LA Thieves eliminate Major 1 Champs, NYSL go out top 8

The Los Angeles Thieves eliminated the current Major 1 champs, New York Subliners, at Major 2. NYSL goes out only top 8, after devastating losses to Minnesota Rokkr and LAT.

The Los Angeles Thieves cemented their continued spot in the Call of Duty League Major 2 tournament bracket. The current reigning world champs took on the Major 1 champs, New York Subliners, in a surprise loser’s round 2 match. In the end, LAT eliminate NYSL to send them home.

After both teams lost in the first round of the winner’s bracket at CDL Major 2 in Boston, LAT and the Subliners faced off on the second day of the tournament. Capping off day two, the final match was a banger between the two champs of the CDL: the reigning 2022 world champs and the only current champs of the 2023 season.

What was the most unexpected part of this match was the dominant fashion in which the Los Angeles Thieves took down the New York Subliners. The map count was as follows:

The match didn’t even go to the final two maps, Embassy Hardpoint and Hotel SND, due to the quick 3-0 sweep from LAT. Due to this being an elimination match, this eliminated NYSL from the tournament.

The match stats via the CDL across the board were quite odd. Despite being such an unanswered 3-0 sweep from LAT, the stats don’t necessarily reflect this. The three close maps resulted in these stats from NYSL:

On the other side, these were the LAT stats:

LAT only barely outperformed NYSL performance-wise by a mere three kills. This shows just how close the maps were.

As NYSL heads back home, they conclude their Stage 2 run in the Call of Duty League 2023 season. This is a rough finish for the Major 1 champs, who go out only in the top 8. At the very least, the team will receive a small portion of the $500,000 prize pool and 10 points. That is equivalent to the single win they had at Major 2 against the London Royal Ravens.

Overall, this marks a 4/4 record for NYSL at Major 2. Three wins were during the online qualifiers, one win in loser’s round 1 of the tournament, and two losses at Major 2. That even record isn’t the worst but is far from the dominant performance the team showed during their victorious Major 1.

Does this indicate a possible slump for NYSL? Or will they bounce back in Major 3? Only time will tell, but it is a known factor that many CDL victors typically have a downturn after winning. This could be an indication of that or it could be that other teams are finally catching up to the early-performing Subliners. Or even a mix of both.

The main issue that NYSL should address in practice ahead of Major 3 is their SND. They were final during Major 1 in the crucial game mode but struggled quite a bit in Major 2 with messier, more inconsistent performances.

On the other end, LAT eliminated NYSL to make it to the top 6 in CDL Major 2, at worst. The Thieves will face off against the loser of Atlanta FaZe and Toronto Ultra in the elimination bracket round three. That will be potentially the toughest match for the reigning world champs yet in CDL Major 2.

Only time will tell if LAT can continue its run in the tournament for a possible comeback win after their initial loss to OpTic Texas in the first round. The bright side is that they are the only team so far in the tournament to have two back-to-back 3-0 dominant wins, showing that they may finally be recovering from their Major 1 and Major 2 online struggles.