderland
• Sean “Seany” O’Connor
• David “Urban” Marsh

Red Reserve has shown a lot of promise in the short time they have been together. After Rated left, Seany joined and the team hit the ground running. In the four MLG 2000 Series tournaments that they have competed together, they have not finished outside of the top three, finishing first, second, and third on two occasions. They have been relatively successful offline as well, finishing fifth at CWL Dallas and Birmingham.

6. Luminosity Gaming (75 points)

• Nicholas “Classic” DiCostanzo
• Sam “Octane” Larew
• Renato “Saints” Forza
• Josiah “Slacked” Berry

LG has consistently been good, but not great in Infinite Warfare. The team has finished in the top 10 in every offline tournament and has been close to cracking into the top three. Luminosity’s best performance came at CWL Atlanta, where they placed fourth. Their other top placings have shown that they are the gatekeepers to the upper echelon of CoD.

5. Team EnVyUs (85 points)

• Bryan “Apathy” Zhelyazkov
• Jordan “JKap” Kaplan
• Johnathon “John” Perez
• Austin “SlasheR” Liddicoat

The defending world champions have had a somewhat weak showing in IW. Despite placing third at CWL Atlanta, the ‘Boys in Blue’ struggled to follow that performance up with some more great placings. Finishing ninth in Paris and fifth in Dallas, EnVyUs is near the top of the game but just can’t seem to put the pieces together to repeat the success they had last year. A major accomplishment that nV does have this year? They are one of the only teams to beat OpTic Gaming offline.

4. Splyce (91 points)

• Ben “Bance” Bance
• Jordan “Jurd” Crowley
• Dylan “MadCat” Daly
• Trei “Zer0” Morris

The consensus top European team is the top European team in our rankings as well. Although they were double swept in the grand finals of the CWL Birmingham by Epsilon, Splyce has the resumé of a top team. There is a concern that they can lose composure and allow things to snowball, but their results are undeniable. A fourth-place finish at CWL Dallas showed that swapping Joshh out for Zer0 was the right move—and it may be a big enough move to break them into the top three teams in the world if they can bounce back in Stage 1.

3. FaZe Clan (96 points)

• Dillon “Attach” Price
• James “Clayster” Eubanks
• Ian “Enable” Wyatt
• Tommy “ZooMaa” Paparratto

FaZe is undeniably the third best team in the world. They have finished in the top three in nearly every MLG 2K tournament while staying in the top five in offline tournaments. It’s still disappointing for them. FaZe’s roster is used to success with 13-time champion Clayster leading the way. The disappointment and frustration was most evident at the CWL Paris Open. After being swept by OpTic Gaming in the grand finals, Clayster was visibly upset, even tossing his silver medal after a photo. A second place finish led him to react that way. There’s no way that he or his teammates are content with their play this year, but they will need to step their game up big time against OpTic to break through further.

2. eUnited (106 points; 1 first-place vote)

• Alec “Arcitys” Sanderson
• Pierce “Gunless” Hillman
• Preston “Prestinni” Sanderson
• Justin “SiLLY” Fargo-Palmer

The surprise of Infinite Warfare is the sudden, meteoric rise of eUnited. After finishing 21st at CWL Las Vegas, eUnited released everyone on their roster except for SiLLY. The former Cloud9 star quickly assembled a roster filled with so-called online warriors: Arcitys, Gunless, and Prestinni. As expected, they dominated online competitions. Many were waiting for their meltdown on LAN at CWL Atlanta but it never came. EUnited just kept winning and winning, eventually holding on in a heart-stopping grand finals to beat OpTic Gaming. A bad showing in Paris had some questioning if they just got lucky in Atlanta, but that was put to rest with a second-place finish at Dallas, where they lost in a heart-stopping grand finals to OpTic.

1. OpTic Gaming (111 points: 6 first-place votes)

• Ian “Crimsix” Porter
• Matthew “FormaL” Piper
• Damon “Karma” Barlow
• Seth “Scump” Abner

This is pretty obvious. Throwing away their fifth place showing at Las Vegas, OpTic has been the best team in the world without a doubt. EUnited somehow keeping composed and winning at CWL Atlanta showed OpTic that they had a true equal in IW. Other than eUnited, nobody has stepped up to the Green Wall since their historic lower bracket run in February. With two major titles already, it’d be no shock to see even more added to OpTic’s collection.