A team including Call of Duty League superstars Eli “Standy” Bentz and Indervir “iLLeY” Dhaliwal has won the Hitch $10,000 Cold War throwback tournament.
16 teams took part in the event. Plenty of current and former Call of Duty League talent was on show. Two full rosters from the upcoming season took part. Both Los Angeles Guerrillas and Las Vegas Legion had their teams involved.
LAG made a very impressive showing but the same cannot be said for James “Clayster” Eubanks’ new Legion team. They didn’t win a single map in either of their series as they were double rounded.
Winning team pedigree
The winning team was stacked with Call of Duty League talent. Former Florida Mutineers sub Christian “Yeez” Faircloth joined Standy and iLLeY.
Their fourth member was Challengers World Champion Mohak “MohaK” Kumar. He really laid down a marker in the early rounds of the tournament. MohaK thrived on Garrison Hardpoint all night. He showed off a frankly ridiculous game against three quarters of the Boston Breach roster. He posted a scoreboard to Twitter showing his 37 eliminations to eight deaths.
He helped his team race through the upper bracket of the tournament. They didn’t drop a map on their way to the upper bracket final. On their way, iLLeY and co. even took out European favourites Kelsie “Kelsaroonyy” Grieg, James “Genesis” Smith, Cameron “Cammy” McKilligan and Marcus “Afro” Reid.
Afro and Cammy swapped teams with Standy this offseason. Bentz now has one up on the duo replacing him on the Minnesota Rokkr roster.
Bumps in the road
The first little bump that came for the eventual winners was in the upper bracket final. Coming up against the entire Los Angeles Guerrillas roster. That series went all the way to a map five but the Search and Destroy prowess of Standy on Cold War shone through.
LAG were bounced to the lower bracket finals of the tournament but they couldn’t regain from the loss.
A team featuring former NYSL player Conor “Diamondcon” Johst and MohaK’s Challengers Champs teammate Kaden “Exceed” Stockdale made a special run through the lower bracket to meet LAG for a place in the Grand Finals.
They were knocked to the lower bracket in the first round of the upper side. That team battled through six different teams in the lower bracket in order to earn their spot in the Grand Final. It went all the way to map five but they took down LAG with a fantastic performance.
Exceed even played on 90+ ping all night. That complication makes their run through the lower bracket all the more impressive.
Bracket reset in Grand Finals
Exceed and the rest of his team took the Grand Finals as far as they possible could. They took the first series in the Grand Final 3-1, resetting the bracket and earning a chance at taking down iLLeY and co. for a second time and take home the win.
They looked nearly unstoppable throughout the first series. Then they started the second one on fire just as much as the first. Frying on Moscow Hardpoint left MohaK and the rest of his team with their backs against the wall.
Standy with an unstoppable Standoff performance
Standy went 18/3 in map two of the Grand Finals in order to flip the momentum of the series on its head. After losing the first series and then map one of the second, it could have been an uphill battle. The new Toronto Ultra man showed why he’s on that roster with an unstoppable performance on Standoff.
Sitting there at 5am in the morning must have taken its toll on both teams in the Grand Finals, making the momentum that Standy gave his team all the more impactful.
They rallied and won three straight maps in order to deny the bracket reset win for Diamondcon and his team. It looked like the series could be headed for a game five but it was closed out on a Garrison Hardpoint with MohaK showing once again why he should be in the League.
With the new Call of Duty League season due to get started on December 2, excitement for the new season will continue to grow thanks to the Hitch Cold War Throwback.
Stay tuned to esports.gg for the latest Call of Duty news and updates.
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