CDL Major II Day One – Sun sets on Miami while Play-In champions prevail

In typical fashion, Call of Duty esports has returned in scintillating fashion, with controversy flowing as quickly as the pints in the arena. With DreamHack Birmingham flush with a crowd making up for their six-year hiatus, CDL Major II Day One started with a bang, courtesy of a high-stakes Play-In stage, and continued to flourish right to the bitter end.

Play-Ins strikes community controversy

The Play-In stage was a new addition for the CDL Major II Day One format, creating a four-team single-elimination last chance qualifier for the main event. While it extended the teams in Birmingham to ten, instead of the usual eight or the full 12, the high-stakes ‘one and done’ match was always going to be a bitter pill to swallow for those who travelled so far and faced immediate expulsion.

Typically, it was the tenth-seeded Paris Gentle Mates who triumphed over the sixth-place Carolina Royal Ravens, while Vancouver Surge perished to Toronto KOI in a set of spicy fixtures.

With Vancouver Surge and Carolina Royal Ravens exiting the competition after just four maps on UK soil, respective stars Thomas “TJHaly” Haly and Jay “Craze” Mallhi took to social media to ridicule the format, claiming that it was a ‘miserable’ experience, especially in the case of Surge, who didn’t even get onto the main stage.

Miami and Falcons flop with shock exits

Both Miami Heretics and Riyadh Falcons were considered by many to be the ‘best of the rest’ with OpTic Texas and Gentle Mates proving to have the highest ceilings, despite polarising qualifying splits; so much so that their power rankings placements took up two of the top four slots.

However, the two exciting and in-form rosters must have left their confidence in the US, as both teams suffered back-to-back losses and were exiled from the competition.

For Falcons, this is still a roster that looks like its learning on the job, with Amer “Pred” Zulbeari trying to find synergy with the often-misplaced Saud “Exnid” Al-Ati. Most expected them to triumph over G2 Minnesota, but with a last-second Overload capture, they were rokkr-ed out of the top bracket. A similarly feeble showing against Toronto KOI saw them dumped from CDL Major II Day One without winning a map. Worrying times for the Falcons, who looked to be on the rise.

Miami had the more difficult fixtures, on paper, facing a hot Play-In successor in Gentle Mates, but the way in which they whimpered out in a 3-0 thrashing to LA Thieves was a stark contrast from the team we saw put up a hugely dominant qualifying stage. In a similar vein to TJHaly, Miami one-to-watch star David “RenKoR” Isern took to social media to complain about the format and their experience in Birmingham, claiming that being hindered to the B-Stream and not being able to feel the energy of the crowd deflated their attitudes.

Momentum flows for Paris and KOI

Interestingly, despite their notable luck to even be in the competition, thanks to the aforementioned Play-In stage extending the qualification cut-off to the top ten, Gentle Mates have found themselves in the top six. 

In fact, both Play-Ins teams have used their momentum to carry them through CDL Major II Day One, opening up the debate of whether their warm-up series was good for competitive integrity or not.

Gentle Mates ended the day with a resounding 6-2 map record, convincingly beating Carolina Rotal Ravens and Miami Heretics with few flaws, as Dylan “Envoy” Hannon appears to be regaining the pace and confidence that the Parisians need.

Advantages or not, both teams really should be progressing to the latter stage of tournaments, though, and now, with the slate wiped clean on a fresh new day and the momentum buff removed, we can get a neutral opinion of where both Paris and KOI are at.

Setting up for Day Two

With the early eliminations, the top six were decided on CDL Major II Day 1. Up in the top bracket, a surprise, yet confident, G2 Minnesota will entertain OpTic Texas. The Green Wall made easy work of their opening fixture as Bradon “Dashy” Otell and Cuyler “Huke” Garland spoke to Hotspawn about their dominance on the non-respawn modes and being adopted fan-favourites by the UK crowd.

Elsewhere, Paris Gentle Mates fight FaZe Vegas for the second Winner’s Final spot, while Toronto KOI and LA Thieves await the respective losers of the top bracket in the elimination stage.

DreamHack official and CDL legend Adam Apicella revealed that Day Two will be bolstered by a better crowd atmosphere, as adjustments to the in-house audio are to be partnered with more bars, as the UK hospitality continues to ramp up. CDL Major II Day One was a success, and Day Two promises to be even better.