Enable & Pacman: Why LA Thieves’ blockbuster trade with Mutineers could save CDL season
Twitter, @LAThieves, @MutineersFollowing the Los Angeles Thieves’ continued struggles in the Call of Duty League, the Reverse Sweep crew broke down why the Thieves need to consider blowing up the core trio in a blockbuster CDL trade.
Since February 27, the LA Thieves are 2-6 with their only two wins coming against the bottom-dwelling Toronto Ultra. (And that second win against the Ultra was a difficult 3-2.) In that time span, the Thieves benched Donovan ‘Temp’ Laroda for Challengers call-up Carlos ‘Venom’ Hernandez, but that hasn’t seemed to be enough of a change.
As Reverse Sweep’s Katie Bedford summarizes the situation, the “Thieves are a**.” And the show’s other hosts, Ian ‘Enable’ Wyatt and Jonathan ‘Pacman’ Tucker seem to be in agreement, saying it’s time to take a hard look at the core trio.
A highly exalted core, Austin ‘SlasheR’ Liddicoat, Kenny ‘Kenny’ Williams and Thomas ‘TJHaLy’ Haly, could be nearing its end. Refusing to blame Venom for failing to turn around a seemingly broken situation, Pacman addresses the issue directly: “They need to change the core. The core doesn’t work.”
At this point, the issue isn’t limited to just a rough stretch of play in March. As Enable explains, “they were a part of OpTic last year, that wasn’t good. They were the core three and now it’s happening again … it comes down on them.”
All renowned pro players with experience dating back to at least 2015, this core trio was expected to help a dynamic OpTic Gaming Los Angeles team in 2020. That team flopped to a 10-17 record, but expectations stayed high for the CDL’s 2021 season following a 100 Thieves rebrand.
Noting that all the excuses are out of the window now that the team is playing a 4v4 CoD and located in Texas, Pacman suggests that a trade might be the only thing left: “You need to figure out a way to … at least get rid of one of them, if it was me I would try to do more.”
LA ThievesDiscussing that the stock of the Thieves core may be lower than it was before, the Reverse Sweep gang then dives into some interesting options for trades. The most captivating roster move? SlasheR for the Florida Mutineers’ Joseph ‘Owakening’ Conley.
While unsure that the Mutineers would even do that trade, despite SlasheR’s championship pedigree, the crew agreed that it’s the type of move that deserves an attempt. If the Thieves core trio can’t turn things around fast, then maybe trading one of their core trio is the only way to salvage this season.