Seattle Surge players have had a rough outing in the inaugural 2020 Call of Duty League season, even being blacklisted by a majority of competitors in the space according to Sam ‘Octane’ Larew.
Currently sitting in 11th place with 40 CDL points to their name, the 2020 season has been full of trials and tribulations for the Surge. From major, midseason roster shuffles to the departure of three-time world champion Damon ‘Karma’ Barlow, it has not been an easy ride for the squad by any stretch.
It doesn’t appear as though things will be turning around over the remainder of the season either: assault rifle slayer Octane has revealed the team has a major lack of options when it comes to practicing against fellow CDL teams.
Joining hosts Anthony ‘Nameless’ Wheeler and Jonathan ‘Pacman’ Tucker on the 31st episode of the Codcast, Octane described the current predicament. “We don’t get scrims anymore because either we’re a**, or we’re never on time.”
With a brand new lineup just assembled – one without Karma or Enable – the roster needs all the practice they can get in order to catch up. However, there are supposedly only “three pro teams” still willing to scrim against Seattle.
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Most of the top-tier CDL teams have outright blacklisted the organization. Due to tardiness and unprofessional behavior for the most part.
One particular example highlighted how the team has ‘torched’ a great deal of practice time with the Los Angeles Guerillas. Allegedly scheduled to practice together “23 times,” the Surge roster only showed up for 15 of those. To make matters worse, “of those 15 series, we finished every map four times.”
That boils down to just four proper scrims where both teams played for the full amount of time booked in. Pacman chimed in with a similar experience while managing OpTic Gaming Los Angeles. Stating that he had “so many scrims booked with Seattle,” and most would be canceled on the day of the booking.
It’s not as though this struggle is new either. Scrims have been difficult to come by for roughly “two months,” according to Octane. “We’re super-duper blacklisted.”
While the upcoming Minnesota Home Series has been delayed, Seattle is tentatively scheduled to face the second-seed Atlanta in their first series back on June 12.