Dallas Empire Dominated Atlanta FaZe To Win The Inaugural Call Of Duty League Championship

Fans expected an intense matchup at the Call of Duty League Championship on Sunday. Neither the Atlanta FaZe or the Dallas Empire felt like they were significantly better than the other CDL powerhouse. With five wins necessary to take the title this seemed like a contest guaranteed to go eight games minimum.

Perhaps we should have expected a tidier match, however, as the Dallas Empire dominated from the very first game on the way to a dominant 5-1 gentleman’s sweep of the Atlanta FaZe to win the 2020 Call of Duty League championship. FaZe certainly had the talent to put up a decent fight, but any momentum they took in any of the rounds was quickly dashed by an Empire counter attack throughout Sunday’s final. Their only real moment of success, the Game 5 Hardpoint victory on Gun Runner, was immediately followed by another loss to seal the championship for Dallas.

The first sign that everything was not what it seemed was when Dallas jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead over Atlanta including Cave, a map that Atlanta had historically been great on.

https://twitter.com/CODLeague/status/1300166174714589184

Where we really knew something was off for Atlanta was when FaZe went down 3-0 on Search and Destroy. FaZe, a great 1v1 squad, struggled to control the board and lost on a map they came into 11-2 on all year.

Atlanta started to show something in Game 4 and went into the second half of Domination with an 18-point lead. Dallas responded with a huge clutch and dominated to clear the gap and enter Game 5 with a 4-0 lead plus a chance at the title.

https://twitter.com/CODLeague/status/1300176572725460992

Using the momentum they had gained from Game 4, FaZe dominated the K/D portion of the leaderboard in Game 5. Sometimes it’s really as simple as killing your opponent more than you die. FaZe did that and lived on to fight another round.

Dallas responded well in Game 6 search and destroy. While Atlanta was clearly playing better and kept it to a close matchup, the Empire won the round, 6-4, and it felt like they just kept getting stronger as the round went on. They were always ahead in members alive and it always seemed like they knew where FaZe was going to set up. It was a strong performance and exactly what Empire needed to do to take home the title.

https://twitter.com/CODLeague/status/1300183164187541504

https://twitter.com/CODLeague/status/1300183940796502023

The Empire are now your 2020 Call of Duty League champions in an incredibly dominant performance. It was a shock to see for many, not because of the Empire winning, but the way they went about it. You don’t expect a team like FaZe to go away, but sometimes you get to the title matchup and it doesn’t go quite as expected.

https://twitter.com/CODLeague/status/1300187483947311106

That said, maybe the Empire should have been considered the stronger team from the start. They had the regular season MVP in Shotzzy, the winningest player in Call of Duty history in C6 (also known as Crimsix,) and a member of the 2019 World Championship team with Clayster. This team was set up well to be the inaugural winners of the Call of Duty league and as long as they keep this roster around they could be in a great position to dominate for a long time.