The Call of Duty Championships are now less than a week away and the best players from across the globe will descend upon Los Angeles to fight over the substantial $1 million prize pool on March 27-29th.
As the 32 teams brush up on their Hardpoint rotations, perfect their capture the flag routes and scramble to compile strategies for Drift, over the course of the week we will be analysing each pool, to discuss what teams we believe will come out on top.
In this first instalment of the series, we will be taking a look at the teams from Groups A & B of the Call of Duty World Championships pools and predicting the outcome of each match.
Group A
Optic Gaming (US) | Nadeshot, Formal, Crimsix, Scump
NxG Rapid (EU) | P1Bo, Duke, Pow3r, Ko1gaa
Vitality.X (EU) | Riskin, Getsom, dyLux, Oxygen
Orbit (US) | Sinful, TwiZz, Accuracy, Lawless
When the groups were announced on Monday, undoubtedly, every team would have been frantically scrolling down the page, with the hope that they avoided one team, Optic Gaming. It’s no secret that Optic have been dominating both online and at LAN tournaments in recent months, placing 1st in the last three major events.
The overwhelming slaying power of Optic presents the squad with the ability to win any match, from any situation, and strikes fear into the eyes of theirs opponents. The ‘GreenWall’ have secured the number one seed heading into Champs, after a dominating victory at the North American regionals, dropping only a solitary map in the process. The pure aggression, ability, knowledge and experience from Optic Gaming makes them my number 1 team from pool A and only a brave soul would predict otherwise.
(photo credit: @MDaveyy)
The second and final spot up for grabs from pool A will be a much closer affair, and may even come down to clutch plays or little mistakes that could cost a team the map. When fans tune in to watch Vitality.X play on Saturday they may be expecting to see the familiar faces of Gotaga and Broken, but people searching for ‘The French Monster’ will be disappointed as this Vitality team has a fresh look. With four ‘unfamiliar’ faces on the team, it could be a nervy opening for the squad with limited CoD Champs experience, and the first match may have to be a settler. Once the magnitude of the moment passes for Vitality, they may be able to mount a charge for the second spot, however, an experienced Orbit squad stands in their way.
The Orbit squad is littered with well-known names within the community and has players that have experienced this type of event before, and this is why I believe they will finish 2nd in the group. Ultimately, the match-up between Orbit and Vitality.X will determine the final qualifier from pool A, and personally, I believe Orbit will be too strong for the French Squad. As for the Italian side NxG Rapid, it will be tough for the underdogs to face off against the likes of Optic Gaming; however I do believe they hold the potential to secure a few maps during their time in L.A.
Optic Gaming 3-0 NXG Rapid
Optic Gaming 3-0 Vitality.X
Optic Gaming 3-1 Orbit
Vitality.X 3-0 NxG Rapid
Vitality.X 1-3 Orbit
Orbit 3-1 NxG Rapid
Go To Group B
Be sure to check out tomorrows edition where we take a look at groups C,D and E.
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