The 2023 Call of Duty League esports season is now entering its final phase, with the league championship postseason tournament set to begin on Thursday.
The four playoff matchups are set: Atlanta FaZe (No. 1 seed) vs. Seattle Surge (8), OpTic Texas (2) vs. Boston Breach (7), New York Subliners (3) vs. Minnesota RØKKR (6) and the Toronto Ultra (4) vs. the Los Angeles Thieves (5).
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Previewing The Postseason: Surging FaZe Are The Team To Beat
The 2023 Call of Duty League Championship will be held from June 15 to 18 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Dallas Empire (now OpTic Texas) won the first ever league championship back in 2020, defeating Atlanta in the finals.
A year later, the FaZe redeemed themselves and took down the Ultra in the finals. Last year, Los Angeles thwarted Atlanta’s bid at a repeat as well as their hope of becoming the first team to win multiple COD League championships.
Not only have the FaZe appeared in all three championship showdowns in the league’s young history, but they finished first place in the regular season standings with 385 points. OpTic Texas and New York were distant second and third-place finishers, respectively, with 320 points apiece.
The FaZe met New York in the finals of the Toronto Ultra Major V, the last tournament before the postseason. The Subliners won a thrilling back-and-forth showdown 4-3, taking the decisive contest — a search and destroy game on the Mercado Las Almas map — by a final score of 6-3.
Paco Rusiewiez (username “Hydra”) and Matthew Tinsley (“Kismet”) led the way in the finals with 130 and 124 kills, respectively. It was a tough loss for the FaZe, no doubt, but their experience and postseason success cannot be overlooked.
New York would pose an ultra-difficult matchup in the playoffs, but the FaZe oughta be considered the team to beat in this year’s championship tournament. There’s a reason the FaZe finished well ahead of everybody else in the regular season standings, after all.
Previewing Boston Breach vs. OpTic Texas
The Breach’s bid for the franchise’s first league championship will begin with an opening round showdown against OpTic Texas. As this is a bracket format, the winner of Boston vs. OpTic Texas will face the victor of New York vs. Minnesota.
At the other end of the bracket, the victor of Atlanta vs. Seattle will get the winner of Toronto vs. Los Angeles. If Boston were to upset OpTic Texas, and if the FaZe were to emerge victorious, the Breach would have the fortunes of avoiding the top seed in round two.
The current Boston Breach roster features Ben McMellon (“Beans”), Kyle Haworth (“Kremp”), Dylan Koch (“Nero”), Joseph Conley (“Owakening”), Reece Drost (“Vivid”) and Zach Denyer (“Zed”).
Boston finished the 2023 Call of Duty League season with 190 points, garnering 18 match wins against 20 match losses. However, they finished above .500 in the games won/loss department, going 80-75 there for a game winning percentage of 51.6.
The Breach and OpTic Texas met in round four of the OpTic Texas Major III back on Mar. 12, with the host city winning that showdown 3-1. Toronto went on to defeat OpTic Texas 4-2 in the tournament final.
In round one of Major IV, OpTic Texas soundly defeated the Breach by a final score of 3-1. Los Angeles went on to defeat OpTic Texas in the tournament finals.
Suffice to say, the Breach are a giant underdog for this matchup with OpTic Texas. It’s not just because of the major gap in the regular season standings, but the fact that OpTic Texas a) has Boston’s number and b) have enjoyed far more tournament success up to this point.
The Breach face a long, long road to championship glory. But a win over OpTic Texas this week would go a long way in securing their confidence the rest of the way.
