CDL New York Day 1 recap: Huntsmen & Subliners roll, new meta on display

The first day of action at the Call of Duty League’s New York Home Series has come to a close, setting the table for should be an exciting weekend portion of the tournament.

Four matches took place on Day 1 of CDL New York, and while no one was at risk of getting knocked out, the results determined the situation each team will be in heading into the knockout phase of the tournament.

Toronto Ultra, Chicago Huntsmen, Atlanta FaZe, and New York Subliners all came out victors, which means they’ll already be vying for a semifinal spot when Day 2 kicks off. As for Paris Legion, London Royal Ravens, LA Guerrillas, and Minnesota ROKKR, it’ll be elimination on the line come first thing on Saturday.

Group A

Toronto Ultra 3-1 Paris Legion

The bottom has fallen out for the Legion, who, after their surprisingly strong to the season, came in having lost a CDL-record eight matches in a row. Add one more to that tally, as the Ultra, continued their recently improved run of form with a much-needed 3-1 victory.

The series started tight; Toronto won the Gun Runner Hardpoint 250-189 but Paris answered back with a 6-3 win on St. Petrograd Search & Destroy. However, that was the end of the Europeans’ success, as Ultra took the St. Petrograd Domination 157-147 and Hackney Yard HP 250-237  to advance to the Group A winners final tomorrow.

Atlanta FaZe 3-1 Los Angeles Guerrillas

Despite this being a heavily one-sided match between the first-place and last-place teams in the standings, there was a lot of extra attention paid to the clash coming in.

FaZe had been involved with the recent Gentlemen’s Agreement (GA) controversy, which had fans thinking that Guerrillas might use restricted weapons/equipment against them. Unfortunately for those who don’t like drama, that ended up not being the case, as both sides featured the standard M4/MP5 setup.

This, of course, favored FaZe, who happily won all of the respawn maps – Gun Runner HP (210-150), Hackney Yard Domination (168-150), and Hackney Yard HP (250-200) – sandwiched around LA’s 6-3 win on Gun Runner S&D.

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Atlanta improved to 22-4 on the season, maintaining their still-perfect record in group play, while Guerrillas suffered their 14th loss as they look more and more certain to be one of the lowest seeds going into the Championship.

Group B

Chicago Huntsmen 3-1 London Royal Ravens

A rematch of the CDL Seattle Grand Final featured an identical result, as Huntsmen improved to 3-0 vs their British counterparts with their third 3-1 victory over them this season.

It didn’t look like things were going to go the favor of Chicago early on, as London won the Gun Runner Hardpoint 250-201, but three straight maps from the boys in green took care of business: 6-2 on Piccadilly S&D, 164-149 on St. Petrograd Domination, and 250-210 on Hackney Yard HP.

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It was an important victory for Huntsmen, who failed to make it out of group play for the first time this season at their previous event. The team played with a lot more balance, which star man FormaL explained was due to the new CDL meta that allowed them to play with multiple M4’s at the same time.

New York Subliners 3-1 Minnesota ROKKR

After consistently holding a top-four spot for most of the season, both in terms of standings and power rankings, the ROKKR have been slipping as of late, and Subliners became the latest team to pile on to their miseries.

Wins on Gun Runner Hardpoint (250-144) and St. Petrograd S&D (6-3) gave the hosts a commanding 2-0 lead before Minnesota answered with a clutch 159-144 victory on Hackney Yard Domination.

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However, thanks to some stellar plays from ZooMaa, any hopes of a reverse-sweep were dashed quickly when New York dominated their favorite map, Rammaza, winning the HP 250-157, handing their opponents a fifth straight loss and eighth out of their last 10.

Looking ahead to Day 2 of CDL New York

As always, Saturday will be very pivotal at the New York Home Series as four of the eight teams will be eliminated before everything is said and done.

In Group A, Atlanta FaZe will be heavily-favored to beat Toronto Ultra and make their seventh straight semifinal appearance, while the lower bracket will kick off with a bottom-of-the-barrel clash between Paris Legion and LA Guerrillas.

On the flip side, Chicago Huntsmen and New York Subliners will face off to determine who wins Group B, followed by a juicy knockout clash between London Royal Ravens and Minnesota ROKKR in the first elimination match.

Day 2 Schedule

Group A Bracket

Group B Bracket

Remember, you can watch these matches live and keep up with all of the Call of Duty League action via our CDL New York Home Series hub, which includes streams, updated scores, brackets, and more.