The Call of Duty League has kicked off and the first Home Series of the event has been and gone, with London hosting their CDL rivals.
After CDL Launch Weekend in Minnesota, four teams had perfect records: Chicago, Atlanta FaZe, Minnesota Rokkr and Paris Legion. Atlanta and Minnesota maintained those records through having a bye week, while Paris lost theirs after defeats to Chicago Huntsmen and New York Subliners at CDL London.
With two weekends of the Call of Duty League in the books, we have a look at the power rankings as they stand right now, and there’s a slight difference from how they looked after Launch Weekend.
12. OpTic Gaming Los Angeles (-)
Having not had the opportunity to play in London, OpTic Gaming were unable to prove their worth and move up the leaderboards.
A disappointing showing at Launch Weekend will need to be rectified in Atlanta, which is set to take place from February 22-23.
They’ll be hoping to live up to the names they’ve made for themselves in recent years and bring some glory back to the OpTic Gaming brand.
11. Toronto Ultra (-2)
Despite Toronto’s incredible squad depth, they’ve not managed to make things click yet, with two underwhelming appearances at Launch Weekend in Minnesota and CDL London.
Toronto lost their only two matches in London, both 3-1 scorelines against London Royal Ravens and Paris Legion, with their only recorded win so far being a tight 3-2 victory over Seattle Surge.
10. Los Angeles Guerrillas (-3)
Los Angeles Guerrillas are a hard team to judge. In the two weekends we’ve seen them play, they’ve gone 1-3, their only win a 3-2 victory over Florida Mutineers.
However, with their poor results in London, 3-0 and 3-2 losses to Chicago and Seattle respectively, they’ve had to move down a few spots from our post-Launch Weekend rankings.
The Guerrillas won’t be in attendance at CDL Atlanta, so will be hoping their closest competitors don’t get any good results at FaZe’s homestand.
9. Seattle Surge (+1)
Despite Seattle’s loss to Toronto at Launch Weekend, they looked better at Search and Destroy in London, which was really their only major pitfall in Minnesota.
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Although they took a rough loss to Dallas Empire in the opening match at CDL London, Seattle proved they’re overcoming their weaknesses with a 3-2 win over Los Angeles Guerrillas, which came down to a tense round 11, 1v1 to stay alive in the tournament.
If they keep up that momentum, they’ll find themselves getting ever-closer to the mid-table teams before long – but they won’t be playing in Atlanta, giving them some more time to practice with Casey ‘Pandur’ Romano, who has replaced Ian ‘Enable’ Wyatt on the starting line-up.
8. Florida Mutineers (-)
Florida Mutineers are another potential dark horse for the season, and they proved that in Minnesota with some solid play and a 1-1 record after the event.
The team wasn’t in London, and so find themselves unable to move up in the rankings, but a tough group alongside OpTic Gaming, Atlanta FaZe and London Royal Ravens in Atlanta could see them pushed further down if things don’t go their way.
7. New York Subliners (+4)
New York definitely looked better in London than in Minnesota, but are still struggling to live up to expectations with a 1-4 record so far.
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They beat Paris 3-1 in the first match of the weekend but just lost out to London in a 3-2 scoreline in their next matchup, before Paris got their revenge and trounced the Empire State representatives 3-0.
6. London Royal Ravens (-)
There’s definitely a debate to be made to move London further up the rankings, especially considering their solid showing at their own homestand, but there’s no doubt this side has a bright future if they manage to keep improving.
Their most secure victory in London was one over Toronto to kick off the weekend, but their following win over New York wasn’t quite so convincing, having to pull off three straight map wins to advance in the tournament.
They did manage to take Dallas to a game 5, which not many teams can, but couldn’t quite pull it out the bag to be considered by one of the best teams in the league.
5. Minnesota RØKKR (-2)
Minnesota Rokkr were not in attendance at CDL London, and as such were not able to stake their claim to move up the rankings. They’ve definitely come out looking better than expected at the start of the season, but it’s still an uphill battle to reach the upper echelon of unbelievable talent in the Call of Duty League.
They managed to hold London below them – just about – in our power rankings, but the next couple of weeks will show where they really belong at this point in the season.
4. Paris Legion (+1)
Paris proved that their incredible success at Launch Weekend wasn’t simply a fluke, with convincing wins over Toronto Ultra and New York Subliners showing what they can do as a team despite their low expectations pre-season.
They fell in the semifinals to eventual winners Chicago Huntsmen, but they didn’t make it easy for Scump and co., taking it all the way to a game five and making clear that they’re the real deal.
3. Dallas Empire (+1)
Dallas are no doubt an incredibly talented team, but they’re still showing severe struggles against the top two teams.
They had a very tough start to the CDL, with losses against Atlanta and Chicago in Minnesota, but pulled it back in London by making it to the final of the event. Although they didn’t end up winning, they proved to the large majority of their opposition that they are an incredible team and can really pull a result out of anywhere.
2. Atlanta FaZe (-1)
Perhaps a controversial opinion to have them in second, but with Atlanta’s absence from CDL London, it became much harder to keep them atop the power rankings.
They may still the best team in the game, and their homestand at the end of February will give us a better idea of what to expect from them, but based on the events that occurred in London, a different team is currently standing tall above the rest.
1. Chicago Huntsmen (+1)
Chicago Huntsmen looked utterly dominant in London (barring a close match against Paris Legion), beating Dallas Empire in the final of the tournament with a convincing 3-0 win, moving them to the top of the official Call of Duty League standings.
It’s possible that they shift down again based on Atlanta’s performance at their homestand, but it’s possible we see the two finally face off: and that’s the only way we’ll ever be able to truly judge which side is the best.
These rankings look quite different to what they did after Launch Weekend. Eyes are on the likes of the Subliners to continue to improve, while Atlanta will look to move back to the top after this weekend and prove that Chicago are still some way off being the best.
Do you agree with our power rankings? Which team do you think looks the strongest in the game right now?