The Call of Duty League has left its Chicago spot and Dallas Empire became the first team to win two CDL Home Series events, after beating Atlanta FaZe in a convincing 3-1 grand final win. Now, it’s headed to sunny Florida.
Top teams such as Atlanta FaZe and Chicago Huntsmen proved with the second online week of the CDL that they’re not invincible, and Dallas found themselves taking the win once again.
But, after an array of performances ranging from near-perfect to absolutely woeful, we’ve come up with our Power Rankings to best show where teams stand after CDL Chicago.
12. OpTic Gaming Los Angeles (-4)
Just when it looks like improvements are being made, this OpTic side seem able to fall right back down, and it’s not even clear why.
Despite a solid showing at CDL Los Angeles, in which they seemed to be finding form and we were expecting them to finally start reaching their potential, it’s straight back to the bottom of the pile for OpTic, who received a vicious thrashing at CDL Chicago and looked way out of their depth.
11. Los Angeles Guerrillas (+1)
Guerrillas beat OpTic 3-0 during CDL Chicago, which is just about their only saving grace at this point in the season.
This side features a bunch of young players that are still trying to find their way at the top of the CoD esports bubble, so it’s definitely a group to look out for in the future, but right now the results just aren’t there, and there’s not much to suggest they’ll come any time soon, especially as they sit out of CDL Florida.
10. Toronto Ultra (-1)
Though Toronto weren’t in attendance at CDL Chicago, they see themselves move down a spot as Seattle picked up a top 4 finish to move ahead of them in the rankings.
Ultra have been regularly making changes to their starting roster, which is a huge advantage of having the only 10-man team in the league, but so far nothing has managed to stick and work, with only two wins to their name – both tight 3-2 victories.
9. Seattle Surge (+1)
Seattle’s biggest issue across this season has been Search and Destroy and, although it’s not really been fixed so to speak, they appear to be showing more life in the game mode.
That doesn’t change the fact, though, that all of their wins this season have been against just one team: Los Angeles Guerrillas. There have been some close losses, against the likes of Minnesota RØKKR and Paris Legion, but unlike some of the teams lower than them in our rankings, Seattle are at least showing some promise – and an SnD turnaround might be all they need.
8. London Royal Ravens (-1)
London’s opening match of CDL Chicago came against Atlanta FaZe who, up to this point, have unanimously been considered the best team in the game – and London gave them a run for their money.
The team always seems capable of beating the other mid-table sides, but there have been questions over whether they can take on the top – and it appears the answer is yes. In the three maps they lost against Atlanta, the result could have gone either way, and at many points it looked like it was going to, but London just failed to close them out.
7. New York Subliners (+4)
This New York side looks like it could finally be reaching where they were expected to be pre-season, despite a 5-6th placement at CDL Chicago.
The introduction of Mack to the starting roster seems to have breathed life into the Subliners who, despite struggling for consistency, managed to take down Chicago Huntsmen at their home event, winning 3-2 in their opening series.
Despite later losing to Atlanta – again, a 3-2 scoreline – and eventually being knocked out by Huntsmen, there were clearly a multitude of improvements made to New York’s game, so it will be interesting to see how they fare in the coming months.
6. Paris Legion (-)
Paris didn’t play at CDL Chicago but, with the way the teams surrounding them in our power rankings were playing, they might be lucky to have not been involved.
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Marked improvements from London and New York raise some question marks over this team’s overall standing, but we’ve definitely seen enough from them so far to suggest they deserve to be in the upper half of our power rankings – but that could all change at the next event.
5. Minnesota RØKKR (-)
Minnesota have come excruciatingly close to event wins since the start of the season, and quickly emerged as dark horses and potential championship winners when tournaments got underway.
They’ve not yet found the trophy that continues to elude them, but it seems only a matter of time – but they’ll need to get a move on before the season is up.
4. Florida Mutineers (-)
Expectations weren’t very high for Florida at the start of the season, but they quickly proved everyone wrong by becoming the first (and second) team to take a series against Chicago Huntsmen.
Their win in the online CDL Dallas event over Minnesota RØKKR proved that they’re capable of being a top side, but they might need a few more tournaments to prove that they’re genuinely deserving of sitting alongside the elite sides above them that have looked unstoppable at times.
3. Chicago Huntsmen (-1)
Chicago drop down in our power rankings and are outside of the top 2 for the first time this season, after a semi-final loss to Dallas Empire at CDL Chicago.
There has been much chatter in the community over whether Chicago are as good as they were just a few months ago, and the loss to Dallas – who they had previously beaten three times – seems to suggest that they’re not.
Arcitys recently explained that Chicago simply didn’t know how to play the game, and that seemed to show during the event, despite the fact that they managed to secure a decent placement in 3-4th. They’re falling away from their top competition, and will need to fix up to stop the gap widening.
2. Atlanta FaZe (-1)
For the first time since launch weekend, we’ve no longer got Atlanta at number 1 after their grand final loss during CDL Chicago.
They’ve no doubt looked to be the most dominant team at times throughout the season, including a championship win at their own Home Series event, but now Dallas have found their pre-season form and find themselves as reigning champions once again.
1. Dallas Empire (+2)
This is Dallas’ first outing at the top of the power rankings, and it definitely seems a good fit following a convincing 3-1 win over Atlanta at CDL Chicago.
In the opening weeks of Modern Warfare’s release, Dallas seemed to be the best team in the game bar none. Although some teams, such as Chicago and Atlanta, soon started picking up wins over them, Dallas have now become the first team to win two CDL events, and claimed the top spot for themselves. They’ve shown why they’re not to be ignored, with Atlanta coach Crowder even calling them the best team in the game following Chicago’s Home Series event.
With Dallas now atop the power rankings, Chicago and Atlanta will be trying to move themselves up again, and the three-horse race seems set to continue as Dallas have a break until CDL Minnesota at the start of June, by which point we might see someone else on top once again.
- Read More: When is CDL Florida? Schedule, teams, more
The next event, however, is CDL Florida, which takes place May 8-10.
Atlanta FaZe will be facing Paris Legion, OpTic Gaming and London Royal Ravens in Group B, while Group A sees Toronto Ultra, New York Subliners, Minnesota RØKKR and Florida Mutineers vying for the title.
