Top 20 players of Modern Warfare: #5 Cellium
Kicking off the top 5 players is none other than McArthur “Cellium” Jovel of the Atlanta FaZe. The young gun was a dominant force during the Modern Warfare season for the FaZe, helping them take home two homestands, and winning MVP honors at CDL Atlanta.
Last year was the first iteration of the top 20 where analysts, content creators, and personalities voted on the top 20 players in the recent season. This year we have 16 voters today, with the likes of Brandon “NovusVita” Hewitt (Paris Legion Analyst for the ’19-’20 season), Ryan “Flux” Oldfield (Toronto Ultra analyst), IUOTurtle (Community Stats), and Cam Allen joining us to vote on who their top 20 players were for the Modern Warfare season.
The Rise of Cellium
Prior to turning 18, a young Cellium made his name by dominating the Search & Destroy scene in Advanced Warfare, Black Ops 3, and Infinite Warfare. This led to him joining the eUnited Cadets, arguably one of the most dangerous rookie lineups to date alongside Chris “Simp” Lehr, Indervir “iLLeY” Dhaliwal, and Joseph “TurnUp2eZ” Sicre.
Upon turning 18, Cellium was picked up by FaZe Clan for the remainder of the Black Ops 4 season. Through many ups and downs, their peak placing was 3rd at the CWL Pro League 2019 Playoffs finishing the season 13-16 at CoD Champs. However, Cellium knew his real potential and with Modern Warfare right around the corner, he had big moves planned.
Year in review
Cellium was signed by Atlanta FaZe On October 26 alongside MajorManiak, Simp, aBeZy, and Priestahh. On paper, this was a roster full of potential, but there were also questions raised about the lack of experience between the players. Cellium was going into this second season as a professional player and was looking to win his first-ever Championship in Modern Warfare.
What made this team a cut above the rest was the fact that Cellium and his teammates came from a background of thriving in Search and Destroy tournaments for several years prior to their pro debuts. At the Launch Weekend of the CDL, FaZe defeated both New York Subliners and Dallas Empire without dropping a single round in SND. This was an outrageous feat and would’ve sent chills up the spines of every single team in the league. FaZe were destined to dominate the rest of Modern Warfare.
After sitting out the London Home Series, Atlanta were scheduled to host the next tournament, and Cellium was set to play in front of his home crowd. The support from the fans played into FaZe’s dominance at this event, as the team came out on top without losing a single match, and just four maps dropped. After sweeping Florida Mutineers in the Grand Final, FaZe were crowned champions of the Atlanta Home Series, and Cellium was announced as the MVP. As the crowd chanted “MVP! MVP!” Mc hoisted up the MVP trophy with a big smile on his face, knowing that he was the best player in the game.
Cellium and his teammates made a trip to the west coast to play their next Home Series in Los Angeles. Despite being the odds-on favorite with the exclusion of Chicago Huntsmen, FaZe failed to defeat Minnesota RØKKR in the semi-finals. A tough game five loss on Piccadilly meant that Cellium couldn’t win back-to-back Home Series, and back to back MVP awards. FaZe also failed to get over the final hurdle in the next tournament, which was held online amid the Coronavirus outbreak. Going into their second finals of the season, Atlanta locked horns with Dallas Empire who were attending their third. Empire were firing on all cylinders at the Chicago Home Series, and took home their second trophy of the season, at the expense of FaZe.
Each failed tournament victory increased the hunger and desire of Atlanta Faze to get their second chip in Modern Warfare. At the Florida Home Series, Faze clashed with two rejuvenated teams in New York Subliners, with the addition of Mack, and OpTic Gaming Los Angeles. After a narrow 3-2 victory against New York, FaZe overcame OpTic in the final to win their second Home Series of the season. An ice-cool one-versus-two clutch from Cellium in round 11 in the Grand Final helped FaZe get it done in the end.
Minnesota and Paris were the next stops for the two-time champs, who attended three finals in the season so far. A further two more finals were added to the total, but Atlanta, unfortunately, couldn’t get it done both times – with Florida Mutineers handing them the L to take both trophies home. The addition of Owakening gave Florida a new lease of life, and FaZe were humbled in the second Grand Final on Domination, losing 235-70 on Hackney Yard – one of the biggest defeats of the season.
The bad form continued over to the New York Home Series. FaZe were swept in the semi finals by Chicago Huntsmen, preventing them from attending their third straight finals. In the final Home Series hosted by Toronto, FaZe came up short again in the finals. Six Grand Finals but only two victories to show – were early claims that this team lacked experience coming true?
Nonetheless, FaZe had the number one seed in the league heading into Champs, and Cellium was in the driver’s seat to win his first-ever World Championship. After getting embarrassed in the previous meeting, FaZe were set to play Huntsmen in their first match of the tournament. Despite losing map two in round 11, FaZe maintained their composure to take the series 3-2. In the winners’ final, Cellium and his teammates came up against Dallas Empire – the team they whitewashed in the previous Home Series. In this match however, Dallas put up a better fight. The series went all the way to game five, and Clayster’s men ended up taking the win. A rematch against Huntsmen in the losers semi went the way of FaZe, and a rematch between Atlanta and Empire in the Grand Finals was on the cards. The stakes couldn’t get any higher. It was a $600,000 match of Call of Duty where the winner would be the first-ever champion in the Call of Duty League.
Empire drew first blood on Azhir Cave Hardpoint. And second blood. And third. Hanging by a thread, FaZe managed to bounce back and take map four, but the toughest of tasks was ahead of them. They couldn’t afford to lose any more matches but did exactly that in the following match on Rammaza SND. Dallas Empire were champions, and FaZe were the runners up.
Statistical Breakdown
Cellium was a do-it-all flex player for the Atlanta FaZe, playing many positions and roles within the team. At the beginning of the season, he thrived on the second AR next to MajorManiak, putting in very good numbers in that position. Midway through the season, we started to see MC more on the MP5 and playing support roles for the FaZe. This is where we see his KD numbers start to drop. It wasn’t that he lost form, just played a hard role that rewarded the team instead of his individual KD. Here is a breakdown of Cellium’s key statistics throughout the season:
The statistics are formatted for their individual tournaments. If the cell is red, then it was on the low percentile for that said tournament. For the remaining colors, green is high percentile and yellow is average.
We see that at the beginning of the season Cellium was putting in great MVP numbers on that second AR. His CDL Atlanta was his best performance, ending the tournament with a 1.32 overall KD and 100.75 slayer rating. While MC did have a lot of highs during the season, he did struggle at certain times. At Chicago, New York, and Champs you can see the dip in SnD production. Cell also had below-average objective work in Domination, finishing below 4 captures per game five times. Check out his detailed game mode breakdowns below:
Cellium was a force this season in Hardpoint, as it was one of his strongest modes this season. The Flex star had his best personal statistics early on in the season when running the AR. He had a high at CDL Launch for KD when he finished with a 1.43 after facing the Empire and Subliners. Once MC switched roles with Priestahh, his Death numbers rise. This was due to his role switch to the support MP5. He was very aggressive on the sub and couldn’t keep up with his numbers when using the M4, understandably. His best performance in the mode was 42-27 (1.56) map versus New York at CDL Launch. It’d be his high for kills for the season.
With Cellium playing the Flex position again in Black Ops Cold War, we should see him playing on the 2nd AR a lot alongside Alec “Arcitys” Sanderson. With that in mind, it’s more likely that Cellium will return to putting up the high individual statistics that he had early on this season. This deadly duo will be a very strong backline for the Atlanta FaZe and be a force in the respawn modes, specifically Hardpoint.
While Cellium was waiting to turn 18 to enter the Pro League, he was busy dominating the SnD scene. He played very well in the mode during his rookie scene (BO4) and that continued during Modern Warfare. Cell was a monster in the mode, setting the record for most kills in a map. The record was set versus the Toronto Ultra, at CDL Paris. He would finish with 18 kills and 7 deaths (2.57 KD) over the 11 round Gun Runner SnD. He went on a great spree during CDL Paris, setting season highs for himself for Kills per game, Kills per Round, and of course the kills in a single map. In total, he’d end with 65 kills and 46 deaths (1.41 KD) for the event.
There is no doubt that Cellium will be able to continue being a star player in Search & Destroy during 2021. With teammates Arcitys, Simp, and aBeZy also being so good in the mode it will be interesting to see how dominant the team will be and how the roles will work out. Of course aBeZy will be the first playing in on most occasions, but who will be sliding in second? Most likely MC will fill that need, and it will be great to see how he will do in that role.
Domination was a great mode for MC, but he really thrived in the mode while being the 2nd AR. Cellium went positive in the first 13 domination he played, helping him hit his high for cumulative KD for the season (1.38). He had his best performances at CDL LA and CDL Chicago. He finished LA with a 1.53 KD over the course of the event, while hitting his season-high of 29.67 kills per game. He’d follow that performance with a 1.51 KD in the mode at Chicago. At the event, 65.1% of his engagements would end in either a kill or assist, setting his season-high. Once using the MP5, his statistics would take a hit, but he still finished 9 out of 10 events with a positive KD.
With it rumored that Domination is no longer going to be a part of the competitive ruleset, players won’t have to worry about Cellium picking up the 2nd AR and dominating in Cold War. Any respawn mode that does come into play however, MC should still be a star player within the Atlanta FaZe.
Here are Cellium’s season series statistics. It breaks down how he did in each length of series, whether the series went 3, 4, or 5 maps. He hit his high for kills during a 5 map series versus the Toronto Ultra at CDL Paris when he dropped a ridiculous 113 kills in the series. It would not be the only time the flex star would hit triple digits. He would 4 times in total (113 kills, 107 kills, 106 kills, and 100 kills) during the course of the season. Cellium would hit 90+ kills ten times over the course of the season as well! As for his highest KD marks, he finished with a high of 1.86 series KD in the opening match of CDL Atlanta versus OpTic Gaming LA. Check out more series data below:
Why #5 for Cellium?
Cellium played an integral role in the success Atlanta FaZe saw this season. His versatility allowed him to comfortably switch between SMG and AR depending on the map as well as supporting his team with role swaps. Among his teammates, he had the 2nd highest overall adjusted KD (1.11), the highest respawn assists per 10 minutes (7.84), and 2nd highest respawn EKIA per 10 minutes (32.5). Cellium’s contributions enabled Atlanta to have the dominant season they did, and it surely was one of the strongest records of the 2020 Modern Warfare season.
Atlanta never missed a semi-final all season, and seven out of nine homestands Atlanta made a Grand Final appearance winning two of them. The team had the highest overall map win-rate (62.5%) with the best Search & Destroy (63.5%) and Domination win-rate (67.6%), and 2nd best Hardpoint win-rate (58.7%). This success was in large part due to the team’s ability to slay but also play together as a team. As a team, Atlanta had the highest team KD ratio across all game modes indicating their consistent ability to outslay their opponents. This strength was so dominant that at times they would simply rely on breaking hills through their teamwork and slaying evidenced by having the highest Hardpoint Break Success Rate across multiple maps.
A Look towards Black Ops Cold War
Cellium had his contract extended by the Atlanta FaZe during the offseason. He will be joined by two of his teammates during the Modern Warfare season in aBeZy and Simp, while the 4th player will be Chicago Huntsmen’s star player Arcitys. The team on paper is the favorite for 2021, as the team has the most star power and slay depth in the CDL. Each of the roles for the players also makes perfect sense for the FaZe side. Arcitys will be going back to his natural role in being the Main AR. He will also do wonders as the IGL of the team, helping the 3 younger players maintain fundamentals and composure. Cellium will be going back to the 2nd AR Flex player for the team. Having the roles work out so well should do wonders for both Cellium and the team.
