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Call Of Duty League 2020 Season | Los Angeles Home Series | Day 2

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Dallas Empire turned a rocky start to the 2020 season into a title in one night at The Novo.

Day 2 of the Call of Duty League’s Los Angeles Home Series wrapped up on March 8, 2020, with the knockout rounds, semifinals, and Grand Finals of the eight-team tournament, co-hosted by the Los Angeles Guerrillas and OpTic Gaming Los Angeles. By the end of the night, Dallas Empire had claimed their first Home Series title of the inaugural CDL season, walking away with 50 CDL points after a Grand Finals sweep of Minnesota Røkkr.

• In the Group Knockout round, the Los Angeles Guerrillas were eliminated by the Seattle Surge 3-1, while OpTic Gaming Los Angeles survived a five-map battle with the New York Subliners, winning 3-2.
• The Minnesota Røkkr upset the previously unbeaten Atlanta FaZe 3-2 in the semifinals, handing FaZe their first match loss of the season.
• Dallas Empire swept OpTic Gaming Los Angeles 3-0 in the other semifinal, then repeated the scoreline in the Grand Finals against Minnesota Røkkr to secure the title.

The Knockout Round Sets the Bracket

The day opened with the Group Knockout matches deciding who would advance into the semifinal bracket at Modern Warfare. The hometown Los Angeles Guerrillas couldn’t get past the Seattle Surge, dropping the series 3-1 in front of their own crowd. OpTic Gaming Los Angeles had a tougher road but got the job done, grinding out a 3-2 win over the New York Subliners to punch their ticket into the semifinals alongside Atlanta FaZe, Minnesota Røkkr, and Dallas Empire.

Minnesota Ends FaZe’s Unbeaten Run

Atlanta FaZe had rolled through the season untouched to that point, but Minnesota Røkkr had other plans. The Røkkr took the semifinal 3-2, handing FaZe their first loss of the 2020 campaign and knocking the tournament favorites out of the Home Series entirely. It was the kind of result that reshuffles how the rest of the league views the standings — a team many had written off suddenly playing for a championship.

Fans looking to relive the kind of high-stakes Modern Warfare firefights that define these Home Series brackets can find more competitive breakdowns in coverage like Esports: Inside the relentless training of professional gaming stars, which digs into what it actually takes to compete at this level.

Dallas Empire’s Sweep to the Championship

Dallas Empire, rostered by James “Clayster” Eubanks, Ian “Crimsix” Porter, Cuyler “Huke” Garland, Anthony “Shotzzy” Cuevas-Castro, and Indervir “iLLeY” Dhaliwal, didn’t drop a single map across their final two series. They swept OpTic Gaming Los Angeles 3-0 in the semifinal, then met Minnesota Røkkr in the Grand Finals and closed it out the exact same way.

Dallas Empire didn’t just beat Minnesota Røkkr in the Grand Finals — they swept them 3-0, the same scoreline they used to bounce OpTic Gaming Los Angeles out of the semifinals just hours earlier.

For an Empire roster that had shown flashes of inconsistency earlier in the season, back-to-back 3-0 sweeps to close out the LA Home Series was the clearest signal yet that Clayster, Crimsix, Huke, Shotzzy, and iLLeY had figured out their identity in Modern Warfare’s competitive ruleset. Anyone wanting a refresher on the specific settings and modes governing these matches can check out the breakdown in Modern Warfare Season 3 – Four Man Squads, New Guns, Backlot, and More!.

With 50 CDL points banked and a Home Series trophy in hand, Dallas Empire heads into the next stretch of the season as the team everyone else in the league now has to account for — a very different conversation than the one surrounding them just a few weeks earlier.