Although the teams for the Call of Duty World Championship have just been finalized there is one more battle ready to take place. That battle is the playoffs of Call of Duty’s second LAN pro league. The first round matchups caused controversy within the scene as they were drawn off stream leading some players to believe they were fixed. Although that may be detrimental to some squad’s chances of winning the tournament, there will be some thrilling first matches for fans to tune in to.

This article will pick out some key players their team will need if they are to overcome the rest of the field.

FaZe Clan’s Pierce “Gunless” Hillman

Two of Call of Duty’s biggest brands go head to head in round one. The first, FaZe Clan, is still fresh off of the transfer of Gunless. Meanwhile, Team EnVyUs continue to falter against the top teams.

Both sides have struggled massively in Infinite Warfare so I expect this one to be a brawl. If FaZe are to come out on top Gunless needs to be the star he was back on eUnited. The team qualified for the players in the final series of group blue. They had to win the series versus Ghost Gaming without conceding two map losses. They managed to end it convincingly on the fourth map, although, games one and three were nail-biters.

Looking at FaZe’s stats, it seems odd that Gunless had the lowest overall kill death ratio. It could be that with Clayster’s departure Enable can embrace being the main assault rifler. Furthermore, opening up space for Attach to make plays but Gunless is going to have to be on that same level if they are to take down the likes of Splyce or Luminosity.

I’m not hating on Gunless’ performance by any means, the man was still a beast in Search and Destroy. The Canadian had the highest K/D whilst simultaneously having the most bombs planted. It’s just we know that the CWL Atlanta MVP has more to offer in the respawns.

Tom “Tommey” Trewen of Fnatic

Tommey has been at the top of European CoD for as long as I can remember. Even though nowadays Splyce is taking all the glory, the Brit remains a huge figure in the scene leading Fnatic’s foray into Call of Duty.

When the team was conceived many would have believed Tommey to be its star player, however, he has been overshadowed by adored brothers Skrapz and Wuskin. Much like Gunless, we know that Tommey can bring more to the table.

He has always been a clutch player, particularly in Search and Destroy. If the squad is to knock down the Green Wall, Fnatic is going to need that skill, especially since you could argue OpTic’s best game mode right now is SnD.

Enigma6’s Nicholas “Proto” Maldonado

The notorious Enigma6 qualified from the same scrappy group as FaZe. They secured their playoff spot due to their head to head record against Ghost Gaming, beating the team both times they played. However, the wins didn’t come any easier.

Latest addition Royalty put his backpack on for the weekend leading the slaying in every single game mode with General usually not far behind. Proto was lacking in that department, finishing the weekend with an overall K/D of 0.90 being sub par in Uplink and SnD in terms of the slaying.

In spite of the stats, Proto holds his place in the team. He was their lead scorer in both Uplink and Hardpoint. However, the lack of fragging will be a problem against the likes of eUnited if the team want to make a deep run. With no guarantees that Royalty will go that nuclear again if Proto can step up and make the difference, they might be able to steal a win. Something Enigma6 is quite known for doing.

Trei “Zer0” Morris of Splyce

At MLG Anaheim, Zero was fighting to be the best player in the world. The man was hitting shots we thought not possible. The second place finish seems to have hit him hard with group yellow being one of his worst events yet.

Similarly to Enigma6, Splyce qualified for the playoffs because of a 2-0 head to head against fellow Europeans Red Reserve. Despite their victories over Red, they were another team that looked unconvincing after being swept by eUnited and even losing to Rise Nation on the final day.

If Splyce is to beat the number one ranked team Luminosity in the first round, they are going to need their best player back on top form. His K/D in the pro league was at 0.90 while at Anaheim he racked up a deadly 1.17 over 38 maps. If Octane performs the way he did at Anaheim I honestly believe Zero is one of the only players that could possibly shut him down.

If Zero wants to defend Splyce’s title from season one he’ll have to prove that group yellow was an anomaly in an otherwise fantastic year for him. The playoffs start up later today with the first series being eUnited against Enigma6, tune into mlg.tv to see the action unfold.

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