As we approach Major IV, the final stop in the CDL 2022 season before Champs, we’re asking a very important question. Last year, Atlanta FaZe established itself as one of the most dominating teams in Call of Duty esports history, so why is the 2022 season proving to be so difficult for the squad?
Since the start of the season, Atlanta FaZe has remained consistently overwhelming, making it to the Grand Final of every CDL Major before being booted unceremoniously from the competition.
Why can’t Atlanta FaZe win a CDL Major this season?
For a while, there were whisperings that suggested the team was ‘cursed’, but that was passed off as superstitious nonsense. The fact is, Atlanta FaZe is once again the best team in the League (on paper) and sits atop the standings with a current record of 24 – 11. And yet, for every Major tournament that has surfaced, the four-man squad of AbeZy, Cellium, Arcitys, and Simp has failed to deliver the goods.
What’s going wrong, and can Atlanta FaZe finally find victory at Major IV?
Falling Short Every Time
At Major I, it was OpTic Texas that went on the warpath and secured a 5 – 2 victory against Atlanta FaZe. Then, at Major II, a repeat performance occurred with the Los Angeles Guerrillas picking up a 5 – 2 win over Atlanta FaZe. Finally, at Major III, with the shock of the season, Seattle Surge pulled through with a huge 5 – 3 win over ATL.
When we look at the numbers, it seems to be a momentum game – FaZe picks apart the ‘weaker teams’ and gains momentum before ultimately losing it at the final post. Let’s take a look at Major I, for example. At this event, ATL decimated Boston Breach with the utmost sense of ease before crashing against OpTic and going down to the loser’s bracket to face off against (and defeat) the LA Thieves, Toronto, and the Royal Ravens.
Ultimately, these teams weren’t at their best when they fought FaZe, but OpTic Texas was on a blinding hot streak, which derailed FaZe in the Grand Final. It didn’t help that Texas was on an unbelievable Control streak, winning more than a dozen games back-to-back, which secured them two maps in the final fixture.
At Major II, FaZe walked the Subliners out, punched down Seattle, and dominated Boston, before falling against the Los Angeles Guerrillas. At the time, the Guerrillas were hot off a streak in Major II of five back-to-back wins and the momentum gathered was blistering. It was too much for FaZe, and again, the boys in red fell short. While the team features some of the greatest COD players in history, LAG proved to be ATL’s undoing.
Finally, Major III – ATL beat Toronto, LA Thieves, got knocked by Seattle, beat Toronto again, and then got wiped by Surge in the final. It seems that, with every failure, there’s a simple blocker caused by Atlanta FaZe losing momentum and focus against a truly dominant team on a wild, unforeseen streak. It was a dream for Call of Duty betting fans backing the underdog side.
Could it be a case of sheer overconfidence?
End of the FaZe dynasty?
This year, we haven’t just seen ATL FaZe fail to clutch up in the final stages of the Major tournaments. We’ve seen ATL FaZe crash as hard as it possibly could in these finals, with some particularly embarrassing moments surfacing. For instance, at Major III, during the final Hardpoint on Tuscan, Arcitys of FaZe went on a losing streak, ending up with a ratio of 0 – 13 before he started gaining kills. It was a case of Sib and Pred clicking at an intense level, emerging as a duo that rivalled the likes of AbeZy and Simp.
At Major II, ATL lost its collective head once again, giving up four maps back-to-back against LAG. For the last three years, Search and Destroy has been FaZe’s game, but LAG managed to snatch a 6 – 4, a 6 – 1, and another 6 – 4 win over ATL. It just seemed like another instance of Atlanta FaZe being overconfident and underestimating its opponents. It could potentially have been a sign that ATL was preparing to fight the wrong team, not at all expecting these underdog sides to make it through to the grand final fixtures.
For the stats-mad fans, it boils down to poor plays and a failure to secure the numbers. At Major III, FaZe was too hell-bent on breaking hills rather than rotating around to pick up the next point. They were giving away too many important, game-changing lives in Control and Search fixtures, which ultimately made the difference.
Unfortunately, for some Call of Duty League organizations, the constantly changing platform just flips around the playing field too much. Looking back, ATL might have been unstoppable in Cold War, but where Vanguard is concerned, there’s potentially an internal struggle taking place. It could be the team breaking apart, it could be a mental blocker brought on by ‘the curse’, or it could be a simple fact that other teams have had a better season when it comes to the Major tournaments.
Can Atlanta FaZe pull together in time for Major IV, and beyond that, the Call of Duty League Championship?
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