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Emily RandESPN
The Dallas Empire are Call of Duty League champions once again, this time with a 3-1 victory over the Atlanta FaZe.
The Empire started off strong on Gun Runner Hardpoint, where they forced Atlanta to break on to several early points with better spawn rotations. Despite many victorious gunfights for Atlanta, the FaZe fell to Dallas 1-0 on the first map 250-222.
Search and Destroy has been a strong game mode for both of these teams not only at this tournament (the Empire’s Arklov Peak performance against OpTic Gaming Los Angeles aside), but throughout league play this year. Atlanta and Dallas butted heads in many rounds that often went almost all the way through the game timer. It went all the way to Round 11 before it came down to a 1v1, with Atlanta’s Chris “Simp” Lehr beating his former eUnited teammate James “Clayster” Eubanks. On the next map, a 171-146 Domination win for Dallas on Hackney Yard, veterans Clayster and Ian “C6” Porter led the charge, including a first-round triple-cap that set Dallas ahead early. Dallas then stormed through Map 4, a 250-200 Hardpoint win on St. Petrograd.
This is the Empire’s second title, having previously won 3-2 over the Minnesota RØKKR at the Los Angeles homestand on March 8.
Hometown team Chicago Huntsmen fell 0-3 in the semifinals to the Dallas Empire. They began their online home series with a shocking loss to the New York Subliners. The Subliners were the toast of the tournament after beating the Huntsmen in the first round, and although they lost to Chicago later in the bracket, this is the first sign of life for the Subliners in a while. By contrast, the Huntsmen have struggled to find their groove since a February victory in London, losing to the Florida Mutineers twice in the semifinals at their past two events and now Dallas this weekend.
