Pre Season CDL Power Rankings
With Modern Warfare 2 releasing on the 27th of October we have compiled our pre season thoughts on the rosters formed for the new season ahead.
1.) Atlanta FaZe – SlasheR, Cellium, Simp, aBeZy
Atlanta FaZe suffered their most disappointing year of the CDL so far failing to pick up any tournament victories and suffered 4 heartbreaking Grand Finals defeats. They made the shocking move to replace their Main AR and In Game Leader Arcitys and chose to bring in SlasheR to replace him. Despite an MVP Winning year from Cellium, the tiny terrors both struggled at many parts during the Vanguard season being both their respective worst individual seasons since they broke out.
Bringing in SlasheR will provide a different type of leadership style compared to Arcitys as someone renowned for his very commanding leadership style which some players have found difficult to deal with in the past. SlasheR should also bring a significant improvement in the Search and Destroy game mode compared to Arcitys with only his now teammate Cellium had a better KD in the Game Mode whilst SlasheR beat out the 2022 MVP in Kills Per Round and SnD 1st Bloods Per Round. Despite a difficult year by their standards, anybody who is willing to doubt the boys at Atlanta FaZe is a bold individual.
2.) Los Angeles Thieves – Octane, Drazah, Kenny, Envoy
Your 2022 World Champions come in 2nd on our rankings. After an inconsistent start to the Vanguard season and calls for roster moves coming from Fans and Community members alike the LA Thieves resisted the urge to “Blow it up!” instead opting for a role swap moving Kenny onto the SMG and Drazah to the flex role.
The role switched worked wonderfully as Kenny found unbelievable form with the MP40 in hand racking up back to back MVPs whilst racking up a 1.13 KD rating over the NY Major and CDL Champs.LA Thieves will now take on the challenge that no team has ever managed to do to date, to win Champs and then win an event on the subsequent game. Can they do it? Only time will tell.
3.) OpTic Texas – Dashy, iLLeY, Scump, Shotzzy
OpTic Texas had a very weird year in Vanguard finding unbelievable success early on before a thumb injury to iLLeY seemed to disrupt them for the rest of season not managing to reach another Tournament Finals after emerging victorious in their own Stage 1 Texas Major.
Even more shock occurred in the offseason as both MVP Candidate Dashy and iLLeY announced they were Free Agents with rumours emerging of OpTic looking to bring in Cammy and HyDra among a few other potential names. Just as shockingly as it came around, OpTic decided to change their minds and run it back with the same roster. With a few rumors around work ethic and internal issues surfacing, OpTic will have to buckle down and put in the hard work if they wish to get back to the top of the mountain they once stood at.
4.) Seattle Surge – Accuracy, Sib, Mack, Pred
One of the only 2 rosters to stick together after the Vanguard season, Seattle Surge come in 4th on our list. Off the back of their dominant Rookie duo in Sib and Pred, Seattle Surge took home a victory at the Stage 3 Major and an impressive 3rd place finish at CDL Champs.
The team chose to stick together into MW2 despite a few inconsistent results as a team. If they want to impress again in the coming season they will have to improve their showings in Search and Destroy with a 44% win rate in the Game Mode and only Pred possessing a positive KD Ratio in the mode.
5.) Toronto Ultra – Insight, Scrappy, Standy, CleanX
Toronto Ultra have one of the most interesting rosters going into the new season bringing in the Challengers Wrecking Ball Scrappy from their North American academy roster. They also chose to bring in Standy formerly of Minnesota Rokkr in place of veteran SMG Bance.
With many tipping Scrappy to be a CDL Superstar and almost a shoe in for the rookie of the year award this roster’s success will seemingly be on the consistency level of Standy who had an exceptional rookie season during Cold War before a very inconsistent and underwhelming Vanguard Season.
6.) Minnesota Rokkr – Attach, Cammy, Bance, Afro
Minnesota Rokkr have built probably their best roster to date in the CDL managing to re-sign their superstar from the previous season Attach and bringing in the European trio of Cammy, Bance and Afro to join him.
Afro who has impressed since he made his debut near the end of Cold War on the London Royal Ravens roster will finally get his opportunity on a seemingly championship quality team. Bance will bring some much needed veteran leadership to the team and the team will be rounded out with Cammy and Attach. Attach who was a consistent AR during the Vanguard season will be joined by Cammy who had a solid but slightly inconsistent season after an MVP Caliber Cold War campaign. An experienced and talented all round team, the Rokkr will be looking to compete for event wins consistently all season long.
7.) Los Angeles Guerrillas – Arcitys, Spart, Neptune, Huke
LAG decided to keep together their young core from the end of Vanguard and bring in Arcitys from Atlanta FaZe to round up the lineup. They will be showing alot of faith in all 4 players who each had inconsistent Vanguard years to different degrees. Arcitys will have alot of pressure on his shoulders to not only lead this young but clearly talented trio but also to perform on an individual level that his time on the Atlanta FaZe didn’t necessarily allow to show.
This team will no doubt be one of the hardest workers and with the addition of MarkyB as the new head coach they could be an extremely strong fundamental roster.
8.) New York Subliners – Skyz, Priestahh, HyDra, KiSMET
New York were another team with a turbulent offseason as they desperately scrambled to maintain the services of HyDra. In the end they managed to keep the French Phenom as well as his SMG Duo in KiSMET and rounding the team out with his Late Night Valorant duo Skyz as well as Priestahh.
Priestahh will have alot of pressure to perform after another disappointing year on a personal level. Skyz should bring a consistent AR presence allowed to move back to his more familiar Main AR role. With a star of the European Challengers in WarDy as a substitute, New York will have a lot of pressure to perform early on in the season or people may start to clammer for a roster change.
9.) Boston Breach – Methodz, Owakening, Nero, Vivid
The newest team in the CDL Boston Breach had a solid 1st year in the CDL managing to qualify for the CDL Championship. They decided to predictably keep together their SMG Duo of Vivid and Nero and despite rumors of them considering their options they kept Methodz as their Main AR.
Their roster move was to bring in Owakening from Florida Mutineers who once again performed successfully on an individual level but didn’t manage to achieve the results to match. A worry for this team would be all 4 players having SnD as their worst individual game mode which they will certainly have to improve on if they are to be a dark horse roster for the upcoming season. In the same way as New York they decided to bring in top European Challengers Player BEANS as a substitute applying some pressure to the starting players to impress from the start or potentially be replaced.
10.) Florida Mutineers – MajorManiak, Brack, Vikul, Havok
Florida Mutineers have constructed one of the most interesting rosters for the upcoming season. Maintaining the services of MajorManiak, bringing back Havok to the team and signing 2 of the top challengers players from the Vanguard season in Vikul and Brack.
Brack is a name who will be familiar with many fans after somehow finding himself outside of the CDL after his impressive breakout season in Black Ops 4, he has grinded his way through Challengers managing to take home both the Toronto Challengers Open and Challengers Final. Vikul moved over to America from Spain and emerged as an impressive SMG player on the dominant Toronto Ultra Academy North America. They should be a very strong Search and Destroy team on paper and will be seemingly relying on their new players to be the X Factors in the respawns if they want to cause some upsets.
11.) Las Vegas Legion – Clayster, Temp, Prolute, TJHaLy
Ditching the Paris location for Las Vegas the Legion will be looking for a fresh start and far more success than in previous years. They have built an experienced roster keeping ahold of star player Temp whilst bringing in 3x world champion Clayster as well as TJHaLy and Prolute who had a very respectable showing when he replaced iLLeY on OpTic Texas for a while.
Clayster suffered his worst year of his career putting up a woeful 0.84 KD Ratio during his time starting the year on New York Subliners and will need to perform significantly better for this team to have any chance of achieving success. A roster with definite potential they will need to see someone or all of the players step up alongside Temp if they want this new roster under Vegas to perform better than any past iterations under the Legion name.
12.) London Royal Ravens – NO ROSTER
London have yet to confirm their for the upcoming season but it is heavily speculated to contain Zer0, PaulEhx, Nastie and Asim. With no Official Roster announcement we have no other choice but to have them placed last in our list.
