This past month saw three major tournaments held, with EU teams getting an extra dose of pro points in London before going along with NA teams to Atlanta and Paris in back-to-back weekends.
After a total gauntlet for these teams, we enter the final stage before the first CWL Global Pro League on April 20, where only nine NA teams and six EU sides will head to Columbus and compete in the LAN league.
But it turns out that with the current pro point standings, the fates of some of these teams may be all but decided.
For these standings, we’ve decided to implement a 30,000 pro point cut-off for teams on the list. Any team below that threshold in North America or Europe have been left off the list, but can re-join in the next week if they hit that mark.
Here is what the picture for both NA and EU look like:
North America
Barring a drastic change to the pro point system or an unexpected misfortune, or if those teams do not show up to CWL Dallas and get their rosters in, those three sides are now in Stage One of the CWL Global Pro League.
After running countless scenarios by using mathematics (the most feared subject to a journalist), I have 99.9% confidence that these three sides could, theoretically, do absolutely nothing until Dallas, show up, lose every map and STILL qualify.
With that said, I propose these teams play with snipers only, on max sensitivity, and/or blindfolded in CWL Dallas, just for the “lolz.”
Anyways, Rise Nation, Team EnVyUs, Luminosity and Cloud9 all still have to work for their chance to be in the Global Pro League at CWL Dallas. Due to their recent finishes, they all have scenarios where they can be knocked out of the top nine with a bad placing at CWL Dallas.
It’s safe to say that if any of these teams wind up in the Championship Winner’s Bracket though, they’ll be . Fortunately, they’ll have an easier time getting there, as they can all literally not play a single GameBattles match or 2k tournament and keep their pool play spot. Even C9, who had Adam “Assault“ Garcia’s points taken away from CWL Atlanta and two rough finishes, can hypothetically take a vacation to a Caribbean island (paid for by Patrick “ACHES” Price, because he is such a good captain) and still be in pool play automatically for CWL Dallas.
Enigma6 technically is also a shoe-in for a pool play spot, however it will have to at least hit its GB pro point cap (50 points per player) for a week if it want to get that spot. Knowing how hard these top teams grind, especially Enigma6, this team should not have a problem in being that eight team in pool play.
For the final pool play spot in Dallas though, it will be four teams gunning for easy street. PNDA Gaming technically has that spot currently, but TGC Blue, Team Allegiance and Evil Geniuses are have a chance to catch up.
In order to do that, those three teams’ would have to pray that PNDA places poorly in their 2k tournaments while they finish first both times, unless it is TGC Blue, who can afford a single second place finish.
Already, that is a very tough scenario, so the alternative would be a roster change before CWL Dallas. All roads lead to Anthony “DraMa” Padilla, whose near 15,000 pro points makes him an asset for a final pool play spot. In a hypothetical trade with Allegiance for Steve “Mochila” Canle, Allegiance’s pro point situation would allow them to reasonably pass PNDA for the ninth spot.
Nevertheless, this LAN event in Dallas is judgement day for these four sides, as a favorable finish could give them one of the six spots left for NA teams in the Global Pro League.
Finally, two words to describe the chances of qualifying for LAN League for Team Kaliber, Echo Fox, SetToDestroyX, Livin’ The Dream, G2 Esports and Lethal Gaming are “practically zero.”
I’m sorry fans of those teams, but mathematically, it’s near impossible.
In the history of Call of Duty competitive with a pool play and open bracket event set-up, no team has won an event through the open bracket. Even if you scale it back to a top-six, these teams would have to get multiple teams above them to finish a lot worse than where they expected.
So while they may have no chance to qualify for the first CWL Global Pro League, they will most likely be contenders for the second stage and be teams to watch.
Europe
Realistically speaking, Splyce is going to qualify for the CWL Global Pro League as well, however there are scenarios that, if Epsilon, Xtrovert, Supremacy or The Imperial win CWL Dallas and Splyce finishes in the worst possible position, Splyce would be out.
The four guarenteed teams for CWL Dallas pool play will be Splyce, Infused, Red and Elevate, unless there is a drastic change to the pro point system or an unexpected misfortune for any of these teams.
Fnatic and Team 3G fight for that final pool play spot, with 3G having to outplay Fnatic in Gamebattles 2k’s in order to steal that spot. The days leading up to the Mar. 6 roster lock could decide the fate of the final Global Pro League position, as a guaranteed 11,000 pro points for being in pool play would be a giant safety net for either team.
Technically, anything is possible in the EU, especially with how well Epsilon placed in Paris. A 5/6th finish could give them enough momentum to jump the org-less Team 3G, however the race for the final Dallas pool play spot does not have Epsilon in the picture.
As for the other four EU teams above the 30,000 pro point threshold, they will definitely be teams to watch in the open bracket, but need to rely on a solid event to get a Global Pro League spot.
EDIT: Edited to reflect five EU pool play spots for CWL Dallas, not six.
Published: Feb 20, 2017 04:10 pm