The London Home Series is done and dusted. After another awesome UK Call of Duty event, attention now turns to the Atlanta Home Series, the third event of the inaugural Call of Duty League (CDL) season.
Hosted by the Atlanta FaZe, eight teams will descend on Atlanta for the second Home Series tournament of the season that is set to be headlined by an almighty clash between the hometown team and the Chicago Huntsmen.
In this article, we attempt to predict the first-round matches, which teams are in contention to take home the championship and the latest Call of Duty esports news that you need to know ahead of the event.
Latest News
Enable Benched
On February 14th, Seattle Surge player Ian "Enable Wyatt seemingly confirmed his demotion to the bench after a disappointing performance at the London Home Series. Despite the Surge picking up its first win of the season, it is clear that something is not right in the Seattle camp.
Seattle have the choice of two substitutes, Casey "Pandur" Romano and Nicholas "Proto" Maldonado. Whichever one of the substitutes is selected, it is going to be interesting to see the Surge back in action at the Los Angeles Home Series taking place from March 7th-8th.
First-Round Predictions
London Royal Ravens v Florida Mutineers
Hot off the back of a solid top-four finish at their first Home Series of the season, there were times that the London Royal Ravens looked unstoppable.
After going up two maps against a strong Dallas Empire roster, it really did look like that CoD was coming home until James "Clayster" Eubanks & co rallied together to complete a reverse sweep, sending the crowd into silence.
Despite this loss, there were many positives to take home for the Royal Ravens.
Bradley "Wuskin" Marshall once again looked impressive as the main Assault Rifle (AR) player while Jordan "Jurd" Crowley returned to the throne of European Call of Duty with an impressive performance with the sub-machine gun (SMG).
On the other side are the Florida Mutineers, a team that has a wealth of potential that has yet to be shown.
Florida managed to take down Seattle in five games at Launch Weekend but did fall to the Los Angeles Guerrillas in another close series.
If this team can close out games, they will certainly have a chance against an in-form London side. I think that this series will go all five games, with London protecting the realm to advance to the qualifying round of group A.
Atlanta FaZe v OpTic Gaming Los Angeles
Arguably the best team in the entire league, Atlanta impressed at the opening weekend, taking two comfortable wins to cement their place towards the top end of the table.
The tiny terrors of Chris "Simp" Lehr, Tyler "aBeZy" Pharris and their ruthless attacking style will be out in full force in front of their home crowd as they face a stacked OGLA roster.
After failing to win a single series back at Launch Weekend, the Green Wall will be focused on getting some points on the board with a strong performance against the FaZe.
On paper, this team is a near-perfect balance of aggressive slayers and holding AR players so this particular series has all the makings of an absolute classic.
I think that OGLA can take a map or two against Atlanta but it is certainly going to be a tricky task. If Atlanta is firing on all cylinders, they could well sweep aside the OGLA, adding another crack into an already broken wall.
Minnesota RØKKR v Paris Legion
This particular match is one that is very difficult to predict. Minnesota looked solid at Launch Weekend, taking down the Los Angeles Guerrillas and the Toronto Ultra in fairly convincing fashion. Alex "Alexx" Carpenter and Adam "GodRx" Brown both had exceptional games as two of the more aggressive players on the team.
If they can maintain those levels of aggression against a strong Paris team, they are well within reach of a victory.
The Paris Legion have been the talk of the league - written off by nearly all pre-season rankings to competing with the very best North American teams in the league. At London, Denholm "Denz" Taylor demonstrated an AR masterclass, putting him in the conversation as one of the best players at the event.
Combine Denz with the likes of Matthew "KiSMET" Tinsley and Zach "Zed" Denyer as the SMG slayers, Paris could well continue their run of form in Atlanta with another top-four finish.
Judging from the Legion's past performances, I think that Paris have what it takes to win this series 3-1.
Chicago Huntsmen v Toronto Ultra
Sitting atop of the league table, the Chicago Huntsmen are heading into the Atlanta Home Series on the front foot after taking the London title and beating the Dallas Empire twice en-route to first place.
Dylan "Envoy" Hannon is widely considered to be one of the very best players in the game, despite his lack of experience competing at the highest level.
The reunion of T2P appears to be going as planned, with Matt "FormaL" Piper and Seth "Scump" Abner becoming a deadly duo once again like it's 2015 all over again. Rounding off the team are Alec "Arcitys" Sanderson and Pierce "Gunless" Hillman.
Arcitys has had a great start to the season, switching to an SMG while Gunless has quickly found his form after a turbulent ending to the Black Ops 4 season. Could this be a year of outright dominance for the Huntsmen?
The Toronto Ultra are a very interesting team indeed. As the only franchise to be fielding a full 10-man roster, the choice of players competing at the Atlanta Home Series is not yet known, making it difficult to see how they fare against a strong Chicago team.
Nonetheless, the scrappy style of the Ultra has managed to see them secure maps against teams that some may consider being superior so the potential for an upset is certainly there.
I think that Chicago will take the series 3-1 but it will be a close one!
Pre-Atlanta Power Rankings
- Chicago Huntsmen
- Atlanta FaZe
- Dallas Empire
- Paris Legion
- London Royal Ravens
- Minnesota RØKKR
- Los Angeles Guerrillas
- Florida Mutineers
- New York Subliners
- Toronto Ultra
- Seattle Surge
- OpTic Gaming Los Angeles