The Los Angeles Thieves defeat OpTic Chicago for the first time this season to advance to first place in Group B.
OpTic Chicago and LA Thieves came into this weekend with two wins under their belts. LA Thieves beat the Seattle Surge and London Royal Ravens previously, with a game five loss to Atlanta FaZe. OpTic Chicago, on the other hand, were undefeated in their group with wins against London Royal Ravens and Seattle Surge as well.
This matchup would be the fourth time the LA Thieves would face off against OpTic Chicago since the Call of Duty League kicked off in January. The Thieves failed to defeat OpTic every other time with their closes score being 2-3 when they faced off against them during the Stage 1 Major. Outside of that game, OpTic Chicago have defeated the Thieves 3-0 or 3-1 in all other matchups.
Austin “SlasheR” Liddicoat and Donovan “Temp” Laroda were still on the main roster during the Stage 1 Major. Since then, SlasheR has been replaced by Zach “Drazah” Jordan and Temp was replaced by Carlos “Venom” Hernandez. With two new faces on the roster, the LA Thieves looked unstoppable against OpTic Chicago.
LA Thieves prevail against OpTic Chicago’s odd gun choices
LA Thieves kept things close on Checkmate Hardpoint during the first half. However, a last-ditch push from the Thieves helped break the final point from OpTic Chicago with the exact amount of time needed to win still on the clock. OpTic was unable to break back into the point, giving the Thieves the win 250-205 on Checkmate. Drazah was the MVP of the map after dropping a 1.32 Kill/Death ratio with 29 kills and just 22 deaths.
OpTic Chicago had other plans for the Thieves on Express Search and Destroy, pulling out two guns that were not typical for an official Call of Duty League match. Brandon “Dashy” Otell brought out the FFAR, a gun that hasn’t been in the weapon meta since Cold War first came out. Dashy made the gun look overpowered in his hands as he ran through the Thieves. OpTic won the map 6-3 with Dashy dropping a 3.0 K/D after going 12/4 overall.
🔥 @DashySZN is FAR too good with the FFAR! #BrickByBrick | #CDL2021 pic.twitter.com/hwe8t03l36
— Call of Duty League (@CODLeague) May 2, 2021
The FFAR made another appearance during the third map on Raid Control. This time, Dylan “Envoy” Hannon joined in on the fun by pulling out the Milano alongside Dashy’s FFAR. The Milano was working wonders for OpTic at the start, bringing Control to a game five after going down 2-0 at the start. However, Kenneth “Kenny” Williams was too hot for LA Thieves and was able to secure the Raid Control for them. Kenny ended the game with a 1.04 K/D against Envoy’s 0.81 K/D while using the Milano.
Apocalypse Hardpoint would be the final match of the series with Dashy pulling out the FFAR for the third time. Envoy left his Milano pick behind in the Control map, sticking with the traditional AK-74u for the final map. Kenny was the MVP of the map again after dropping a 1.92 K/D and carrying his team to victory. He went 25/13 overall against his teammates less than impressive, 0.89, 0.83, and 1.06 stat lines. LA Thieves would win the final Hardpoint 250-117 to secure the win over OpTic Chicago.
