As their final series of the Stage 2 regular season against cross-town rivals Los Angeles Guerrillas reaches its third mode, Control, the Los Angeles Thieves are visibly desperate and on the verge of being swept.
A much stronger start to this map puts the Thieves up 2-1. However, the following stale offensive effort evens the scoreline and forces the deciding round. With another attacking side coming up for the Thieves, they are forced to quickly right their wrongs to save the series. Soon enough, their usual struggles catch up to them.
It’s only with several seconds remaining that the LA Thieves get their first tick on either point and, although they make it interesting after winning a few gunfights, they unnecessarily give their man advantage right back to the Guerrillas just before securing the first point.
As has been the theme with the Thieves up to this point, a simple situation is made difficult by their own hands. This poor decision making during such a crucial moment is punished: the Thieves are cleared out of the point, and with it, the series.
Heads are left hanging and each player sits in complete silence. There’s a sense of disappointment in their disposition, yet not so much in expressions of shock. Results like this have become much too familiar.
Los Angeles was left with even more questions than they entered the match with, and the immediate future looked bleak. This promising inaugural LA Thieves roster, once considered among the best in the Call of Duty League on-paper, now struggled to scrape out wins against the lowest teams in the standings.
The team had already made one roster change earlier in Stage 2, with Donovan “Temp” Laroda hitting the bench in favor of top Challengers prospect Carlos “Venom” Hernandez. Now, with just a few days before Major 2, the Thieves made an even more difficult decision.
Our starting roster for the Stage 2 Major will be:@Kuavo@TJHaLy@Vxnxm
@Drazah_
Drazah has been playing incredibly well in Challengers with multiple event wins under his belt this season. We’re excited to see him play on the big stage this week as we give Slasher some time off.— LA Thieves (@LAThieves) April 5, 2021
News broke that Black Ops III World Champion and LA Thieves leader Austin “SlasheR” Liddicoat had been benched, too.
The man replacing him? Zachary “Drazah” Jordan; last year’s substitute in Modern Warfare; the man who helped the team get back on the right path with a sixth place finish at the Call of Duty Championship under the OpTic Gaming Los Angeles brand.
The possibility of a substitution wasn’t out of the question; it never is in the young CDL, where the big money invested by franchised teams makes it hard to just sit back and let a roster keep losing. But benching any of the four distinguished veterans was bound to cause some shock and disagreement around the league.
Kenneth “Kenny” Williams and Thomas “TJHaLy” Haly, the two players who avoided being benched, were now forced to pick up the pieces and get to work with their new teammates.
Destined to be together again
The CDL’s newest franchise bears a modified title but is no stranger to the competitive scene.
100 Thieves, the original organization that competed in the Call of Duty World League prior to the franchising direction taken for the Modern Warfare season, saw incredible success under the ownership of former pro player Matthew “Nadeshot” Haag.
The roster for Black Ops 4, which included current LA Thieves players Kenny and SlasheR, brought in back-to-back event wins at the London and Anaheim Majors – similar to how the Atlanta FaZe have won the Major events in both Stages 1 and 3 – and was the runner-up to Evil Geniuses at the CWL Championship to end the year strong.
They had the potential to build off of their success and chase a ring the next year, but the young organization wasn’t financially prepared for what came next.
The reported $25 million fee for a spot in the franchised CDL was too much of a risk to take for Nadeshot. Especially considering the fact that both Los Angeles slots had been sold. Those on the roster would have to find new homes in another city.
One of those LA slots went to OpTic Gaming, under the new ownership of Immortals Gaming Company. IGC bought the rights to the OpTic brand from founder Hector “H3CZ” Rodriguez, while H3CZ became the co-CEO of NRG and bought the slot for the Chicago Huntsmen.
Kenny and SlasheR were kept along by the new owners, though. This is how their trio with TJHaLy first formed when they signed with OGLA during Modern Warfare.
It was a year that no one could have expected. The COVID-19 pandemic interrupted all social gatherings and, for the Call of Duty competitive scene, in-person events were canceled. The switch to online play for the latter half of the year disrupted the team’s progress. After a surprising sixth place finish at the CDL Championship, news broke that IGC would sell the franchise to another group.
During the entirety of the four-month offseason, the OGLA players were stuck in a position where they didn’t know who would buy them out. And they weren’t sure whether the new owners would even decide to keep the roster together. Should they get in touch with other franchises? Were their spots for next season secure?
“It was the most confusing and demotivating process I’ve probably ever experienced,” Kenny said.
One afternoon Kenny received two FaceTime calls at the same time; one from his mother and the other from Nadeshot.
“You don’t get a call from Nade every day,” Kenny thought. “I can call my mom back.”
Drawing inspiration from his Chicago roots and basketball legend Michael Jordan’s famous statement when he came out of retirement, Nadeshot shared some career-shaking news:
“We’re back.”
