Struggling Minnesota ROKKR drop MajorManiak from CDL starting lineup

The Minnesota ROKKR are shuffling around their roster a bit following their recent struggles in the Call of Duty League. MajorManiak has been dropped from the starting lineup in favor of Challengers player Standy.

There’s no denying that ROKKR have been one of the more underachieving sides in the 2021 CDL season, especially following a pair of sweeps in the Toronto Home Series. In an attempt to address those issues, the team has opted to sign amateur player Standy from the Challengers division.

Standy will slot into the starting lineup in place of MajorManiak, who has been demoted to the bench for the time being. With Standy primarily being an SMG player, the team has opted to make Priestahh the second Assault Rifle player alongside Accuracy, which in turn left MajorManiak as the odd man out.

“This was an incredibly hard decision for us to take,” said ROKKR head coach Brian ‘Saintt’ Baroska. “The overall consensus was that Preston does need to be on that second AR role, where he feels most comfortable.

“And then it was a matter of ‘do we put Mike on the second SMG where he’s super uncomfortable, or do we bring in one of these young and upcoming players from the Challengers scene?’ And it just so happened that we were already in the process of bringing Standy on as a sub, and he just fit that role perfectly for us.”

Minnesota ROKKR CDL Stage 2 starting lineup:

• Lamar ‘Accuracy’ Abedi
• Dillon ‘Attach’ Price
• Preston ‘Priestahh’ Greiner
• Eli ‘Standy’ Bentz

The 2021 season has not gone the way that ROKKR envisioned when they overhauled their entire roster from last season and brought in four high-caliber players. They failed to qualify for the Stage 1 Major winners bracket, leading to a second-round elimination to Toronto Ultra and a 9th-10th placement.

Their start to Stage 2 has been even worse; they were swept in both of their Toronto Home Series matches at the hands of Paris Legion and Florida Mutineers, two teams that most would consider them favorites against.

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They’ll hope that this roster shuffle, and bringing on a rookie like Standy, will lead to a massive turnaround for this team. He spent most of the last calendar year playing for Triumph, who recently the Challengers season’s ninth North American Cup.

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Standy will be making his ROKKR debut during Week 2 of Stage 2, which kicks off on Thursday, March 25. It’ll be baptism by fire for the rookie, however, as Minnesota kicks off the week with a match against OpTic Chicago on Thursday followed by Dallas Empire on Sunday.

Two more losses would almost ensure that ROKKR start the Stage 2 Major in the first round of the losers bracket, but even just one victory against either of those two opponents would be a massive positive sign for the team.

You can keep track of all the roster changes and player signings with our CDL 2021 Rostermania hub.