A look back at the most anticipated tournament of the competitive season.

As we recover from the five days of continuous, fast paced Call of Duty of the highest pedigree, it might not be the most outlandish statement, to claim that this rendition of the Championship was by far, one of the most entertaining and inspiring to watch. Fear not though the hard workers who were caught up with occupational or familial obligations, I have you covered. We will go through the tournament in three sections : the group stages alongside Friday, Saturday and of course, Championship Sunday. So sit back as we rewind the clock to a few days back and relive the awe of these moments.

Group Stages & Friday

As the groups were drawn for the 2017 Call of Duty World Championships, right after the Season 2 playoffs, most of the results drew themselves but there were a few points worth talking about. Group such as D, G and H were already meant to be close, with each having two teams of similar caliber such as Rise Nation and Luminosity in Group D or Splyce and Enigma6 in Group G. The matches played out in tune with most of the predictions floating around. Juggernauts like OpTic, FaZe and EnVyUs comfortably took their groups, but that’s not to say there were not upsets. Str8 Rippin versus EG was already meant to be a affair ripe with back stories, but many had EG taking the game, which wasn’t the result on the day. Similarly, Luminosity Gaming were expected to get first seed in their group as Rise had been hot and cold throughout the year, but they turned up when they needed to and took the series against LG 3-0. Continuing with the theme of Champions being beaten, Splyce, the Stage One winners, were taken care of by Ghost Gaming, a roster with incredible potential which showed their deep run considering their nascent state in the scene. A big talking point emerged, surprisingly, from Group B, as Mindfreak Black met up against Elevate with both teams at a 1-1 record, the winner would potentially take second seed and move onto bracket play. Mindfreak took the series lead 2-1 and as the game moved into the second Hardpoint, Zed from Elevate started experiencing some controller issues. Since the equipment was owned by the player, MLG’s rules state that the onus of fixing this was on the player. There are multiple versions of what followed but the result was given to Mindfreak and they progressed on to bracket play, albeit under a lot of controversy.

The biggest tournament of the year lived up to its status with an absolutely stacked winners bracket with first round match ups like eUnited versus Luminosity. Upset alert alarms were sounded in a couple of games as Team Infused swept Rise Nation 3-1 while Fnatic fell to a relatively unknown Allegiance roster. In the Losers bracket, Aches’ Cloud9 fell to the Europeans of Epsilon 3-0, the same scoreline shared by Fnatic, whose tournament ended with a defeat to Luminosity Gaming, a rather unlikely participant in the losers half. A lot of eyes, including mine, were on the Srt8 Rippin roster, bursting at the seam with the raw talents of Dashy and Temp. However, they met up against a resilient Rise Nation squad, who dispatched them with a swift 3-1. A special mention to Loony’s play on Retaliation Search and Destroy. If you somehow missed it, I highly recommend going back and watching it as it was by far my top play and reaction combination of the competitive season.

Saturday

We kicked off Saturday with the defending champions Envy facing up against Ghost Gaming, a roster where each player had their own redemption story. However, that was not enough to beat the reigning champions as they took the series with a comfortable 3-0. But all eyes were on the featured match of the bracket, with OpTic Gaming facing off against Splyce, the Stage One versus the Stage Two winners. The series did not disappoint as it was a close series and provided us with some intense Call of Duty, with OpTic taking the highly contested match 3-2. As the day progressed we witnessed more high caliber teams being knocked out such as Enigma6, Infused and Allegiance. An all star European match up took place in the Losers Bracket as Epsilon met up with Splyce, both teams playing with their tournament lives at stake. Splyce edged an overall close series with a 3-2 victory, sending Epsilon home and taking the crown of the last surviving EU roster in the tournament. Luminosity continued their impressive Losers Bracket run as they sent home Infused and that match gave way to the second and third marquee match ups of the day. First, it was EnVy meeting eUnited in a Winners Round 3 match up, with a total of seven championship rings between them, it was bound to be a good match. Only one veteran out of the two on each roster would be victorious and it was indeed Jkap, as EnVy took the game 3-1, sending eUnited to the losers bracket. The other game in winners round 3 was between OpTic and FaZe, two teams with a storied rivalry and a massive point to prove. The Green Wall, a term used to describe OpTic fans were in full effect in this match as OpTic took the game 3-0, at times making this absurdly talented FaZe team look like an amateur squad.

Both FaZe and eUnited met with tough opposition in the losers bracket. The former came up against a determined Rise Nation side and were unlucky to lose the match in Game 5 while the latter met up against LG. Luminosity were on a streak as their losers bracket run continued and they took that form and converted it into results, beating eUnited 3-1. And just like that, the Championship bracket was set up. OpTic, Luminosity, Rise and EnVy were to battle it out for the major chunk of the $1.5 million prize pool and the prestige that came with being the Call of Duty World Champions.

Championship Sunday

Only 16 players remained. After four series, we would have a new Call of Duty World Champion. Or maybe not. To say that EnVyUs has had a resurgence in the past few tournaments would be a gross understatement. After the worst placing in the organisations history in Anaheim, they supposedly had a boot camp to iron out the issues. Whatever constituted that boot camp worked however, as the team came back to brilliant placings in the events leading up to Champs. Luminosity Gaming were a roster assembled to do one thing and one thing only : slay. Not many teams can contest with these four players in just a gun on gun perspective. And after winning Anaheim, their claim to the throne was legitimized even further. Rise Nation was somewhat a surprise in this line up. They had had a up and down season so far, winning Vegas, the first event of the IW season but then falling off on the subsequent hurdles. But they looked determined. And last but not the least were OpTic Gaming. The four most winningest players in Call of Duty history. Three rings amongst the four of them, with Karma being the only professional player other than JKap to have two Championship rings.

And so it began. The first match was the Losers Bracket meetup of Rise Nation and Luminosity Gaming. LG’s slaying potential was at full show as they took care of Rise Nation 3-1 moving to the Losers Finals. That was where they would meet OpTic Gaming as they fell to EnVy in the Winners Finals 3-1. It was up to the Green Wall to back their team as they faced up against one of their most formidable opponents in recent times. And they were in full effect as OpTic dismantled a clearly not in their element LG roster 3-0. So it was set. History was to be made, one way or the other. EnVy, already being one of the few if not the only roster to stay together for two consecutive Champs, could repeat their success and become a two – time Champs winning roster. OpTic, well, could finally cement their place in history as one of the best rosters to ever compete in this franchise. And as all two hundred and twenty thousand of you watching across all platforms would know, OpTic beat Envy twice and that to comfortably, to take home $600,000 and the title of Call of Duty World Champions. It was a surreal feeling. The shots from above of the crowd going wild, the players celebrating in jubilation. After a disappointing showing at Champs last year, there were many people and fans doubting this OpTic team and their desire to win. People said that they individually had won so much that as a team they did not have enough hunger to work through things but my oh my, what a way to prove the haters wrong. Many OpTic fans get a lot of flak for their behavior and antics both online and in real life. Having one of the biggest fan bases in esports does have some side effects. And yes, the fans could be so much more civil and mature but what you cannot take away from them, what you cannot take away from any one of us, is the passion. All of us find solace in this game, find inspiration from its competition. And to see the best of the best battle it out, in a tournament filled with major upsets and moments of brilliance, is at the end, what we live for.

Pic 2 : https://www.reddit.com/r/CoDCompetitive/comments/6swyi3/cwl_champs_2017_official_bracket/

Pic 3 : https://www.dexerto.com/news/splyce-epsilon-nail-biter-cod-champs-call-of-duty/34061

Pic 4,5,6 : https://www.callofduty.com/esports/story/2017-08/cwl-championship-recap-day-5