Top 20 Players of MW2: #12 Skyz

The #12 player of the Modern Warfare 2 season brought to you by Thunder Pick is the newly crowned World Champion, Cesar “Skyz” Bueno. After three seasons with the Mutineers, Skyz achieved a great amount of success with the New York Subliners, including winning the World Championship.

Skyz broke into the scene right before the beginning of the Call of Duty League and joined the Florida Mutineers to begin franchising. He stayed with the organization for three seasons, winning multiple tournaments during Modern Warfare. Skyz would depart after a lackluster Vanguard year and would join the New York Subliners in search of winning championship yet again. The role that Skyz played for the Subliners was crucial, as it allowed his three teammates to take risks on the map knowing that Skyz would be there in the back to close plays out. Without his play across all three game modes during Modern Warfare 2, New York would not have hit as many highs during the year as the team accomplished.

Season Review

After spending 3 years with the Florida Mutineers, Skyz signed with the New York Subliners going into Modern Warfare 2. Cesar joined the Vanguard SMG duo Paco “HyDra” Rusiewiez & Matthew “KiSMET” Tinsley, while World Champion Preston “Priestahh” Greiner joined the team in the flex position. With reliable play from the backline, the team had immense potential with the impact that both HyDra & KiSMET showed at the tail-end of the Vanguard year. It would be a major change for Skyz, but the team went into the season as a darkhorse contender and expected to be a well-rounded squad.

To start off the year, New York would play terrific at the Pro-AM Classic. After going 2-2 in the qualifiers for the event, the Subliners defeated both LAG & Minnesota to make it to the bracket stage. The Subliners would fall to Seattle in Round 2 of the Upper Bracket but would win three matches in a row against Las Vegas, Toronto, and Atlanta to make the Finals. New York would get revenge, taking down the Surge to win their first of many tournaments in 2023. This would be Skyz's best stage of the season, finishing with a 1.15 overall KD. He added in a 1.17 KD in Hardpoint, 1.06 in SnD, and 1.16 in Control while leading the CDL in non-traded kill percentage in SnD (63.8%).

After a high to start the year, the next two events would not go so smoothly for the Subliners. The squad would have good qualifier stages, going 3-2 in both the Major 2 & Major 3 qualifiers. The online form wouldn’t translate to LAN though, hitting their season low during Major 3. The team would lose to both Toronto & Florida to finish last at the Major. This would turn out to only fuel the team to reach their peaks yet again.

Having off-tournaments is certainly with the high level of talent in the CDL, it’s how teams learn from their losses and progress as a unit. The Subliners did just this to end their season. After a low during Major 3, the team rebounded with a 4-1 finish during the Major 4 qualifiers. Skyz & Co would finish in 4th at the LAN, regaining their form and confidence. They would get even better during the final stage of the regular season, marching from Round 1 of the Lower Bracket to make it to the Grand Finals. The Subliners won five straight series before taking down Atlanta FaZe to win the Major in the Finals. This form continued into Champs, with New York taking down Minnesota & Texas before falling to Toronto in the Winners Finals. Skyz & Co quickly bounced back, defeating FaZe 3-1 before dismantling the Ultra 5-0 in the Finals. Their 2023 season run would be widely regarded as one of the best CDL seasons for a team, rivaling the Cold War Atlanta FaZe and MW19 Dallas Empire seasons.

How good was Skyz in 2023?

Hardpoint
Skyz played an important role in the Subliners, slotting in as the Main AR, and finished MW2 with a 1.06 KD overall. Hardpoint was his best game mode over the year though. Skyz had a 1.09 KD over the season with strong supporting stats. Cesar averaged 19.8 kills, 2539.4 damage, and 70.0 seconds of hill time per 10 minutes. He led the Subliners with a 60.9% TES Rating, 75.3% non-traded kill percentage, and 139.5 damage per life. During Champs, Skyz put up his best individual statistics under New York. At the tournament, the Main AR had a 1.20 KD overall. Skyz finished 2nd in the CDL in TES (63.0%) & damage per life (154.1), while averaging 20.2 kills, 2595.3 damage, and 74.6 seconds of hill time per 10 minutes. With Cesar playing at his best, New York wouldn’t have gone 6-3 at Champs.

As a team, the Subliners achieved the second-best win percentage over the Modern Warfare 2 season. New York went 53-34 (60.9% win rate), with a 32-16 record on LAN compared to 21-18 in online matches. While they ranked 2nd in win percentage, the Subliners had the best point differential, sitting at +23.4 on average in the season. Just like the team, Skyz was much better on LAN. He finished with a 0.99 KD with 18.6 Kp10M in the qualifiers while improving to 1.17 KD with 20.8 Kp10M at the LAN Majors. He had the second-highest TES rating (62.3%) and damage per life (146.5) on LAN in the CDL. This impact is what made him so important to New York.

SnD
Search & Destroy was a tad bit harder for Skyz to find impact on in Modern Warfare 2, but still found a way. Over the season, Skyz had a 1.02 KD in the game mode with 0.67 kills per round & 99.3 ADR. What he excelled at was both early and late-round situations. Cesar led the team with a 56.7% win rate in opening duels. He also added the most clutches won in the CDL, having 19 total clutches including one of just five 1v4 clutches. Skyz also tied for the most 1v1 clutch wins, tied for the second most grenade kills with 16, and had the 4th most sniper kills with 47. Impressive stats out of Cesar Skyz over the entirety of the year.

When looking at team success, the Subliners were a very good SnD team. They had the 3rd highest win rate in the CDL at 58.0% over MW2, finishing the year with a 40-29 record. They finished with a better record online (19-11) compared to LAN matches (21-18). Unlike the team, Skyz performed noticeably better LAN compared to online. He finished the year with a 0.96 during the qualifiers but improved to 1.07 on LAN. During the Majors, Cesar had the 2nd highest opening duel win rate in the CDL (65.6%), 0.69 kills per round, and 96.7 ADR. Skyz led the League with 38 sniper kills, 10 total clutches won, and 8 1v1 clutches won as well. Even though their record on LAN wasn’t amazing, his impact was immense.

Control
Just like the previous two modes, the Subliners were a good control team. They had the fourth-highest win rate in the game mode, having a 33-21 record overall for a win percentage of 61.1%. Their LAN record sat at 20-10, while just 13-11 online. Skyz was a stable and reliable player for the Subliners, finishing the year with a 1.03. He had weaker per 10-minute data but led the team in TES Rating (58.2%) & damage dealt per life (140.4) with 2.1 tiers captured per life.

The best individual performance out of Skyz came during the opening stage of the season. During Stage 1, Skyz finished with a 1.16 KD in Control with very strong supporting statistics. He had a 1.19 KD on the attacking side and 1.14 on the defending side. While his per 10-minute data was slightly above average, he led the Subliners with 61.1% TES Rating, 1.30 KA/D, and 148.7 damage per life. Skyz also did his fair share of objective work, capturing 2.3 tiers per attacking round during the stage. Overall, while Control wasn’t his strongest individual mode, he was a very good AR over the season.

A look ahead to Modern Warfare 3

Heading into the 2024 season, the Subliners made a shock decision to change their starting roster. After winning Champs during MW2, New York became the first CDL team to voluntarily change its team. The flex Preston “Priestahh” Greiner would not be extended by the team with rumors swirling around payment disagreements. Daunte “Sib” Gray would be brought into the team from Seattle, giving the team a punch in Slaying while potentially sacrificing some chemistry, communication, and SND play. Nothing is for certain until the team starts playing but on paper, this is a very intriguing roster switch. Nonetheless, the Subliners will undoubtedly continue to fight for championships in 2024 and are firmly ranked inside the Top 4 with Atlanta, Texas, and Toronto.