Dallas Empire replaced Tyler “FeLo” Johnson with Reece “Vivid” Drost ahead of Call of Duty League Stage 4.
Dallas Empire has had rocky performances since removing Cuyler “Huke” Garland from the starting roster in the early matches of Stage 3. The team was seeing a major decline in performance, which led to the initial removal of Huke. FeLo, a longtime substitute for the Dallas Empire, then moved up to the starting roster. However, after going 3-2 in Group A and starting in the winners round one of the Stage 3 Major, Dallas Empire failed to win a single map at the tournament.
The lack of map wins at the Stage 3 Major brought another roster change to the former CDL Champions. FeLo has now been moved back to a substitution role. In his place the team picked up former LA Guerrillas player Vivid. The Guerrillas released Vivid from their roster after a lackluster performance at the Stage 2 Major. Martin “Cheen” Chino then moved to the starting roster for the LA Guerrillas. Despite the change, the Guerrillas continued to struggle with their roster, and now Vivid is on a much better team.
Vivid fills big shoes on the Dallas Empire roster
Vivid played for the LA Guerrillas throughout the Modern Warfare season and most of Cold War. Despite great individual performances from Vivid, his team continued to struggle and barely took any wins. Dallas has a much higher win rate than the LA Guerrillas, but has fallen into a rut with seemingly no way out. The loss of Huke was a much bigger blow to the team than many realized.
“Welcome to the Empire, @VividTheWarrior. #DefendTheThrone,” the Dallas Empire account tweeted.
Welcome to the Empire, @VividTheWarrior.#DefendTheThrone pic.twitter.com/S6N3COp8QW
— Dallas Empire (@DallasEmpire) May 21, 2021
Without Huke, the team has barely been able to close out games and look like a shell of their former selves. That is where Vivid will have to come in and fill the large shoes that Huke left behind. While he may not have the MVP performances that Huke had before him, he has still competed in Call of Duty since late 2018. He spent most of his time on Challengers Teams during Black Ops 4 but is finally ready to make his statement in the league.
