New York Subliners win 2023 Call of Duty League Major I -- Raleigh

December 19, 2022

by Brian Bencomo

The first Major of the 2023 Call of Duty League is in the books, and it isn’t even 2023 yet. That’s because this year’s CDL season started earlier than usual, on the heels of Modern Warfare II’s release in November. The New York Subliners beat out the competition at Major 1 despite starting 0-2 during qualifiers a couple weeks ago. A lot can and will change throughout the season with four more Majors and the Call of Duty League Championship still to be played in 2023. For now though, here’s where things stand in the Call of Duty League heading into the holiday break.

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“I proved Crimsix wrong” -- HyDra

Ian “Crimsix” Porter is the greatest Call of Duty player of all time, but the New York Subliners seem to be doing just fine without him after the first Major of the CDL 2023 season. After an offseason in which Crimsix left the Subliners because he retired, the team has emerged as the best in the league, at least for now. Their young French player Paco "HyDra" Rusiewiez didn’t mince any words in a postgame interview after the Subliners’ win claiming he had proved Crimsix wrong. For context, there was offseason drama about the team’s roster construction for the 2023 season, and there was bad blood between the two stemming from a comment Crimsix made about Algeria (HyDra is of Algerian descent).

But it’s not all about HyDra, who finished fourth at the Major with a 1.15 K/D. This is a very different Subliners team from last season, with Cesar "Skyz" Bueno and Preston "Priestahh" Greiner joining Hydra and Matthew "KiSMET" Tinsley in the offseason. Skyz has been a star with the Florida Mutineers the past few years, and Priestahh has been a solid contributor on some very good teams in recent years, including 100 Thieves, Atlanta Faze and Minnesota ROKKR. Skyz led all players at the Major with a K/D of 1.23, and Priestahh was tied for sixth at 1.11. In a postmatch press conference, Skyz said the “coaches unlocked me” and have helped take him to the next level. The Subliners’ coaches this season are Ehsan "DREAL" Javed and Troy "Sender" Michaels, who had been with OpTic the past couple seasons.

Seattle Surge open season strong

The Seattle Surge are one of only three teams in the offseason that didn’t make any roster changes -- and for good reason. They had a strong 2022 season, finishing third at Champs 2022, winning Major 4 and placing second at the Kickoff Classic. In the Major 1 playoff bracket, Seattle beat the LA Thieves, New York Subliners and Atlanta Faze en route to the grand final where they lost a rematch to New York. After finishing Major 1 in second place, keeping Lamar "Accuracy" Abedi, Makenzie "Mack" Kelley, Daunte "Sib" Gray and Amer "Pred" Zulbeari together seems like a good decision. Pred, the reigning CDL Rookie of the Year, was third among all players at Major 1 with a K/D of 1.17.

Atlanta FaZe still elite, but fall short again

The Atlanta FaZe have been elite since the Call of Duty League’s inaugural season in 2020, being the top regular season team each of the last few years and winning Champs 2021. Atlanta have started off the 2023 season in similar fashion as they finished third at Major 1. Reigning CDL 2022 MVP McArthur "Cellium" Jovel was second among all players at Major 1 with a 1.21 K/D. The core of Cellium, Chris "Simp" Lehr and Tyler "aBeZy" Pharris is still the best in the league, but after nothing but second-place finishes in 2022, FaZe have been missing a signature win since Champs 2021. Their highlight this weekend was pulling off one of the biggest hardpoint map comebacks you will ever see in Map 4 against Seattle in the Major 1 winner’s final. It pushed the series to a decisive Map 5 S&D, which Seattle ultimately won.

New life for Clayster and the Legion

The Paris Legion were by far the worst team in the league last season and have been the worst franchise since the Call of Duty League kicked off in 2020. With a new location (Vegas) and one of the greatest COD players of all time (James “Clayster” Eubanks) on the roster, things are looking up for the Legion. The Vegas Legion overperformed expectations from analysts to finish top six at Major 1. Vegas’ signature win this weekend was over a very good Minnesota ROKKR team in the lower bracket first round of the playoffs. The Legion won both Search & Destroy maps, in what has proven to be the team’s strength so far this year. Vegas are 10-5 on S&D maps -- the best in the league so far.

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Clayster, a player who was benched and then dropped by the New York Subliners last season and who is only a few years removed from winning Champs, was all smiles throughout the weekend and looks rejuvenated. A lot of the chatter heading into the season has been about all-time great Seth “Scump” Abner’s “last dance” as he has announced he will retire following the season. But Clayster is another veteran who is looking to finish strong before riding off into the sunset.

“It wasn’t a good offseason for me at all. So to come back out here and perform for you guys on stage, you guys at home, it means a lot, so thank you guys,” Clayster said in a postmatch onstage interview.

“I want to go out with a bang, not a whimper. I couldn’t take being benched and then just ending my career. So I’m glad I’m back, I’m fighting -- I’m just happy to be here.”

What’s wrong with OpTic?

You can’t overlook OpTic Texas’ poor performance at Major 1. There’s always a lot of hype around OpTic due to their star-studded roster and popularity. This year is no different, with OpTic coming off a fourth-place finish at Champs 2022 and it being Scump’s last season. Like the LA Thieves and Seattle Surge, OpTic didn’t make any changes in the offseason. Unlike these squads, OpTic finished outside the top eight at Major 1. They’ve been solid on Hardpoints but less than stellar on S&D and Control maps.

Things might have ended up differently for OpTic had it not been for their 3-2 loss to the Florida Mutineers in their group elimination match. They had beaten Florida twice this season, once in qualifiers and once in group play at the Major. Maybe you can chalk it up to Florida’s familiarity with OpTic finally paying dividends. Maybe it comes down to strategy. Coach Raymond "Rambo" Lussier the team out for “left stick mistakes” after the team was eliminated. Whatever it is, from their controversial match forfeit against Minnesota during qualifiers to their early exit at the Major, it’s been a bad start for OpTic so far.

CDL Major 1 viewership is good, but not great

Esports Charts revealed that viewership for Major 1 peaked at just over 159,000. That’s slightly higher than the peak of just over 157,000 at last season’s Major 1. However, it’s down from the peak of 184,000 during Major 1 qualifiers. That peak of nearly 200K is high for online qualifying matches, and before the Major it seemed to be a good sign that the CDL’s streaming platform switch from Youtube to Twitch was a good move. Now it seems that the higher peak was maybe due to more hype about the league’s earlier start date. Usually, offline LAN tournaments bring in more viewers than online qualifiers, so the drop should be a bit concerning for the league. However, the average viewership was way up at this season’s Major 1 compared to last season -- 112,000 vs. 70,000 -- so that’s a very good sign for the league. The average viewership was up slightly from the 107,000 average during qualifiers too.

Team popularity is a big factor when it comes to viewership. Once again the most viewed matchups during the Major were OpTic matches. And the highest during qualifiers was, unsurprisingly, also for an OpTic match. In a strange coincidence, these OpTic matches were all against the Florida Mutineers. If OpTic had been in the Major 1 final, there’s a strong possibility viewership would have peaked at over 200,000. Instead, the final between the New York Subliners and Seattle Surge peaked at nearly 152,000.

Lead photo courtesy of the Call of Duty League and all stats via BreakingPoint.gg.