Brice’s EU Call of Duty power rankings
Within the competitive Call of Duty community, the term “Top 5 player" is often used to reference every half decent pro player under the sun. However, obviously, this isn’t statistically possible, so the question always remains, who are the Top 5 players in the game?
Well, I’ve decided to finally attempt to answer this age-old question, with the introduction of my new series, ‘Call of Duty Player Power Rankings’.
Now, I could have based these rankings purely on my own opinions, and truth be told, the final list isn’t that far off my own personal thoughts. However, this Player Power Ranking series is slightly different, as I’ve also included the input of the players themselves, along with mine.
As a result, this series will provide you with a great and balanced insight into how these players actually stack up against each other, without the inclusion of misinterpretable statistics that only favour those who have strong K/D's or those who don’t progress that far into a tournament.
The Call of Duty Player Power Rankings will be completed every few months or after Major events. I would also like to thank the pros who took part (over 20 of you) and I hope to do this with the North American scene in the future.
So, without further ado, here are the first five players who placed 10th-6th in Europe.
10 – Tom "Tommey" Trewen (Fnatic)
This year, Tommey has started to shine again, after losing somewhat of his star lustre during the Call of Duty: Black Ops III season.
Part of this is because his natural talent is once again shining through, as he is no longer surrounded by the Titan players of his old Millenium roster, Swanny, MadCat and Jurd, that dominated the European scene.
Alternatively, Tommey’s rise in form can also be attributed to the fact that he is now surrounded by a relatively fresh and young squad, allowing him to play his own game. For years, Tommey has been known as a forceful and confident leader and now the same story is repeating itself again with his current team.
However, one thing that is for certain, with Fnatic’s recent improvements and Tommey's rise to dominance, everything is looking good for the game changer.
9 – Josh "Watson" Watson (Elevate)
After narrowly missing out on T8 at the Call of Duty Championship on Advance Warfare, Watson was on a high note, which was epitomised by the fact that he claimed him and his team were the best Europe had to offer.
Since then Watson has been plagued with the usual accusations of inconsistency and poor practice schedules throughout Black Ops 3.
However, it seems that with his new team and mindset, Watson is once again on fine form and has found himself as a major powerhouse in the recently changed Elevate squad. Yet, if Elevate are to regain their Top 3 status in Europe, the team will need to get the best out of Watson.
8 – David "Dqvee" Davies (Epsilon)
After failing to qualify for Season 2 of the Call of Duty World League and being dramatically underestimated at XP, Dqvve and co went on to surprise everyone by placing 4th at the biggest tournament in CoD history.
However, after their monumental success, the squad suffered numerous setbacks. From taking a 2k weekend off, to not correctly submitting an email, the entire team looked to be in a dire state.
Since then they have been on the up. Epsilon recently placed T6 at CWL Paris and at the time of writing, they recently acquired the services of Josh, placing them within shooting distance of a spot in the LAN League.
A significant part of this is down to the front man of the team, Dave, and this has been reflected in his entry on this list. With several rumours circulating that Dave played a significant role in Josh’s motivation and willingness to join Epsilon, even more eyes will be on the young man.
7 – Joe "Joee" Pinnington (Red Reserve)
This entry on the list interests me greatly, as for a player who has been mixing it up within top teams for several years, Joe has somehow dodged the recognition he deserves.
As one of the quieter pro players, Joe is seemingly unconcerned by the spotlight, he keeps himself to himself and is constantly underestimated by fans and casters alike. Truthfully, Joe has been one of the most undervalued players in Europe for a long time, even after placing second at CoD XP.
You only need to speak to one of his teammates and fellow competitors to understand that Joe’s skill and talent has never been in question. I would even go as far as to say that in my opinion, based on current form, he is the best player in Red Reserve and with his new team, he could easily prove this at Dallas.
6 – Dylan "MadCat" Daly (Splyce)
It was always obvious that MadCat was going to make this list. I think if we compiled a European Player Power Rankings for the last four years, Dylan make it into the T10 every single time. If anything, placing sixth on the list is somewhat of a surprise, as most would expect him to finish a lot higher.
However, I don’t believe MadCat’s place on this list is due to him underperforming compared to his usual standard, in reality, it’s due to the higher level of competition in Europe, as several other players have seriously impressed us in recent months.
In fact, in terms of votes, except for first and second, the rest of the players were incredibly close and we could have easily seen him much higher on the list.
I expect this will give nothing but fire to Dylan for the upcoming MLG Dallas event.
Well that’s the first five players done, I will be putting out the 5th-1st positions in the next day or two.
I hope you have enjoyed this series so far and I would love to hear your feedback on the idea of a consistent power ranking system in the comments below.
Also, if you want to keep up with me on social media you can do so by either following me on twitter; @Bricetacular or on YouTube; Bricetacular1.
Thank you for reading.
-Brice