Ian ‘Enable’ Wyatt, retired Call of Duty pro, has revealed his top ten CoD pros ahead of the second Call of Duty League season getting underway. OpTic Chicago legend Scump comes in at no. 10, and Enable explained exactly why.
The first Call of Duty League season – won by Dallas Empire by back in August – was a difficult one to judge players off. The move to almost entirely online competition obfuscated the best players, with connection becoming a regular issue around which matches could be determined.
However, retired Call of Duty pro Enable hasn’t shied away from sharing his top ten pros right now. Talent, intangibles (communication, IQ etc), and impact are the three criteria against which he was judging players. The latter refers to a player’s ability to take over a game and sway a result in one team’s favor.
There are a number of surprises in store in Enable’s list. However, the main one is Seth ‘Scump’ Abner, widely regarded as one of the best players of all time, at number ten. Wyatt’s justification for this is the tendency of ‘the King’ to “tail off” with new games, perhaps because of his longevity in the professional CoD scene.
“Now if this was all time, Seth would obviously go down as the best SMG player in CoD history,” Enable said. “But it’s not, it’s right now. He obviously still has the talent, he’s very skilled mechanically… When you’ve been as successful as Scump, in and out of CoD, for as long as he has, it’s kind of hard to keep that fire, and have that passion. When a new CoD drops Scump’s absolutely disgusting, but then he kinda tails off.”
Enable then speculated as to the reasons behind these declines, suggesting that Scump may get bored of the CoDs or be more focused on content creation – the latter of which has seen him amass millions of Twitch and YouTube followers.
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“He’s been one of the best CoD players for the last decade, and he’s also made himself a very successful living doing content,” Enable finished. “He is getting older, he might have a different mindset than when he was 19… I wish I could put him higher.”
As for the list itself, Chicago OpTic’s Envoy takes the bronze medal, while Dallas Empire’s Shotzzy (last season’s MVP) picks up the second spot. Taking the gold medal, rather unsurprisingly, is Atlanta FaZe’s Simp.
Enable’s full top ten, and their teams, are listed below:
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- Chris ‘Simp’ Lehr – Atlanta FaZe
- Anthony ‘Shotzzy’ Cuevas-Castro – Dallas Empire
- Dylan ‘Envoy’ Hannon – OpTic Chicago
- Tyler ‘aBeZy’ Pharris – Atlanta FaZe
- Sam ‘Octane’ Larew – Seattle Surge
- Alec ‘Arcitys’ Sanderson – Atlanta FaZe
- McArthur ‘Cellium’ Jovel – Atlanta FaZe
- Cuyler ‘Huke’ Garland – Dallas Empire
- Kenny ‘Kenny’ Williams – LA Thieves
- Seth ‘Scump’ Abner – OpTic Chicago
The nature of ranking current CoD pros is deeply subjective, so it’s no surprise if you don’t agree with this list. There are, though, a number of notable absences.
Crimsix, 2020 World Champion with Dallas Empire and the most winningest CoD player of all time, doesn’t feature. Joining him in the absentee column is Dashy, who has wowed fans with top tier plays since WWII.
Whether Scump can avoid ‘tailing off’ in the CDL’s second campaign remains to be seen, but Enable clearly still thinks highly of Abner to put him on the list at all.