OpTic Gaming Wins Finals of North American Stage 1 of the Call of Duty World League (CWL), Presented by PlayStation®4
Australian/New Zealand and European Regional Winners Mindfreak and
Millenium Also Earn Stage 1 Pro Division Titles
SANTA MONICA, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The Call of Duty® World League, Presented by PlayStation®4
Finals of Stage 1 Pro Division concluded this weekend with the best Pro
Division teams in North America earning their share of the more than $3
million prize pool for 2016. In addition to the cash payout, OpTic
Gaming moved closer to securing a qualifying spot at the 2016 Call of
Duty® Championship, Presented by PlayStation®4 this fall. Eager fans in
attendance at ESL Studios in Burbank, online via livestream, and
tuning-in directly through an in-game (Black Ops III PS4) Live Event
Viewer, witnessed the thrilling conclusion to months of rigorous
competition of Stage 1, as the first step toward the year’s grand
competition and piece of the overall $3 million in the year-long prize
pool of the CWL.
“The First Stage of the CWL has featured some great gameplay, close
matches, and some of the best competition that Call of Duty® has ever
seen,” said Rob Kostich, Executive Vice President and General Manager,
Call of Duty. “Call of Duty eSports has a strong foundation dating back
to Call of Duty XP back in 2011, but the CWL has already taken it to new
heights and we can’t wait to continue that growth during the Second
Stage and the Call of Duty Championship this year.”
The top eight North American teams battled over the weekend. After
falling behind OpTic Gaming 3-0, Rise Nation fought back to force a
winner take all game 7, and thousands of Call of Duty fans saw OpTic
Gaming emerge victorious as they were crowned Stage 1 champions in the
first major tournament on the road to the highly-anticipated Call of
Duty Championship this fall.
“We know what we are capable of and that we are the best team in Call of
Duty,” said Seth “Scump” Abner, Captain of OpTic Gaming. “We haven’t
always shown what we can do, so having this win under our belt is good
for the rest of our season.”
Meanwhile, established players and aspiring amateurs alike competed as
top teams from the CWL Challenge Division earned a chance at a spot in
the Pro Division for Stage 2. As part of the Relegation tournament, the
top four Challenge Division teams, Cloud 9, Team Liquid, Cloud 9 Eclipse
and King Papey, faced off against the bottom four Pro Division teams.
Dream Team and H2K Gaming held onto their Pro Division spots while Cloud
9 and King Papey won their matches and will participate in the CWL North
American Pro Division Stage 2 and a chance to qualify for the Call of
Duty Championship.
The North American Stage 1 Finals followed the Australia/New Zealand and
European regional finals last week. All 30 CWL Pro Division teams
competed in multiple week regional seasons prior to each set of finals.
Mindfreak (ANZ) and Millenium (EU) took home the top spot in their
regions and their share of CWL prize pools respectively.
The ANZ region featured a few different key match ups as perennial
favorite Mindfreak beat Team Immunity and Tainted Minds on their way to
being the CWL ANZ Pro Division Stage 1 Champions. New team, Incept, beat
Exile.5 in Relegation for a spot in Stage 2 as Nv, Chiefs eSports Club,
and Apotheon eSports all beat their challengers to remain in the Pro
Division for Stage 2.
The EU region had multiple top teams vying for the Stage 1 prize pool.
Millenium and Splyce met in the finals with Millenium winning the series
handily 4 maps to 1. The road to the finals for each team was very
different with Splyce fighting off top ranked Team Infused and exceL
eSports in back to back 4-3 series wins to make the finals. Millenium,
who had earned the number two seed in the tournament because of their
success during the 18 match season, only had to beat Epsilon eSports in
a 4-1 series to reach the finals, thanks to a first round bye. Similar
to the ANZ region, one team was replaced in Relegation. French team,
PuLse Gaming was beaten by UK team Exertus 4 maps to 1. Vitality, Team
LDLC, and Giants Gaming all beat their opponents to continue in Stage 2
of the CWL Pro Division.
Here are the final rankings for each CWL Stage 1 Pro Division region:
North America
1st OpTic Gaming
- Seth “Scump” Abner
- Ian “Crimsix” Porter
- Matthew “Formal” Piper
- Damon “Karma” Barlow
2nd Rise Nation
3rd – 4th Faze Clan/Team Elevate
5th – 8th compLexity Gaming/Luminosity Gaming/Team
EnVyUs/Team SoloMid
Europe
1st Millenium
- Callum “Swanny” Swan
- Jordan “Jurd” Crowley
- Thomas “Tommey” Trewen
- Dylan “MadCat” Daly
2nd Splyce
3rd – 4th Epsilon eSports/Team Infused
5th – 6th exceL eSports/TCM Gaming
Australia/New Zealand
1st Mindfreak
- Mitchell “Buzzo” Mader
- Denholm “Denz” Taylor
- Lincoln “Fighta” Ferguson
- Conrad “Shockz” Rymarek
2nd Tainted Minds
3rd – 4th Orbit/Team Immunity
As always, you can re-live the Stage 1 action on the Call of Duty
YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/user/CALLOFDUTY/videos.
Be sure to check out https://www.callofduty.com/esports
and follow @CODWorldLeague on Twitter,
Instagram,
and Twitch
for the latest CWL updates.
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