CDL Coaches Poll: Pro AM Classic

Welcome back to the CDL Coaches Poll brought to you by Breaking Point. We have again reached out to all 12 CDL coaching staffs around the league to get their thoughts on the current team Power Rankings. We will continue to conduct these polls before and after each major tournament this season. Each coach ranks the opposing teams 1st through 11th, without putting their own team into the rankings. After collecting the rankings from all 12 franchises, each team would be given points for each vote, as seen below:

1. 11 points
2. 10 points
3. 9 points
4. 8 points
5. 7 points
6. 6 points
7. 5 points
8. 4 points
9. 3 points
10. 2 points
11. 1 points

Disclaimer: We were unable to get Rambo or Sender to complete the coaches poll. We had a caster fill the role of “OpTic Coach” in order to complete the poll. For the Pre-Major 3 Coaches Poll we will again try our best to get one of the OpTic coaches.

We’re FINALLY back 

The CDL had a month long break mid-season in the schedule after the conclusion of Major 2. This left us with no competitive Call of Duty for 4 weeks while we patiently waited for the Pro AM Classic. The Pro AM will be the first 16-team tournament during the CDL era and a major test for how a 16-team tournament will look under franchising. It will also be the first tournament since Call of Duty Championships 2019 where we get to watch amateur teams face off against professionals. It will surely be one of the best tournaments of the season, even with the imperfect format.

The four amateur teams joining the 12 franchise teams are Toronto Ultra Academy NA (Hicksy, MohaK, Scrappy, Vikul), Toronto Ultra Academy EU (Beans, Furiious, Vortex, Rafi), Team WaR (Denza, Maple, Wardy, Weeman) and Strike X (Gunsii, Fire, Ramby, SiLLY). While it will be a tall task for the amatuer teams to make it out of group play, we will most likely see a handful of upsets to start the tournament.

We asked the coaches who from each group are most likely to make it out of each group and this is what they voted on:

Group A
Atlanta FaZe: 12 (100%)
Seattle Surge: 11 (91.7%)
Toronto Ultra: 1 (9.1%)
Strike X: 0 (0%)

Group B
Florida Mutineers: 11 (100%)
OpTic Texas: 10 (90.9%)
Minnesota Rokkr: 2 (16.7%)
Toronto Academy EU: 1 (8.3%)

Group C
London Royal Ravens: 9 (75%)
LA Thieves: 7 (58.3%)
New York Subliners: 4 (33.3%)
Team WaR: 4 (33.3%)

Group D
Boston Breach: 10 (90.9%)
LA Guerrillas: 10 (90.9%)
Paris Legion: 1 (8.3%)
Toronto Academy NA: 3 (25%)

The CDL Coaches Power Ranking

1st: Atlanta FaZe

Total Points Received – 121

Previous Ranking – 2nd (1)

Atlanta FaZe are back into the number 1 spot after losing the top spot to OpTic Texas. McArthur “Cellium” Jovel continued his MVP-caliber season during Stage 2, finishing with a 1.19 overall KD. He was a monster in Hardpoint, ending the stage with a 1.28 KD in the mode and 148.96 damage per life. Atlanta as a team was terrific in Hardpoint, having a league best 11-4 record during Stage 2. They’ll look to find their first Championship of the season at the Pro AM Classic.

2nd: OpTic Texas

Total Points Received – 109

Previous Ranking – 1st (1)

OpTic had a slight dip into 2nd place in the newest Coaches Poll, mostly due to the unexpected early departure at Major 2. After winning Major 1, OpTic finished Top 6 at Major 2 after losing to Seattle Surge and Florida Mutineers. This shouldn’t be cause for overreaction, as the team is still loaded on talent and great across all three modes. Anthony “Shotzzy” Cuevas-Castro has rocketed up the MVP ladder after finishing Stage 2 with a 1.13 overall KD and leading the league with a 92.05 slayer rating. Even with Indervir “iLLeY” Dhaliwal out of the Pro AM Classic due to injury, OpTic will still be one of the favorites to win the tournament.

3rd: Los Angeles Guerrillas

Total Points Received – 93

Previous Ranking – 8th (5)

The LA Guerrillas had one of the greatest, if not thee greatest, Lower Bracket run in Call of Duty history. After starting in Round 1 of the Lower Bracket, they ran through every single team to win the tournament and set the record for most SnD maps won in a row. With that we see the Guerrillas go from 8th to 3rd in the rankings, the biggest rise of the week (5 spots). With Kris “Spart” Cervantez remaining in the roster for the foreseeable future, we’ll see how much higher this squad can rise. They will surely be one of the favorites to go back-to-back and win the Pro AM Classic.

4th: Boston Breach

Total Points Received – 84

Previous Ranking – 4th ()

The Boston Breach remain at the 4th spot in this iteration of the Coaches Poll. The Breach had a great run at Major 2, finishing in 3rd place and had a very good chance to even make a Finals appearance. Main AR Anthony “Methodz” Zinni had a terrific Stage 2, finishing with a league high 1.33 overall KD while having a gamemode KD slash line of 1.33 HP/1.43 SnD/1.29 CTL. He was a beast in all three modes and was the clear MVP of the team. The team was also one of the few teams to have a winning record in all three gamemodes, including a 9-5 Hardpoint record and 7-5 SnD record. They will continue to be a darkhorse to make deep runs at tournaments. 

5th: Seattle Surge

Total Points Received – 83

Previous Ranking – 6th (1)

Seattle had one of the best runs at Major 2, only to be derailed due to sickness. It was the best we’ve seen the Surge this season, beating OpTic 3-0 and playing FaZe & Guerrillas very hard to game 5 losses. If they can continue to build off of this momentum, 3rd place in the rankings could be wide open for the taking. Daunte “Sib” Gray had another terrific stage, finishing with a 1.08 overall KD and 88.08 slayer rating. SMG player Makenzie “Mack” Kelley also had a breakout stage, finishing with a 1.13 KD in Hardpoint and a league high 27.2 kills per 10 minutes in the mode. Now back at full strength, this is a prime tournament for them to take.

6th: Florida Mutineers

Total Points Received – 69

Previous Ranking – 9th (3)

Here comes the Florida Mutineers. After being subject to consistency issues, the Mutineers truly do look like a midfield threat to win tournaments. During Major 2, they took down the London Royal Ravens 3-0, OpTic Texas 3-1 and took both Boston & LAG to map 5s. Will more work on their map pool (a winning record in only 3 maps) they will become more of a threat to top teams, but no one can doubt the talent on the roster. Rookie David “Davpadie” Maslowski continues to impress on the Main AR, while Joseph “Owakening” Conley has been one of the top slaying SMGs in the league. The Pro AM Classic will be a great test to see how their map pool is currently looking.

7th: London Royal Ravens

Total Points Received – 67

Previous Ranking – 3rd (4)

It hasn’t been an easy couple of weeks for the London Royal Ravens. They finished Top 8 at Major 2 after championship contending expectations going into the tournament. Just before the Pro AM Classic it was announced that Joey “Gismo” Owen will be taking a step back from the starting roster to take time to focus on his mental health. Filling his shoes is another rookie, Harry “Harry” Payne. This will put a lot of pressure on the core 3 to perform at a high level to achieve good results until the team is clicking again. There is no doubt though, that this team is loaded with talent and could be a top team again even at the Pro AM.

8th: Los Angeles Thieves

Total Points Received – 44

Previous Ranking – 11th (3)

The LA Thieves have cracked back into the Top 8 after falling to 11th last edition. The Thieves are one the biggest mysteries in the CDL, stacked with talent but have completely lost the form they had to start the season. The newest switch is with the roles. Zack “Drazah” Jordan will be going to the Flex position, while Kenneth “Kenny” Williams will be one of the SMGs. It’s certainly an interesting switch, as we haven’t truly seen Kenny back on the SMG for an extended period of time since World War II. As the only team in the league to have all 4 players have a negative overall KD in Stage 2, they must improve their slaying to find some success at the Pro AM Classic. 

9th: Toronto Ultra

Total Points Received – 43

Previous Ranking – 7th (2)

Another week of Toronto falling in the Coaches Poll. After winning the Kickoff Classic and topping the rankings just after, the Ultra have been sliding all the way down to 9th. Their biggest issue is Hardpoint, as they finished Stage 2 with a 2-10 record in the mode. The team was outslayed by 142 kills in those 12 maps or by 11.83 kills per map. They have the third worst Hold percentage (70.0%) and third worst Break percentage (21.2%) as well. They will need either Tobias “CleanX” Juul Jønsson or Cameron “Cammy” McKilligan to regain their star form if they wish to start netting solid results.

10th: New York Subliners 

Total Points Received – 34

Previous Ranking – 5th (5)

The New York Subliners have had a season to forget so far, but did have some positive signs of life in Stage 2. They went on a three series win streak by taking down Toronto, Minnesota, and Paris but stumbled to just a Top 12 placing at the Major. The go into the Pro AM Classic with yet another roster change, with Matthew “KiSMET” Tinsley joining the roster as the new SMG player. They will need to crack the code in both SnD and Control. In SnD, they finished Stage 2 with a 3-5 record in the mode but only had wins on 2 of the 4 maps in the pool. They also struggled in Control, having a 1-2 record on Gavutu and 1-3 on Tuscan. 

11th: Minnesota RØKKR 

Total Points Received – 30

Previous Ranking – 11th (1)

The Minnesota Rokkr have now hit their lowest point of the season. They are ranking 11th after a very disappointing result at their own Major. The team certainly had a tough draw, but the 1-3 loss to OpTic Texas had them place Top 12. They then made the decision to bench Michael “Major Maniak” Szymaniak and bring in Colt “Havok” McLendon as a new SMG. Havok has been arguably the best SMG in the Challengers circuit, so the move to bring him in makes a lot of sense. If the team meshes well and improves on their 2-9 Hardpoint record in Stage 2, they could rise up in the rankings.

12th: Paris Legion

Total Points Received – 15

Previous Ranking – 12th ()

In the six Coaches Polls that we have conducted this season, the Paris Legion have found themselves at the bottom in five. They have shown signs of life with this current iteration of the roster, but still have a losing record in all three game modes. Donovan “Temp” Laroda finished Stage 2 with a 1.16 overall KD and 88.83 slayer rating, but it hasn’t translated into team success. The biggest battle for the Legion this weekend is beating amateur team Toronto Academy NA in their pool play match.