Call of Duty pros were left in disbelief when a map between FaZe Clan and Luminosity Gaming at CWL London was decided by a bizarre bug.
CWL London kicked off on May 3, becoming the third major open event of the Black Ops 4 competitive season. The tournament has also marked the return of FaZe Clan to the CoD World League after they picked up Red Reserve’s spot.
Despite an impressive showing in pool play, the new-look mixed-squad found themselves quickly in Losers Round 2 after falling to OpTic Gaming. Yet, things got even stranger as a potential win over Luminosity Gaming was denied by one strange Control bug.
What happened between FaZe and LG?
The teams were locked into a tense final round of Control on Seaside, with the available lives left at a premium for both sides. With FaZe on offense, they were the process of capturing the A point and sealing their victory before Luminosity tried to contest and give themselves a lifeline.
FaZe captured the point behind the efforts of Tommy ‘ZooMaa’ Papparatto, which was reflected by the in-game message on the right-hand side. Yet, the map win was handed to Luminosity after Josiah ‘SLACKED’ Berry wiped out the last remaining players, with his Grav Slam ultimate, on the point despite FaZe having captured the zone.
The controversial ending was put under review and handed to Luminosity after a break, with officials deciding that the result was decided by the game and was going to stay that way.
The series was ultimately decided by map five after FaZe rebounded from the bizarre bug and pushed on for a victory in the following map. Yet, they would fall to a defeat Luminosity made light work of the final Search and Destroy game.
While some fans and players may have believed that the map should have been replayed and the win given to FaZe, the match officials were seemingly unable to change the result – handing the victory and series advantage to LG.
Per @RJTheSlothbear, the refs were shown theater footage of FaZe capping before Slacked contested. The refs told the team that they had to go by the result determined by the game. No replay was offered to either team.
— Ben N (@BenJNissim) May 4, 2019
FaZe pros have their say
The defeat, of course, didn’t sit well with the FaZe players, who immediately turned to Twitter to put their feelings out there to their fans.
ZooMaa tweeted: “What a fucking joke. None the less, proud of these guys. Respawn looked good, just need to clean up SnD… hard to gets reps online. The crowd in London was absolutely nuts, thank you guys for making the team and myself feel welcomed. Till next time.”
What a fucking joke. None the less, proud of these guys. Respawn looked good, just need to clean up SnD… hard to gets reps online. The crowd in London was absolutely nuts, thank you guys for making the team and myself feel welcomed. Till next time. #FaZeUp :heart:️
— FaZe ZooMaa (@ZooMaa) May 4, 2019
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Trei ‘Zer0’ Morris couldn’t contain his anger at what had happened, posting: “Honestly, I’ve lost so much full, this game is fucking garbage. Idc [I don’t care] what repercussions this gets but how is this happening 7 months into a game. Lik, cmon, this is people’s jobs.”
Honestly ive lost so much full, this game is fucking garbage, idc what reprocusions this gets but how is this happening 7 months into a game like cmon this is peoples jobs.
— FaZe treiboi carti (@TreiZer0) May 4, 2019
Former Red Reserve star Matthew ‘Skrapz‘ Marshall described the situation as a “shambles” and that the result was “daylight robbery.”
That’s not even a GGs, never been more robbed in my life, day light robbery. Fucking shambles.
— FaZe Skrapz (@skrapzg) May 4, 2019
Luminosity make their feelings known
Former CoD World Champion Matthew ‘FormaL’ Piper, whose LG squad benefitted from the ruling tweeted that his team had no say on what was decided and described it as a “shitty situation.”
We didn’t make the ruling at all, they told us who won the map, we were just playing. Shitty situation regardless
— LG FormaL (@FormaL) May 4, 2019
A number of other pros were also left bemused by what had happened and why the map had gone to Luminosity and not FaZe. OpTic Gaming star Seth ‘Scump’ Abner tweeted that FaZe got robbed by the decision.
FaZe got ROBBED.
— Seth Abner (@OpTic_Scumper) May 4, 2019
Scump’s belief that FaZe won and suffered a ‘robbery’ was echoed by 100 Thieves’ Ian ‘Enable’ Wyatt who posted: “I’m losing absolute FULL right now if I’m FaZe wow.”
I’m losing absolute FULL right now if I’m FaZe wow
— 100T Enable Robinson (@Enable) May 4, 2019
Will this prompt a game update?
The defeat ultimately marked the elimination of FaZe from their first event of the season, despite going toe-to-toe with some of the most established teams in Black Ops 4.
It remains to be seen if an official comment will be made from any of the parties involved, or if a change will be made to the Control game mode in a bid to avoid any similar future errors effecting games.