Call of Duty League Power Rankings after CDL Los Angeles

The Call of Duty League has officially departed Los Angeles, giving Dallas Empire their first CDL win of the season in a hard-fought tournament.

Dallas fell just short at CDL London, losing to Chicago Huntsmen in the grand final, but managed to make up for it in the City of Angels.

They saw off competition from Minnesota RØKKR in an explosive grand final, bringing to an end one of the most diverse events we’ve seen so far. So how do our power rankings look after the Los Angeles teams’ Home Series event?

12. Toronto Ultra (-1)

Toronto Ultra are perhaps the most underwhelming team in the league so far. With the depth of the roster – and the names on it – you would expect them to be perhaps a mid-table squad, but they just can’t seem to get anything going.

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Admittedly they’ve had some close matches with the top teams, but their failure to get wins against even the easier opponents makes it much harder to see them much further up than in 12th place.

11. Los Angeles Guerrillas (-1)

For a while, it seemed Guerrillas – despite their many shortcomings – were at least better than their Los Angeles rivals, OpTic Gaming. After the LA Home Series, though, it’s basically impossible to say this, with OpTic’s strong showing proving they’re better than the Guerrillas.

With just one win from three tournaments, a 3-2 victory over Florida Mutineers at Launch Weekend, LAG doesn’t have a lot to boast about so far.

10. New York Subliners (-2)

New York Subliners currently sit rock-bottom of the Call of Duty League standings, with the worst map and series win percentage in the league.

Their one win came against Paris Legion at CDL London, though they quickly returned to their standard form and since then have lost to Paris, London Royal Ravens, Florida Mutineers and Dallas Empire with relative dominance. Bringing in Happy to replace Zer0 didn’t help, and seemed only to throw the team into further turmoil.

9. Seattle Surge (-)

Seattle Surge is a team full of bonafide winners. The initial starting roster that was announced at the start of the season had high expectations given the number of championships won between them – but failed to impress at each and every outing.

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They have just two wins under their belt and they’re both over none other than Los Angeles Guerrillas, which isn’t exactly that impressive, given their poor form. Switching out Enable for Pandur seemed to be an attempt at a quick fix but proved not to make anything better for Seattle, who will need to find out what’s wrong before it’s too late.

8. OpTic Gaming Los Angeles (+4)

It looks like OpTic Gaming may have finally started to find their stride at their Home Series event, getting their first two series wins under their collective belt and getting a top 4 placement.

After a tough start to the CDL, looking like one of the worst teams in the league, a role swap between Slasher and Dashy seems to have changed their fortunes. Admittedly, a lot of their losses had come to top teams – the likes of Florida Mutineers, Atlanta and Chicago – but wins over Guerrillas and Minnesota RØKKR showed what they’re really capable of, and that’s a top team.

7. London Royal Ravens (-)

London weren’t present at CDL LA, and so were unable to improve upon – or drop down in – the current standings. So far, they’ve had some good showings, but don’t look to be a team that have hit their peak yet, so we might see them move upward as time goes on.

They’re still some way off competing with the likes of Chicago and Atlanta, so it will be interesting to see how they work to shorten the gap.

6. Paris Legion (-)

Paris were shockingly strong at the opening couple of events, breaking all expectations that they would be seriously underprepared heading into the league.

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They showed that they’re one of the better teams in the league, and came tantalizingly close to taking down Chicago Huntsmen at CDL London, but just fell short. Losses to RØKKR in Atlanta knocked them out of the tournament, and a week off during LA stops them from moving up or down in the rankings.

5. Florida Mutineers (-1)

The Atlanta runners-up surprised everyone with their solid showing, but they were knocked out in the group stage at CDL Los Angeles, winning just one series against a struggling New York Subliners.

Failing to win a map against Atlanta FaZe and Dallas Empire showed that their Atlanta performance may have been somewhat of a fluke, but against some of the best teams in the league, it’s not right to judge them too harshly based on that.

4. Minnesota RØKKR (+1)

Minnesota once again showed why they’re a team to be scared of in LA, handing Atlanta FaZe their first-ever LAN loss on the way to the grand final of the event. They didn’t make it easy, only sealing the win in an intense map 5, but it’s a win nonetheless and put them in their first final of the season.

There has been a lot of debate over which team deserves to be ranked higher out of Minnesota and Dallas, but the end result proved that Dallas are still ahead – if only slightly – with RØKKR losing 3-2 to Clayster and co. in what made up one of the most exciting tournament finals we’ve seen so far. Time will only tell if this team goes on to reach even greater heights this season.

3. Dallas Empire (-)

Dallas finally, after months of hype, got a tournament win under their belt in Los Angeles, beating RØKKR, OpTic Gaming, Florida and New York on their successful run.

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A 3-0 loss to Atlanta in LA proved that they’ve not quite grasped the top spots yet, but the event win shows that progress has been made on all fronts, and they’ll be looking to knock the top two teams off their perch when the Dallas Home Series rolls around at the end of March.

2. Chicago Huntsmen (-)

The fan-favorites have given spectators more than their fair share of enjoyment, including a convincing win in CDL London with a raucous crowd behind them.

They’ve lost only once on LAN – a 2-3 result against Florida Mutineers in Atlanta – and have made short work of third-ranked team Dallas Empire, beating them three times with an aggregate score of 9-2 in map count.

Despite this, one team has still shown to be far more dominant, despite a tough setback in the City of Angels.

1. Atlanta FaZe (-)

Heading into the Call of Duty League, Atlanta was the top team. They were absolutely dominant online, and they carried that form into the league for a month and a half before their loss to Minnesota in the CDL LA semi-finals.

The loss at CDL Los Angeles isn’t enough to knock them off the top spot, but they’ll have to make sure their next outing is as successful as the first couple if they want to retain the top spot.

With CDL Los Angeles out of the way, teams now look forward to the next event, hosted by Dallas Empire.

CDL Dallas takes place from April 10-12, with Dallas, LA Guerrillas, Florida and Toronto in Group A, while Group B is occupied by Seattle, Paris, Chicago and Minnesota.