Octane explains how FaZe “trolling” led to Surge upset at CDL Stage 5 Major

Seattle Surge completed one of the biggest Call of Duty League upsets this year when they took down Atlanta FaZe at the Stage 5 Major. Star player Sam ‘Octane’ Larew has now revealed how “trolling” antics from FaZe cost them the series.

When Seattle took down Atlanta at the latest CDL Major, it was instantly labeled one of the greatest upsets in competitive CoD history. A bottom four team taking out this year’s most dominant force left spectators shocked. In doing so, Surge handed FaZe their worst placement yet.

While it appeared to be a close series on the surface, going all the way to round 10 in game five, FaZe may not have been putting their best foot forward, according to Octane.

Before the eight talented pros sat down on stage, FaZe was “trolling” right out of the gate, he revealed in an August 5 YouTube video.

Ahead of every CDL match, teams are required to go through the veto process. It’s here where various maps are picked or banned for the upcoming series. In this vital lower bracket match between the number one seed in FaZe and the number nine seed in Surge, it was during the vetoes where “trolling” began.

“Garrison Hardpoint has been our auto-veto because we’re dogs*** at it,” Octane explained. However, at the Stage 5 Major, they chose to leave Garrison in the mix to ban one of FaZe’s “stronger maps” instead.

Although Garrison, a well-known weakness of the Surge lineup, was available to pick, FaZe refused to lock it in.

Before long, the series was underway and Moscow was the setting for the opening Hardpoint. As a result of FaZe not choosing Garrison, “they lost” and Surge has a huge “boost [of] confidence” moving forward.

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An early Moscow win pushed Surge to a 10-1 Hardpoint record on LAN this year.

Maps two and three went the way of FaZe as they were both fairly strong picks for the formidable roster. “They absolutely body bagged us,” Octane joked.

But Surge was fully expecting this outcome across both S&D and Control. “Hardpoints were the catalyst for the series,” he added.

“They trolled the vetoes super hard because they gave us Moscow and Raid.”

When it comes to Raid Hardpoint, Surge was fully confident they’d “match up well” against FaZe here. “Whenever we play Raid in scrims with them, we tend to win the map pretty handily.”

• Read more: Enable explains why FaZe aren’t a dynasty roster yet

It was just an 18-point difference that secured the win this time around, but it was another Hardpoint win on the board regardless. All that remained was a final S&D on Standoff.

Despite being wiped out 2-6 in the first S&D of the series, it was poor killstreak usage that secured the game five win, according to Octane.

“Both of those streak rounds were some of the worst streak usages that I have ever seen. It was not good. They super duper choked the use of both streaks.”

• Read More: CDL Stage 5 Major Highlights

“That’s how we beat Atlanta. They trolled the Hardpoints and kinda trolled the last map as well.”