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The Call of Duty League’s Seattle Surge have announced their new roster for the upcoming 2021 season, assembling a cast of players they believe will complement star-man Sam ‘Octane’ Larew.
With the 2020 CDL season officially in the books, most of the franchises are still working to put together new rosters for the upcoming campaign, especially since the competitive format has been reverted from 5v5 to 4v4.
One of those teams was Seattle Surge, who, on September 23, announced that they’d recruited the services of veterans Gunless, Prestinni, and Loony to team up with their superstar, Octane.
The team will be coached by JoeyNubzy, who, along with Octane, is the only holdover from Seattle’s previous roster after they decided to sever ties with six of their players. They will still need to sign one more player, however, to meet the league’s requirement of having at least one substitute.
Seattle Surge 2021 roster:
- Sam ‘Octane’ Larew
- Peirce ‘Gunless’ Hillman
- Preston ‘Prestinni’ Sanderson
- Daniel ‘Loony’ Loza
- Joey ‘Nubzy’ DiGiacomo (coach)
Operation is a go: Meet your Seattle Surge Squad.#DrownThemOut | @SpiderTech pic.twitter.com/fR3ENkRSAB
— Seattle Surge (@SeattleSurge) September 23, 2020
Gunless and Prestinni both arrive from the Huntsmen, although, interestingly enough, they never actually played together on the Chicago roster. Gunless was benched after they finished 3rd/4th at the Chicago Home Series, with Prestinni subsequently being brought in from the Florida Mutineers as his replacement.
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Despite winning their first tournament right after the switch (ironically, it was the Seattle Surge’s Home Series), Prestinni remained a target for many of the Huntsmen’s critics, and following the CDL Championship Weekend, both he and twin brother Alec ‘Arcitys’ Sanderson were let go.
As for Loony, he was considered one of the Toronto Ultra’s odd men out following their own post-2020 cleanup. He was a starter for their first three events before being benched in favor of MettalZ and never making it back to the starting lineup.
The Surge will hope that this new-look roster will help them avoid a repeat of their disastrous inaugural campaign. Despite coming in with a strong lineup full of veteran talent, the team heavily underachieved most of the year, finishing second-to-last and only above the lowly Los Angeles Guerrillas.
Things didn’t get any better in the Playoffs either, as Seattle was swept by the Paris Legion in their first and only match, leading to a disastrous last-place finish and no prize money.
Whether it was the surprise retirement of Damon ‘Karma’ Barlow midway through, the controversy surrounding Josiah ‘Slacked’ Berry’s comments about their two rookies, or Octane repeatedly going on Twitter rants against the CDL, their season was rocky, to say the least.
Keep up with all of the offseason player signings, team changes, and rumors via our Call of Duty League RosterMania hub!