The Toronto Ultra faced a surprising loss to start Stage 4 with the Florida Mutineers sweeping them 3-2 at the OpTic Chicago Home Series on May 27.
Florida narrowly defeated Toronto, and only stopped a reverse sweep thanks to a herculean comeback on Miami Search and Destroy. The series was one of the most exciting of the season, with both teams exchanging blows to keep the game close. The Mutineers are the ones coming away with the victory and CDL Points to kick off Stage 4, though.
Toronto upset by Florida Mutineers to start Stage 4
The series began with a couple of huge map wins by Florida. They took Raid Hardpoint, one of Toronto’s best maps, and then demolished the Ultra on Standoff Search and Destroy. Standoff is now in the map rotation. It joined Black Ops Cold War during the middle of Season 3. It seems the Mutineers had some better strategies lined up for Standoff than the Ultra, as they cruised to a 6-1 victory.
😳 @Mutineers come into Stage IV swinging with a 250-182 Hardpoint vs @TorontoUltra. https://t.co/wmB1gxuPFf#F3arTheDeep | #CDL2021 pic.twitter.com/Pd6JZBuEQI
— Call of Duty League (@CODLeague) May 27, 2021
Down 2-0, the Ultra then stormed back and took two straight maps. They won Raid Control, by far their best map and mode combination, and an exciting Moscow Hardpoint. This led to a game five, where the Ultra carried their momentum to take a 3-0 round advantage.
That third round was the last they would win though, as Florida got things under control and won six unanswered rounds to take the map and match. Colt “Havok” McLendon was the star for Florida, posting a 1.23 series KD and a 2.00 in Search and Destroy.
It was Cesar “Skyz” Bueno who gave the post-match interview, however, and he gave some insight into how the team responded when down 3-0 on the final map.
“We just started adjusting. We lost two rounds in the beginning that I thought we should have won. We were kind of full-tilted but after that, I was starting to get hype and make us regain and get our rhythm going. Every single round we started screaming and bringing energy to every round.”
Florida already has a signature win in Stage 4, but it’s clear they’re hungry for more. Toronto, on the other hand, will need to bounce back sooner rather than later if they want to survive the gauntlet that is Group B in Stage 4.
