GGEA Announce Major Roster Update Regarding Call of Duty ‘Orange’ Team Ahead of CWL Anaheim
GGEA (GG Esports Academy) have released their longest standing Call of Duty roster, following the squad narrowly missing out on the CWL Pro League Stage Two.
Operating under the Infinite Esports umbrella, who also operate OpTic Gaming, GGEA initially recruited two Call of Duty rosters early in the 2018 CWL season – ‘Blue’ and ‘Orange’, and later a ‘Purple’ team.
According to Bryan Yale, who lead the GGEA project, it was considered an ‘esports development’ programme, aiming to “develop amateur talent that will eventually feed into the major tournaments.”
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And the GGEA Orange roster was the closest they came to realizing this vision, needing only one more match win against Australian side Tainted Minds to qualify for Stage Two of the CWL Pro League.
But the team were defeated in this deciding match, in a heartbreaking reverse sweep fashion no less, and ultimately missed out on Stage Two by the narrowest margin.
The team initially looked as though it would remain with GGEA, despite the Blue and Purple teams having already been released, and original member Austin “Believe” Smith was dropped from the Orange squad.
The remaining members, Dakota “Nova” Williams, Mehran “Mayhem” Anjomshoa and Tristan “Spoof” Green, played out the May 19th CWL 2K tournament with Tanner “Mosh” Clark, but finished top 16.
It is with sadness that we announce the departure of GGEA Orange. It has been a pleasure to work with you all and we look forward to seeing your careers develop. Good luck @TristanSpoof @NovaALG @obKBelieve @OvOMayhem! pic.twitter.com/gX8EENZChf
— GGEAOfficial (@GGEAOfficial) May 25, 2018
The core four players, including Believe, had previously teamed since early 2017, and have qualified for pool play from the open bracket at open events on numerous occasions.
But they were unable to overcome the final hurdle to break into the professional scene, and missing out on the Pro League in such a fashion was undoubtedly a hard pill to swallow for each of them.
GGEA Orange beat Pro League team eUnited to win the 2018 Canadian Championship SeriesIndividually and as a roster the players are obviously talented and can certainly be optimistic for the upcoming final events of the 2018 CoD: WWII season, especially with potential qualification for the World Championship on the horizon.
However, whether the core roster decides to stick or twist remains to be seen, and having these players disperse between different teams would shake up the amateur scene quite significantly.
As for GGEA and their next move in Call of Duty esports, it is likely they will step back at least until the new season, with the release of Black Ops 4 in October.