Call of Duty League 2023 pre-season predictions: Champs, MVP, roster changes & more

With the 2023 Call of Duty League season fast approaching, it’s time to predict who will be the biggest winners of the Modern Warfare 2 year, including the eventual world champions, MVP, and the Rookie of the Year.

2023 will mark the fourth season of the franchised Call of Duty League, following a decade of growth from grassroots competition to international tournaments with hundreds of thousands of viewers.

With that, top pros have become stars of the gaming world, with the likes of OpTic Texas star Seth ‘Scump’ Abner being a household name among CoD players, and his fellow pro players earning salaries that many young gamers could only dream of.

So, what can we expect from the upcoming Call of Duty League season? Who’s making team changes? Who’s etching their names in as champions? Which players will stand out ahead of the rest?

2023 CDL Champions: Atlanta FaZe

Once again, for the third season in a row, I’m predicting Atlanta FaZe to become world champions.

The players individually, and collectively, are among the best in the game’s history. With the acquisition of Austin ‘SlasheR’ Liddicoat as main AR, replacing Alec ‘Arcitys’ Sanderson, they’ve pulled in a proven veteran whose performances haven’t let up despite worse team performances in recent years.

I don’t expect them to blow out the league as they did in Cold War — it will be much tighter — but it’s hard to look past FaZe as CDL Champions this coming year.

CDL Major winners: OpTic Texas, Atlanta FaZe, Minnesota Røkkr, Seattle Surge

This is a hard one to pick, with five Majors being played and 12 teams that could all arguably compete or cause some upsets.

I don’t expect there to be one dominant team, like FaZe in Cold War, with more of a mixture of winners as happened in Vanguard.

I believe Atlanta FaZe and OpTic Texas will win at least one each, but looking at the rosters, I think there’s a good chance of teams like Minnesota Røkkr and Seattle Surge proving their value in the league, too — though perhaps not as they are now (more on that later). This would be dependent on individual players catching fire, though, rather than the simple expectation of victory from FaZe and OpTic.

The only glaring omission from this list is 2022 world champions LA Thieves. I have no doubt they’re going to be a strong team again, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see them winning Majors, but as proven in Vanguard with FaZe, the teams you expect to win won’t always necessarily do so.

2023 CDL MVP: Chris ‘Simp’ Lehr

Alongside his team’s world championship victory, I’m expecting to see Simp top the MVP conversation once again.

There are very few SMG players capable of standing to Simp 1 on 1, and as we’ve seen from the likes of him, Scump, and Amer ‘Pred’ Zulbeari over different iterations of CoD, a good SMG can really bring a team from good to great.

If Simp lives up to expectations and plays as well throughout the year as he has in the early days of MW2, we could be looking at another dominant MVP season from Simp.

CDL 2023 Rookie of the Year: Thomas ‘Scrappy’ Ernst

This is a difficult one to choose, as there are only two true rookies in the CDL this year: Scrappy and Javier ‘Vikul’ Milagro. Even then, Scrappy did play a match for Toronto Ultra last season, so he’s got a slight leg up against pro competition.

I’ve gone with Scrappy because his abilities as a flex are clearly in competition with the very best players in the game, but I expect firm competition from other players such as Elliot ‘WarDy’ Ward and Ben ‘Beans’ McMellon, who I believe will get the chance to prove themselves this year. If he does get in and gets enough time, I expect Beans especially to challenge for this accolade.

Roster moves: Boston Breach, New York Subliners, Seattle Surge

While there may well be more teams making roster moves in 2023, these are the sides I don’t expect to last the full season.

There were rumors of Anthony ‘Methodz’ Zinni being in the firing line for Boston pre-season, and with Beans as their substitute, there’s huge potential waiting to be unleashed.

Similarly, WarDy is an insanely talented player on the Subliners bench, and should Paco ‘HyDra’ Rusiewiez want another sub duo to replace Matthew ‘KiSMET’ Tinsley, this could be a straight swap. Both WarDy and Beans alike have starting roster potential (and had starting spot offers before signing for their respective sides), and teams may regret not letting them start if things go wrong.

Finally, Seattle have insane players in Daunte ‘Sib’ Gray and Pred, but there were rumors that they were exploring their options for a new assault rifle player in the offseason. Lamar ‘Accuracy’ Abedi’s leadership qualities are highly regarded, but if the results aren’t there, some tough decisions could be made in the Seattle camp, and it’ll be either him or Makenzie ‘Mack’ Kelley as the names on the chopping block.

All in all, we’re bound to have a good season of CDL action, regardless of whether you’re a huge Modern Warfare 2 fan or not.

There’s a lot on the line for these 12 teams, and if previous years have proven anything, we should definitely expect the unexpected.