NA CoD World League - Stage 1 Final Summary • Call of Duty Betting

It’s been a long, 11-week season for the teams of the North American CoD World League. We’ve seen 12 teams battle in 22 matches for $250,000, and it all lead up to this week’s Stage 1 final event in California.

The opening round saw the top 8 teams battle it out in a single elimination, best of 7 series. FaZe Clan took a quick 4-0 victory over an increasingly unsteady CompLexity, while Rise Nation swept side Luminosity Gaming in a quick 4-1 series. Team EnVyUs also struggled in the opening round, only picking up 2 maps against eLevate, who took the series 4-2. The undoubted highlight of round 1 was the matchup between heavyweights OpTic Gaming, and 8th place Team SoloMid. To say that OpTic looked shaky would be a gross understatement. The fan favourites looked uncomfortably close to being sent home, but they just snatched the win away from TSM, going 4-3 in the series.

Moving into the semi-finals, the tournament certainly stepped up a gear. First, FaZe Clan (who took an easy 4-0 victory the day before) faced off against Rise Nation. Coming into the series, Clayster made it quite well known he was sick and things only got worse from there for the Red Militia. After putting up a good fight in early games, FaZe fell 4-0 to Rise, who moved on to the grand final match. Next, OpTic Gaming faced off against Team eLevate, who were hot off a 4-2 win to Team EnVyUs the day before and exuding confidence from the second they stepped on stage. To everyone’s surprise, OpTic swept the series in a very convincing 4-0 fashion, setting up the grand final match versus Rise Nation.

As the grand final started, OpTic Gaming were in full swing. They took Stronghold Hardpoint 250-201, Breach SnD 6-2 and Fringe Uplink 14-2, all in dominant fashion. It seemed all but over for Rise when, as if from no where, they took the next 3 rounds to tie up the series. Game 7 was Infection SnD. Both teams fought tooth and nail throughout, taking the map all the way to a round 11, where OpTic Gaming just picked up the win thanks in part to round ending 2-piece from Karma.

It seemed only fitting that a great season of Call of Duty would be rounded up in such exciting fashion. Stage 2 kicks off in just under 2 weeks time, with a host of new faces and organisations. Here’s hoping for another great season of CoD.