The 2023 Call of Duty League season is right around the corner, with the 12 best teams in CoD getting their championship-winning hopes underway. But how do the teams fare ahead of the season launch? Here are our preseason power rankings.
On a completely new game, it’s hard to tell where exactly teams stand against one another. Of course, we can take a look at scrim results to get a lay of the land but, ultimately, it’s just practice, and one good scrim performance doesn’t make a team the best in the game.
With no competitive matches yet having taken place, we instead must look at the rosters formed and the teams’ forms at the tail end of the 2022 season, as well as the sentiment from their fellow competitors in the early days of Modern Warfare II.
So, here’s how our power rankings look before the action officially gets underway.
CDL Power Rankings 2023
12. London Royal Ravens
London’s rag-tag mix of players has been brought together for the Modern Warfare 2 season, bringing back Zer0 and Nastie and signing Asim and PaulEhx to join them.
While both are very capable players, there still feels like a lack of real firepower on this London squad, and based on some of the comments made by their competition in recent weeks, they’re not exactly fighting for championships this early in the year.
11. Florida Mutineers
Following the culmination of their 2022 season, the Mutineers dropped both of their superstar AR players, with Skyz making his way to New York Subliners while Owakening joined Boston Breach, in a move that raised some eyebrows.
To replace them, Florida brought in two Challengers stars in Brack and Vikul, but expectations aren’t exactly high for them to replicate similar performances as the players they’ve succeeded.
10. LA Guerrillas
LA Guerrillas have become known as the “money team” in the CDL, not afraid to splash the cash to get the players they want. After failing to qualify for Champs 2022, they brought in Toronto Ultra coaches MarkyB and Mayhem, as well as allegedly paying one of the biggest buyouts in CoD history to pick up Arcitys as their main AR.
That said, the core of their team is still the same one that failed to follow up their Major 2 win with any kind of success, and there are some clear question marks over what to expect from this quartet.
9. Vegas Legion
According to the latest polls and opinions from their opponents, Vegas Legion could be a genuine threat this season, despite pulling together what has been seen by many as a somewhat random roster.
That said, it’s still worth tempering our expectations until we see this team in action. They’ve historically been one of the worst teams in the CDL, and moving to Vegas won’t let them lose that tag so easily. The team needs to come out swinging, despite having one of the toughest Major 1 qualifier schedules in the league.
8. New York Subliners
New York Subliners had a miserable 2022 season, with the defining, shining moment being their runners-up medals at Major 4 securing them a last-minute entry to CDL Champs.
With the loss of Crimsix and PaulEhx, New York picked up Skyz and Priestahh, who can almost certainly be considered upgrades overall, especially if they play to their potential.
7. Boston Breach
Boston Breach were on a great trajectory at the tail end of the 2022 season, and if not for an unfortunate meeting with eventual champions LA Thieves in the first round of Champs, may well have made a run in the tournament.
While we didn’t get to witness that possibility become a reality, Boston have upgraded in 2023, bringing in Owakening to replace TJHaly, an immediate boost in slaying ability. How exactly this works out for them in MW2, however, is anyone’s guess.
6. Minnesota Røkkr
Minnesota Røkkr have sought out the help of some of Europe’s top stars to increase their title hopes in 2023, bringing in Bance, Cammy, and Afro to join Attach, who had one of his best seasons in his career so far in Vanguard.
Minnesota certainly have the potential to be challenging for championships, but at this point in time, there are several teams who could fit that bill.
5. Toronto Ultra
Toronto let Bance and Cammy go to Minnesota in the off-season, bringing in Standy and Challengers star Scrappy as their replacements.
The swap is fairly like-for-like, and it’s impossible to tell at this point in time which team came out better for it, but during preseason scrims, there’s a lot of hype around this Toronto Ultra side.
4. OpTic Texas
OpTic Texas, conversely, aren’t getting a lot of hype ahead of the season starting. That said, and as mentioned before, it’s only scrims, and we also have to look at the bigger picture here.
They placed top 4 at Champs 2022, and as we all know by now: OpTic start their seasons strong. Combine that with one of the most naturally talented rosters in the league, and it’s hard to imagine OpTic being a truly mid-table side.
3. Seattle Surge
Seattle’s spot here in third feels like the most down to chance, especially as the mid-table teams can be judged so closely.
If Sib and Pred continue their reign of dominance in Modern Warfare II, then third will definitely feel more than fair, especially considering how well they performed at the tail end of the 2022 season. Fortunately, their Major 1 qualifiers schedule is expected to be on the easier side, so they could find momentum early and really get going, starting their CDL season as they left the last.
2. Atlanta FaZe
The top two spots could be interchangeable here, really, but we had to go with the known quantity in first place, hence leaving Atlanta FaZe in second.
The team is going to be good: it’s almost impossible that they aren’t consistently beating top teams and challenging for chips. The only issue is that there may well be question marks around new recruit SlasheR and what he can bring to the team. The expectation is that he will be the solid main AR he’s always been and simply allow his teammates to excel, but in CoD, nothing is ever a given.
1. LA Thieves
LA Thieves were the 2022 world champions, and for that reason, it was impossible to really consider moving them down.
On paper, you could argue that FaZe and OpTic should be going toe-to-toe with these guys, if not even better, but between their incredible end to Vanguard and what we’ve seen so far in MW2, they have to be right there at the top. The question now is whether they can keep up their momentum and remain the best team in the game throughout this coming season.
That’s it for our preseason power rankings for the CDL 2023 season, and likely the rankings that will change the most after one week as teams start to really establish themselves in the league.
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