CDL heads to New York for Stage 4 Major

The Stage 4 Major of the 2022 Call of Duty League is set to begin on July 14. Hosted by the New York Subliners, the event will be held at the Kings Theatre in Brooklyn.

Will the Seattle Surge defend their title from Stage 3? Can the London Royal Ravens turn their surprise seeding into their maiden title?

Setbacks in Seattle

The Seattle Surge won their first CDL Major at the Stage 3 Major back in June. However, Seattle struggled in Stage 4 qualifying and will need to make a lower bracket run to defend their title. They went 1-4 in Stage 4 qualifying, finishing eleventh in the 12-team league. They will have to wait for the loser of the match between the Boston Breach and Florida Mutineers.

Top seeding for London

After being one of the many mediocre teams in the CDL, the London Royal Ravens have slowly been improving over the course of the 2022 season. They have reached a new high point as they enter the Stage 4 Major as the top seed.

The Royals Ravens will be hoping to at the very least match their third-place performance at the Stage 1 Major, if not win the event outright. They begin their campaign against the Toronto Ultra.

Contenders struggle

Stage 4 qualifying was an event to forget for many of the league’s contenders. The Atlanta FaZe, who currently lead the CDL points standings, finished qualifying in fifth. Second-place OpTic Texas finished tenth while the fifth-place Toronto Ultra qualified in eighth. While FaZe and Ultra will still play in the upper bracket, Texas will have to fight their way through the lower bracket. But despite this, it’s a far cry from the top seedings that we have become used to from FaZe and Ultra.

While qualifying has often had little impact on the outcome of the Major, could this be a changing of the tides for the league?

New rosters see mixed results

Several teams fielded new rosters for Stage 4, with mixed results. The Paris Legion, who replaced Johnathan “John” Perez with Giancarlos “oJohnny” Carrasco, continued their nosedive with a 0-5 campaign. Meanwhile, the revamped Florida Mutineers roster finished sixth. Will the Florida Mutineers be able to build on this result? Meanwhile, can Paris find anything even resembling competence?

CDL Stage 4 Major

The CDL Stage 4 Major begins on July 14. The tournament will open at 1830 BST/1930 CEST with the Atlanta FaZe taking on the Toronto Ultra. Set to run for four days, the tournament will conclude with a best-of-nine Grand Final on July 17.

Header: MusikAnimal, CDL