Star Call of Duty pro player Seth ‘Scump’ Abner isn’t taking rival Dallas Empire’s dominance of online scrims too seriously, explaining that such a thing “doesn’t matter” until teams face each other on LAN.
With the regular season of the newly-formed Call of Duty League set to kick off in January, most of the teams have been practicing against each other and amateur sides in online scrimmages.
It’s no secret that Dallas Empire, one of the best teams on paper, have been the most dominant team in these scrims. They have repeatedly made the competition look a lot worse than they probably are.
[ad name=”article1″]
Chicago Huntsmen CEO Hector ‘H3CZ’ Rodriguez asked one of his star players, Scump, about how well the Empire have been showing out in scrims, but the former OpTic Gaming captain replied by claiming that scrims aren’t taken as seriously as fans may think.
“Nobody cares right now, everyone’s in the actual scene,” he said. “You can’t blame the people watching because that’s all they’ve had to base off of, you can’t blame them. People place stock in all that scrim stuff.”
[ad name=”article2″]
Scump doesn’t think Dallas Empire should be crowned the best team yet
While admitting that the Empire are a very strong team, Scump explained that their dominance in online practice sessions doesn’t mean they’re the best team in the CDL.
“They’re really good, they’ve been the best online team and that’s a fact, no question,” he admitted. “All the professional players know that they’re really good. But everyone’s like ‘wait until LAN, wait until LAN,’ and they’re saying that for a reason.”
“They’re very hard to play against online. Their five based out of one state with very good internet. Texas has always been known for super-good internet. They’re very, very good, but, at the end of the day, it’s proven on LAN.”
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates on Esports, Gaming and more.
[ad name=”article3″]
What makes LAN so different from online? The 2017 World Champion listed off some of the factors that separate competing live and in-person versus playing in an online environment.
“All the pros that actually play the game every single day and play on different hosts and different connections against these pro players, we know best,” he explained. “That’s why a lot of people always say online doesn’t really matter and LAN is where everything counts because everyone’s on a level playing field, people can get nervous, there’s a lot of different factors.”
(Segment begins at 6:27 mark for mobile users)
[ad name=”article4″]
Call of Duty League kicks off soon
Not much time is left until the Call of Duty League regular season starts and this scrim conversation gets thrown by the wayside in favor of more serious levels of competition.
The CDL Launch Weekend, taking place January 24-26, will feature all 12 franchises coming together for the first time, including both the Huntsmen and Empire.
For more information about the inaugural season and all of the teams involved, make sure to check out the full CDL 2020 match schedule and offseason RosterMania tracker.
