CWL Pro League Play-In: Pool A Prediction
Over at the Call of Duty Twitch.Tv account, we were accompanied by Momo (Philip Whitfield), Benson (Ben Bowe), NAMELESS (Anthony Wheeler) and MerK (Joe DeLuca) to reveal the four groups in the CWL Pro League Qualifier 2019.
Teams who placed 5th-32nd through CWL Las Vegas qualified for the play-in tournament which begins January 16th — January 20th. With the groups now drawn, we focus on one of the toughest pools of the series: Pool A
Team Sween: 5th (CWL Las Vegas Placement)
One of the most notable European teams of the Black Ops 4 season goes to Team Sween. An Orgless roster which established for Last Chance Qualifiers in 2018 soared through the open bracket at CWL Las Vegas to ending T2 in Pool A alongside eUnited, 100 Thieves, Team Reciprocity and Mindfreak. They were defeated by eUnited but a 3–0 map sweep against all three matches put them into the winners bracket against EU rivals, Lightning Pandas. An intense series of maps saw the game turn to a map 5, which fell into Team Sween’s favour and advanced to the semi-finals against Splyce. Unfortunately for the EU favourites, they were unsuccessful in taking a map and fell into the losers bracket; their last chance to remain in the competition against Luminosity. They took the hardpoint 250–174, but could not strengthen their lead in the remaining maps.
Aside from their high placement, Team Sween have been back-to-back champions online in the EU CWL 2000 series. Coming back from their Vegas trip, they won the 2k series against Heretics on December 16 and remain unbeatable after a reverse sweep against former Black Forest Games roster.
Prediction: 1st, Automatic Qualification
Team Reciprocity: 9th (CWL Las Vegas Placement)
A new region change (a complete move across the globe, for one player) saw former Unilad players Zed, Wuskin and Seany join Team Vitality and European veteran Tommey for the Black Ops 4 season. Former Mindfreak player, Denz explained via. Twitter how he wanted to move out of the APAC region and excel his career in Europe or North America. And that’s what he did. He became the fifth and final player to complete the Team Reciprocity roster where they are one of three teams who moved to Vegas for the season.
The team placed second in both November NA CWL 2000 Series, with Lightning Pandas’ Peatie as a pick up for Zed on November 18th. They also finished T4 in the CMG ProDown with Vegas just days away.
Their pool play campaign didn’t reach their expectations as they only found a 25% win success and 29% map win. They secured a 3–1 win over Denz’s former team, Mindfreak — only dropping Hacienda Search and Destroy 6–3.
They faced the losers bracket, with the hope of finishing with a high placement in the series, but could only eliminate Heretics and FaZe Clan. In round four saw Team Rec take on Evil Geniuses, but could only secure the first hardpoint. Tommey tweeted his thoughts after the event, “GGWP @/EvilGeniuses, we lost 3–1. That 5–6 SnD was a killer.”
Prediction: 2nd, Automatic Qualification
FaZe Clan: 15th (CWL Las Vegas Placement)
A disappointing start to FaZe’s campaign for the Black Ops 4 season as they finished CWL Las Vegas in 15th place — an elimination by Team Reciprocity. They finished third in their pool play series, a 50% win success after beating EnVy and Mazer Gaming (TeddyRecKs’ roster). Although making their way to round 3 of the losers bracket, they failed to advance further after being tied 2–2; failing to secure the final map.
The roster recently changed as newly signed Methodz moved to G2 Esports alongside Blazt, Decemate, Chino and Lacefield. eUnited Cadet, Cellium — known for being one of the top youngest Search and Destroy stars in the community became the new fifth-man to complete the roster. Cellium turned 18 on Christmas Day and will play his first major LAN next week.
Prediction: 3rd, Advance to Playoff Bracket
TeddyRecKs’ Team/Former Mazer Gaming): 18th (CWL Las Vegas Placement)
The current roster reunited for the CWL Las Vegas National Qualifier. Their last event together was back at CWL Championship 2018 under Lethal Gaming. With the expansion into a 5v5 format for the season, the roster was accompanied by Apox — who ended his previous season also at the CWL Championship 2018 under EZG.
The roster soared through the open bracket, notably beating Tainted Minds 3–0 in round 6. They were placed into Pool C, but only secured one win against EnVy. They were placed into round 2 of the losers bracket but were denied to fight another round after G2 Esports’ clean sweep.
They parted ways with Mazer Gaming after the event and will attend the Pro League Qualifiers without an organisation.
Prediction: 7th, eliminated from the competition.
FC Black: 21st (CWL Las Vegas Placement)
Faze Clan’s academy team, FC Black was announced the day before CWL Las Vegas. The roster includes GVTY and Tisch, two former players of Mentality Esports who attended CWL Championship 2018.
During the open bracket, they made their way to round 6 against Spanish organisation, Heretics but failed to win a single map and were knocked into the losers bracket. Their round 9 win against Movistar Riders found their success into entering the losers championship bracket to face APAC stars, Mindfreak. They could only secure one map and the result was elimination.
Since the event, the roster has placed second and first in the previous NA CWL 2000 series respectively.
Prediction: 4th, Advance to Playoff Bracket
Niall’s Team/Former Team Divine: 26th (CWL Las Vegas Placement)
The Vegas roster included Niall, Bidz, Nevo and Deleo: four players who made it to the CWL Last Chance Qualifiers/Championship 2018. They joined with Creza and have been competing in a series of tournaments online ahead of the first offline event of the season.
They were knocked out of the winners open bracket but soared through the losers bracket — notably beating Enigma6. Their last round found top APAC team, Tainted Minds who advanced onto the championship bracket — eliminating Team Divine.
The roster called for a change: introducing Keza to the team, replacing former Brash star, Nevo.
Also, Bidz was replaced by endurAAA.
Prediction: 5th, Advance to Playoff Bracket
Enigma6: 31st (CWL Las Vegas Placement)
Enigma6 had a disappointing run during the first offline event of Black Ops 4; with only two of the four players from the Championship roster remain (General and Diabolic), they join with Kade, Frosty and KiSMET.
They finished in round 5 of the winners open bracket but fell into losers after a 2–0 loss from Excelerate Gaming. They eliminated Midnight Gaming but found their final match of their series against Pool A rivals, Team Divine.
The team recently placed T6 in the CMG ProDown.
Prediction: 6th, eliminated from the competition.
Overall, this group is one of the most difficult to predict; a mixture of top-flight teams and rising AM rosters…we could be in for a surprise. All will be revealed during the event starting January 16.
