FaZe Vegas has just pulled off the unimaginable, but perhaps slightly predictable move, and secured a massive Call of Duty League Championship win – the organization’s first in five years. In 2021, the team secured a monumental win during a white-hot Cold War season, and then fell a little quiet… Until now.
This monumental victory for FaZe Vegas follows a year of mixy gameplay, with the team picking up a third-place finish in the regular season standings and securing a chip to boot at Major 2. But this is where it all matters, and FaZe Vegas halted OpTic Texas’ attempt to secure three COD Champs wins back to back.
FaZe Vegas Wins COD Champs On Home Turf
OpTic Texas came into the Call of Duty League Championship in Las Vegas as the favourite to win, sitting just ahead of the LA Thieves in the prediction stakes. Throughout the event, users on Polymarket gave OpTic the best possible chance of winning, but it looks like they were wrong.
While LA Thieves crashed out without winning a single series, FaZe Vegas went all the way. It started with a win over Minnesota G2, then against Riyadh Falcons. The winners’ final yielded a close win over OpTic Texas, pushing the team into the lower bracket to subsequently eliminate Riyadh Falcons and set up for one of the most incredible grand final stages we’ve ever seen in COD esports.
In Las Vegas, on FaZe’s home turf, El Clásico played out, marking the first time in CDL history that the COD Champs final accommodated these two titans of the esports space.
When it came down to it, it was a hard series to call, but it could only wrap up one way.
The opening Hardpoint was a solid push in FaZe’s favor, but it was just taking a minute for OpTic Texas to find their feet. The squad bounced back, snatching the first map from FaZe and coming out of the gate very strong.
Things turned around in the first round of Search, with FaZe pushing the series to a round eleven and securing in the closing seconds to equalize. FaZe kept up the pressure to win the first Overload, with Abuzah going absolutely enormous and securing more than 40 kills in the round.
That trend persisted as the rotation reset, and the series pushed towards a new Hardpoint on Scar, with FaZe going further ahead and extending that lead. Once again, we moved into a Search, and once again, it hit a round eleven, and despite OpTic’s best efforts, FaZe took the map.
Every time OpTic tried to get ahead, FaZe Vegas was there to hamper any traction. Both Abuzah and 04, the relative newcomers to the top tier of COD esports, managed to post incredible numbers and remain resilient against the reigning champions throughout the series.
And then OpTic Texas finally found a foothold in another round of Overload, securing a desperate push with a close scoreline to get another point chalked on the board.
But it wasn’t enough, as the marathon series was shut down when FaZe held firm in the final Search, wrapping things up and lifting the trophy.
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Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
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