Despite benching and trading one of the best Call of Duty players on the planet, the Dallas Empire have managed to make the winner’s bracket of the Stage 3 Major.
Dallas needed to defeat the Minnesota ROKKR in order to do so and flew through them in four maps. This means the Empire takes the third winner’s bracket spot in Group A while the ROKKR falls to the loser’s bracket.
Not many were sure if Dallas, a perennial winner’s bracket squad, would make it again after trading Cuyler “Huke” Garland. The team brought in Tyler “FeLo” Johnson, who is a great player in his own right but not on Huke’s level. Luckily for the squad and their fans, the veterans of the Empire stepped up and took care of business in the latter half of Stage 3.
Minnesota falls to the Dallas Empire
The match itself was fairly close, with both teams fighting back and forth on most maps. Although, the experience of Dallas managed to pull through toward the end of the series. Interestingly enough, no member of the Empire went off in terms of statistics. It was an extremely balanced effort from the 2020 champs across the board.
FeLo, Indervir “iLLeY” Dhaliwal and Anthony “Shotzzy” Cuevas-Castro all managed to post a 1.00 or 1.01 KD in the series. However, it was newcomer FeLo who made the flashiest players, like his 1v3 ace in Search and Destroy.
1V3 FOR THE ACE @FeLo â™ #DefendTheThrone x @JackLinks pic.twitter.com/OiimxtNJNb
— Dallas Empire (@DallasEmpire) May 9, 2021
For Minnesota, Lamar “Accuracy” Abedi had the roughest outing, posting a 0.82 KD, while Dillon “Attach” Price finished with a solid 1.22 KD. Minnesota was certainly competitive in every map but failed to close out both the first Hardpoint and Search and Destroy.
Unfortunately for the ROKKR faithful, this still means Minnesota will start the Stage 3 Major in the loser’s bracket. This comes one major after the squad took the first seed in their group.
On the flip side, Dallas becomes the third seed in Group A and faces off against Atlanta FaZe in the first round of the major. The Stage 3 Major begins on Thursday, May 13.
