MINNEAPOLIS –– Cuyler Garland didn’t pin his Dallas Empire team’s 3-1 loss to the Chicago Huntsmen on anything specific Friday night. Garland, or “Huke” shared a simple explanation.

“Call of Duty is day-to-day and we didn’t play our game today,” Huke told The Dallas Morning News shortly after the loss. “That’s all it is.”

The Empire were projected to be a top team in the Call of Duty League in the launch season and fell flat against a seasoned Huntsmen squad. There’s still time to prove themselves this weekend against another top squad. The Empire play the Atlanta FaZe Saturday evening at 6:30 p.m.

But this match could be even tougher.

Atlanta was also projected as a top contender, and some casters even put it ahead of Dallas. The Empire had to scramble to detect what went wrong in their match against the Huntsmen. Dallas’ performance resulted in a loss on every map except for the lone glimmer of excellence in a 6-1 search and destroy win.

Before the games began, the FaZe’s McArthur “Cellium” Jovel brought up an important point.

The FaZe still haven’t played a league match yet, but got an extra scout of the Empire.

“Our team hasn’t scrimmaged against Dallas in weeks,” Cellium told The News. “It’s pretty hard to know what they did, but we will get to watch them in the league match so we can study it and see what we can do.”

Atlanta’s Tyler Pharris, better known for his in-game-name “aBeZy," could’ve spotted something in Dallas’ first match that he noted from those scrimmages a month ago. But it’s far from how he remembered it.

“Every time we played them we beat them on most of the hardpoints but when it comes to domination,” aBeZy said, “they are just a really good dom team.”

The Empire were anything but good in domination against the Huntsmen, who were led by Matthew “FormaL” Piper in a 202-157 map win.

“I was just thinking these guys are not good,” FormaL said after the match on Friday.

If the Empire get tossed again in the game mode they held strongest over the FaZe, it could be another long night.

Empire owner Mike Rufail said he felt some of the issues came down to big-match jitters playing on LAN in front of a massive crowd for some of the young guys. Both Anthony “Shotzzy” Cuavas-Castro and Indervir “iLLeY” Dhaliwal are still just 18 years old.

But experience is actually an area Dallas has over Atlanta. The average age on FaZe is 20, and nobody on the roster has near the experience as Dallas’ James “Clayster” Eubanks or Ian “Crimsix” Porter.

But FaZe know this, and they don’t care.

“We have the talent compared to most of these teams and I think that’s the biggest thing,” aBeZy said. “A lot of people have said we don’t have leadership, but anyone on a team can step up and be a leader.”