With the Call of Duty Championship fast approaching, there are four CDL teams that won’t be in attendance after they failed to qualify. With their rostermania approaching, let’s take a look at the players each of these teams should be looking to retain next season, or if they should blow it up entirely.
After Major 4 at the end of June, four of the 12 CDL teams were eliminated from Champs contention, making their offseason even longer. This gives them a headstart on sorting out their strategy for next season.
Now, the Vegas Legion, Carolina Royal Ravens, Minnesota Rokkr, and Boston Breach have several months to prepare.
The first question they will all have to answer is whether they want to extend any of their current players, or whether it’s worth saying goodbye to them instead.
If I was running these teams, here are the players I would keep.
Vegas Legion
Vegas Legion is a tough one because they were right in the mix and could have qualified for Champs had a few small things gone their way, and I wouldn’t hate seeing them stick as a team of four unless clear upgrades are available.
That said, if I could only select a couple of must-keeps, I’d say Attach and either Nero or Gio have the most upside. Attach had a top-five Kill/Death ratio in the league this season, while Nero and Gio were both fairly even in terms of their impact on the team.
I would say they need to make at least two changes, so that would mean one of those two players should go. The younger, fresher player, Gio, is the most optimal choice to keep here.
Carolina Royal Ravens
Similar to Legion, I think this Royal Ravens roster shows a lot of upside but they need another star like Gwinn to come in to help fire them up the standings.
For me, Gwinn is the only absolute must-keep player on this roster. Clayster is still a solid player and great for bringing fans in, while TJHaly had one of his best individual seasons for a few years, but Gwinn is the star of this team and should be treated as such.
FeLo’s Champs record speaks for itself and is almost worth a spot based on that alone, but I would definitely be weighing up other assault rifle talent, either alongside Clay or without him.
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Minnesota Røkkr
Outside of Major 1, RØKKR struggled to show any promise, despite one or two shining performances throughout the season.
They need to make tying down Lynz to a longer contract their key priority, and like Gwinn for Carolina, is the only must-keep player on this current roster. Individually, he had a fantastic rookie season, and his teammates struggled to show that same promise.
We already know that Rokkr are picking up a different roster for the Esports World Cup, so it looks very likely they won’t be sticking for Black Ops 6, though that won’t come as a huge surprise to anybody.
My understanding currently is that Minnesota Rokkr will not have the same roster from Major 4 representing them at the Esports World Cup.
— Jacob Hale (@JakeHaleee) July 2, 2024
Boston Breach
In their last 20 series’, Boston Breach won just two matches: a 3-0 against Seattle Surge in Major 2 qualifiers, and a 3-2 against OpTic Texas in Major 4 qualifiers. They’re truly in ‘blow it up’ territory.
Beans is the standout player on the Breach and they should be looking to keep him going into Black Ops 6. MajorManiak didn’t really have enough time to make a case for himself on the Breach, but they should be looking at any options to partner with Beans to bring the best out of each other in 2025.
Priestahh is certainly good enough to be on a team — one better than the Breach side he was on this year — but for the sake of a fresh start, they need to focus on Beans as the future of the organization.
Snoopy, again, has shown talent, and I expect him to stay, but I would be looking at all options if I was Boston’s GM.
There are still Champs and the Esports World Cup for teams to assess certain players, both in the league and in Challengers, then decide what kind of moves they need to make next season.
That said, they’ll no doubt already be thinking about how they should approach the 2025 Black Ops 6 season, and this is just how I would be handling their current rosters in that hypothetical scenario. What they will do in reality remains a mystery for now.