With the playoff field practically decorated for Call of Duty League’s Stage 1 Major, Carolina Royal Raven took a key win on Saturday the next day for qualification for the playoffs starting on Thursday in Madrid.
By playing against Miami Heretics in today’s third and final match, Royal won 3-2 and ended the qualification by 5-2, which guaranteed them a top four placement in the qualifying.
Stage 1 Major, which is arranged by Toronto Ultra, will see all 12 COD teams compete in a double elimination tournament in Madrid, which starts on Thursday and ends with the big final on February 2. Each team plays seven qualifying matches to determine the seeding in the tournament. Each qualifying win is worth 10 points.
On Saturday, Royal Rvenens made a reverse sweep to get up in the scaffolding, lost 250-186 at Skyline Hardpoint and 6-3 on Redcard Search & Destroy before taking the next three maps-3-2 at Hacienda Control, 250 174 at Hacienda Hardpoint and 6-4 at Vault Search & Destroy.
Carolina is the fourth team to reach five qualifying victories, with the other three playing their last qualifying match on Sunday.
Vancouver Surge also needed five matches to get past his opponent, but did so by changing map gains with Minnesota Rokkr. The Surge opened with a 250-237 win over Rokkr at Skyline Hardpoint, but Minnesota responded with a 6-5 win at Vault Search & Destroy. They changed winnings again, Surge took Protocol Control 3-2 and Rokkr-winning Vault Hardpoint 250-224. The Surge took the match with a short 6-5 win at Redcard Search & Destroy to win it.
The second match for the day was a much more one-sided deal with Los Angeles Guerilla’s M8, which swept over Vegas Falcons 3-0-250-188 at Skyline Hardpoint, 6-3 at Skyline Search & Destroy and 3-1 on vault control.
The qualification ends on Sunday, with another three matches, including the largest qualifying match to end the day when 6-1 Toronto Ultra meets 5-2 Optic Texas-with Optic which has a shot in the top seed.
Call of Duty League 2025 Step 1 Major
Sunday’s matches
-Boston Breach vs Los Angeles Thieves
-Atlanta Faze vs. Cloud9 New York
–Toronto Ultra vs. Optic Texas
Qualifying (profit-loss record, map profit-loss difference, points):
1. Toronto Ultra, 6-0, Plus-10, 60p
2. Optic Texas, 5-1, Plus-8, 50p
3. Los Angeles Thieves, 5-1, Plus-7, 50p
4. Carolina Royal Ravens, 5-2, Plus-6, 50p
5. Boston Breach, 4-2, Plus-1, 40p
6. Vancouver Surge, 4-3, Plus-1, 40p
7. Atlanta Faze, 3-3, Plus-1, 30p
8. Miami Heretics, 2-5, minus-1, 20p
9. Los Angeles Guerillas M8, 2-5, minus -2, 20p
10. Minnesota Rokkr, 2-5, minus -6, 20p
11. Cloud9 New York, 1-5, minus -8, 10p
12. Vegas Falcons, 0-7, minus -17, 0p
— Field Level Media
