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Call of Duty League Major 5 Tournament Tips & Preview - Can Ultra Deliver On Home Soil?

By Tit Krajnik

23 May 2023

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Tit Krajnik 23 May 2023

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CDL Major 5 is set to kick off on Thursday, May 25, 2023, in Toronto, Canada
OpTic Texas and Atlanta FaZe are the main favourites
The final Major of the 2023 season

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Call of Duty League Championship (Getty Images)

CDL Major 5 Predictions

Call of Duty League (CDL) Major 5 is set to kick off on Thursday, May 25, welcoming all 12 Call of Duty esports teams, vying for the final Major trophy of the 2023 season and the lion’s share of the $500,000 prize pool.

CDL Major 5 Predictions
CDL Major 5 Betting Odds
Potential Candidates
Teams To Watch

OpTic Texas, Florida Mutineers, Boston Breach, Minnesota RØKKR, Atlanta FaZe, Las Vegas Legion, Toronto Ultra, and New York Subliners will all start their CDL Major 5 campaign in the upper bracket. On the other side, Los Angeles Thieves, London Royal Ravens, Seattle Surge, and Los Angeles Guerillas all placed outside of the top six in the qualifiers and will start CDL Major 5 in the lower bracket.

The final Major ahead of CDL Championship 2023 will run from May 25-28, with the winners pocketing $200,000 in tournament winnings and 65 CDL Points. Out of eight spots available for CDL Champs 2023, three remain open, and just four teams are still eligible to secure a ticket for the season-culminating event.

Atlanta FaZe, OpTic Texas, Toronto Ultra, Los Angeles Thieves, and New York Subliners are already qualified for CDL Championship 2023
Las Vegas Legion, Minnesota RØKKR, Seattle Surge, and Boston Breach fight for the final three spots
Will we see an upset?

CDL Major 5 Betting Odds

According to the latest CDL Major 5 outright betting odds, OpTic Texas (2.50) are the leading favourites to win the Major, followed by Atlanta FaZe (3.50) and Toronto Ultra (5.50), who round up a list of the main three candidates for the upcoming tournament.

New York Subliners enter CDL Major 5 priced at the same price to win as they were to win CDL Major 4 (8.00), with the defending Major champions, Los Angeles Thieves, priced as fourth-favourites (11.00) to do it again. Beyond the LA Thieves, we’re looking at outsiders who are either in a bad spot to produce a deep run or haven’t shown enough this season to be considered a serious threat.

And even though there’s always a chance one of the outsiders exceeds the expectations, we haven’t seen any notable Cinderella runs this season and based on what the teams have shown in CDL Major 5 Qualifiers, it’s unlikely that’ll change this week.

Potential Candidates

The list of potential candidates to win CDL Major 5 is quite extensive, yet there are just a couple of teams I can realistically expect to have the talent and tools to make a deep run.

Los Angeles Thieves (11.00) won CDL Major 4, were second in CDL Major 4 Qualifiers, and claimed silver from CDL Major 2. Yet despite their success this season, the Thieves only managed to win one game in CDL Major 5 Qualifiers.

This is a huge problem, not necessarily because I don’t believe they have the talent to compete for another CDL Major trophy, but mainly because they’ll start the tournament in the lower bracket. This is a major setback for their title hopes, but comparing them to other teams in the league, it’s more than fair to say that the Thieves will finish top-six.

True believers will recall how in the history of CoD esports, we have seen teams struggle at the end of the season only to turn on their jets and win the whole thing. And that exact thing happened last year with LA Thieves.

New York Subliners (8.00) are talent-wise equal to LA Thieves, but they’re also in better form and will start their CDL Major 5 campaign in the upper bracket. The better circumstances also earn New York Subliners shorter odds, and rightly so, but while this is a very good team, a lot will have to go right for them to go all the way.

New York Subliners have been very efficient in beating lesser teams this season, but they haven’t found much success when faced with other top dogs. They always produce competitive series even when faced with the league’s top teams but regularly come out short.

In short, New York Subliners are very good but need to get slightly better to win the Major.

Teams To Watch

I could talk about Las Vegas Legion, Minnesota RØKKR, or Boston Breach as exciting darkhorse teams we should keep an eye on, but I don’t see a world where either of them wins the Major. They’ve all had some good moments of late and can potentially cause an upset or two, but expecting them to go all the way is a bit too optimistic.

Instead, let’s focus on the real favourites.

Toronto Ultra (5.50) had quite a journey this split, but they didn’t look too bad. Toronto Ultra went 3-2 in the CDL Major 5 Qualifiers with wins against Seattle Surge (3-2), LA Thieves (3-1), and LA Guerrillas (3-0) and lost against Minnesota RØKKR (2-3) and OpTic Texas (1-3).

They played a very close game against OpTic, which is quite inspiring, but their stock value dropped after losing to RØKKR. Still, I would consider that a complete overreaction. Admittedly, Ultra looked bad against RØKKR, but this is still an experienced team with enough talent to produce a deep run.

One big issue is Ultra’s performance in Game 5, which they haven’t won since Major 3 when they beat Boston Breach.

Atlanta FaZe (3.50) looked very good in CDL Major 5 Qualifiers, but I won’t sugarcoat it - they had a very easy schedule, and it’s easy to look good if you don’t have to face any top teams. Looking back, FaZe only had to play LA Guerrillas (3-0), OpTic (0-3), Las Vegas Legion (3-0), London Royal Ravens (3-1), and Boston Breach (3-1), which explains why they went 4-1.

That doesn’t change the fact that FaZe are one of the top teams in the league, but it’s tough to feel overly optimistic about their chances to win CDL Major 5 knowing that their only match against another serious candidate (OpTic) ended in a 0-3 defeat.

Obviously, Atlanta FaZe usually perform better on LAN, but objectively FaZe’s Contol isn’t good enough. On a more positive note, FaZe’s S&D is solid, and their Hardpoint is very good.

OpTic Texas (2.25) are the prime example of the main candidates to win the next event. They’re in excellent form, have a strong map pool, and enough individual talent to take on any team – the only thing OpTic need to do is to put all that on display this week.

OpTic Texas should finish CDL Major 5 at least top three, and if they don’t, something will have to go terribly wrong.

They’re in a perfect spot to claim the trophy, and it wouldn’t be shocking to see OpTic win it all, but we must also ask ourselves whether they’re worth a bet at 2.25, which in other words, suggests that OpTic have a 44.4% chance of winning the CDL Major 5.

Verdict

CDL Major 5

OpTic Texas are the clear favourite to win CDL Major 5, but I don’t like them as a bet at the offered Call of Duty betting odds. At 2.25, they’re given a 44.4% chance of winning the Major, which is a bit too high in my book, knowing they can easily slip against any team.

FaZe are an interesting pick, but they haven’t shown enough in CDL Major 5; hence it’s tough to say how good they really are heading into the final Major of the season. However, they usually do well, so I wouldn’t count them out.

Out of all teams, I like the home crowd’s favourites, Toronto Ultra, who offer great value at the offered odds. Admittedly, they haven’t looked as good as OpTic, and they tend to struggle in Game 5, but having them priced at double the odds of OpTic just doesn’t look right.

They won CDL Major 3 and were fourth in CDL Major 1, which is nothing to sneeze at. Yes, Ultra haven’t delivered in CDL Major 4 and CDL Major 2, but we have to keep in mind that they got knocked out of both Majors by Atlanta FaZe, who seem a bit weaker heading into this Major.

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