by
Cody Perez
in Call of Duty | Apr, 6th 2021

The Call of Duty League is gearing up for the next important part of the season with the Stage 2 tournament. Known as the Call of Duty League Stage 2 Major, this event only happens so many times in the season and will be very important to the overall year. 

As always, there is a stage of content in which the teams have four weeks of events. The first three weeks are normal matches where they play against the five other teams in their group until they have played against them. 

Then, they are ranked within their groups based on the wins and losses that they were able to achieve during the first three weeks of events. Those rankings are key to the Call of Duty League Stage 2 Major as they determine who will be placed where for the initial rounds of matches. 

With the conclusion of the third week of Stage 2 and the end of the undefeated streak for Atlanta FaZe, it is now time for the next Major to happen this week. It will occur Wednesday, April 7, through Sunday, April 11, when the next Major winner will be determined. 

As always, you will be able to watch all of the matches live as they happen this week on the official CDL YouTube channel. You will also be able to watch the on-demand matches after the fact if you aren’t able to watch some of them while they are happening live. 

How the Call of Duty League Stage 2 Major works is that there are two brackets — an upper and lower one — and teams are placed on those brackets depending on how well they did in their groups during the past three weeks. 

For this Major, the bottom bracket teams are Los Angeles Guerrillas, Florida Mutineers, Paris Legion, and Los Angeles Thieves. Also in the bottom tier are Seattle Surge and London Royal Ravens, but they have a one-round goodbye, so they are guaranteed to be in the top eight of the event. 

The initial four teams that will compete on the upper bracket side are OpTic Chicago, Toronto Ultra, New York Subliners, and Dallas Empire. The top two teams currently in this stage are Minnesota Rokkr and Atlanta FaZe, who have a one-round bye as well for the upper section. 

Teams will compete in either bracket they are in, with upper bracket teams who lose moving to the bottom tier and those already in the bottom bracket getting eliminated for good if they lose there. This is only the second Major at this time, so it will be interesting to see how it turns out. 

Before we jump into the full Call of Duty League Stage 2 Major match schedule and our predictions for what happens this week, it is important to go over the league’s current standings. The 2021 season is largely focused on the points that teams earn during the matches. 

Normal matches will give teams 10 points for a win plus some extra points depending on how well they do in the Major. As such, teams must give it their all and do well during this next tournament. Here are the current standings in the league leading into the second Major:

• Atlanta FaZe: 165 points
• Dallas Empire: 130 points
• New York Subliners: 120 points
• OpTic Chicago: 110 points
• LA Thieves: 80
• Minnesota Rokkr: 70
• Los Angeles Guerrillas: 70
• Florida Mutineers: 50
• Toronto Ultra: 50
• Paris Legion: 50
• Seattle Surge: 30
• London Royal Ravens: 20

As you can see, the points are all over the place, but there are some close calls, especially in the second through fourth places and fifth through 10th places, where only a match or two separates some of these teams. We expect the Call of Duty League Stage 2 Major to result in some huge shifts in the leaderboard.  

Also worth keeping an eye on is London Royal Ravens. Though they are in last place, they had had a great stage thus far, getting two wins when they had none before this period. It was enough to give them a one-round goodbye for the Major due to their performance, so we expect some good results from them.

Now it is time for our Call of Duty League Stage 2 Major match schedule and predictions. We will go over the matches that will happen that we know of currently and then deal with what happens later when we get there. These are largely based on my personal opinion, so keep that in mind.

If you disagree, be sure to do the Pick’ Em Challenge for the Major and select how you think the tournament will go down. If you do well, you might earn some points and win some prizes in the process. The first day will kick off on Wednesday with only two matches, and that is it. 

But those two matches will be important as they will be the first of the lower bracket. This means that two teams will be eliminated from the tournament and not earning any prize money for their participation there. 

The Call of Duty League Stage 2 Major’s first match is the LA Thieves vs. Paris Legion. It is pretty sad to see the fifth-placed team here at the bottom of the Major’s bracket, but that is just how far the team has fallen during this last stage. 

On the other hand, Paris Legion is a weird team that will randomly do well but then fails other times. This match comes down to how the roster change with Drazah joining the starting lineup will affect the Thieves. 

I stand by that Drazah should have been on the starting roster from the onset of the season, rather than having Temp, and I hope this is proven here. However, the controversial move of SlasheR to the bench could prove an interesting one as well. Even still, I am predicting that the Thieves will win this one.  

From there, we come to the Florida Mutineers and the Los Angeles Guerrillas. The Guerrillas ended up at the bottom of the bracket this time, but they had a fantastic last couple of matches, whereas Florida has not been doing too hot lately. 

I hope that the wins against the Thieves and even Atlanta FaZe as the only team in the league to do that this season is not a fluke. I have high hopes for the Guerrillas to go decently far this Major, so I’m predicting that they will win against Florida and perhaps even in a dominant fashion. 

This means that I think the bottom two teams out of the Major will be Florida and Paris, who will be eliminated. 

The second day is going to increase the fun with more matches than we had on the first day. It will have a whopping four matches, instead of two, as the next round gets going. The second day is also where we will get the first upper bracket matches, so expect some more intense competition. 

First up is Dallas Empire vs. New York Subliners. This will be a hotly anticipated matchup as we have the two teams with the only current world champions on them facing off against each other. Not to mention, both teams are in some interesting places right now. 

Though Dallas is still in second place, they have shown many flaws and stumbles lately. Meanwhile, New York is likely the best it has ever been. Dallas dominated the Subliners in the past, but I don’t expect it to be so wide of a skill gap this time. I will go out on a limb for the first time for this Major and say that New York will win this match. 

The second one will feature Toronto Ultra and OpTic Chicago. Both teams had their moments in the second stage, but both have stumbled as well. Chicago is improving, though, especially with that turnaround win against Dallas in one of the season’s best matches. 

I could see an upset from Toronto here, but I will give this one to OpTic Chicago, one of the teams to watch in this Major. From there, we come to the next two matches. They are in the second round of the bottom bracket. 

They will feature the first-round winners, taking on those teams who have a one-round goodbye. This is where things start to deviate a bit as my predictions come into play. You may disagree with me, so again, be sure to give your predictions for a chance to win prizes from the league organization. 

Here is where I think that the Seattle Surge will take on the LA Guerrillas, who could win their previous match. The Surge is a strange team, for sure. Definitely not the terrible team they were last year; they have these brief moments of doing well, especially in Stage 2. 

But I think that the LA Guerrillas are just a much better team overall. I think they will win this one, but it might be a close one. The next match will feature the London Royal Ravens taking on the LA Thieves. This is where the Thieves and their roster changes will truly be tested. I think it will be close, but the Thieves will win this one. 

This will result in Seattle Surge and London being eliminated from the event and the top eight being determined who will all get some prize money from the Call of Duty League Stage 2 Major. 

The third day is where the competition will heat up as the top eight teams will be the only ones left in the event. For this day, we will come back to the winners bracket, where the next two matches are hosted here. The winners of the first round will take on the top two teams who had a round bye. 

Based on my predictions, this will mean that Atlanta FaZe will once again face off against OpTic Chicago. This is the first match for FaZe where they will be truly tested after losing to the Guerrillas. Pandora’s Box has been opened, and now anyone can beat Atlanta. 

However, I think that Atlanta is still a much better team in every way when compared to Chicago. I think they will win this one easily, in fact, in a sweep three to nothing. However, the next match is one that I am extremely excited to see: Minnesota Rokkr vs. New York Subliners.

The Subliners have proven most of the time that they are the better team when they meet up with Minnesota. But they have not faced off against Standy, someone who has helped Rokkr be undefeated since he joined the roster. 

I am a fan of both teams, but I ultimately want to see Rokkr win this one. However, realistically, I think that New York will win but in a very close match overall. After the winners’ conclusion, we will then come back to the bottom bracket for some more eliminations. 

The next match will be the Toronto Ultra vs. the LA Guerrillas. I expect this to be a close match and one that could go either way, honestly. As such, I don’t have much to say other than I hope that the Guerrillas will win, and that is my prediction in this potentially close match. 

Next up is Dallas Empire and the LA Thieves. This is an interesting one as we have little information to go on right now about the Thieves will be with the addition of Drazah back into the mix. But I will go out on a limb and say that the Thieves will make a comeback, winning this shocking upset match.

In the end, though, it doesn’t matter who wins the previous match between Dallas and the Thieves, based on my predictions. From there, we come to the fourth day, where we will see the next round of the eliminations bracket, where there will be some exciting matches. 

The first up is Minnesota Rokkr and the LA Guerrillas, based on my predictions. This could go either way, especially if the Guerrillas show up in full force here, but I will say that this close match will go to the Minnesota Rokkr in the end, who will move on to the next round.

After that, we will have the match of OpTic Chicago and the LA Thieves (or Dallas Empire). Earlier, I mentioned that the LA and Dallas match winner doesn’t matter, and I stand by that choice. That is because, either way, I think that OpTic Chicago will win this match and move on, so there isn’t much to say about this one. 

Interestingly enough, the fourth day will feature the two winners in the eliminations bracket matches that day, then immediately go up against one another. In this case, I believe that it will be Minnesota Rokkr and OpTic Chicago. 

We will see the Rokkr do well once more and beat OpTic Chicago but maybe not in the sweep we saw last time. That will conclude the fourth day with only three teams remaining in the Call of Duty League Stage 2 Major as we head into the last day. 

To recap, the final three teams heading into the fifth and final day on Sunday are Atlanta FaZe, New York Subliners, and Minnesota Rokkr. The day will begin with the hotly anticipated winners finals between Atlanta and New York, based on my predictions. 

Again, anything goes with Atlanta now having lost a match. I think it will be close, but I think FaZe will win this one three to two. This will have the FaZe head into the Major’s finals, while New York will head to the bottom bracket. 

The second match of the day will be the eliminations finals, where Minnesota and New York will meet up once more. Again, I think this rematch will be a close one. I could see Minnesota win, but I think New York will bounce back off of their loss to win this close call. 

This will bring back Atlanta FaZe and New York Subliners for the finals match of the Major. This match will be a best of nine where the first team to reach five round wins will be crowned the tournament champion. As such, it is a bit different than the usual match. 

We haven’t seen too many close matches in the few best of nines we have had, but I expect that to be the case. My prediction is that we will see New York Subliners make a comeback and win this close match to be the second major winners. 

But I could also see it go the way of Atlanta FaZe winning once more. The third alternative that I see is Minnesota Rokkr making it here and possibly winning, but I don’t see them beating Atlanta at this time, so I think FaZe would win in that case. No matter what, I think New York has the best chance of winning this tournament if Atlanta doesn’t. 

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Source: https://www.esportstalk.com/blog/call-of-duty-league-stage-2-major-preview-predictions/