5 players to watch during CDL 2021 Opening Weekend Activision\/DexertoThe 2021 Call of Duty League season finally kicking off with the Opening Weekend and we\u2019ve keyed in on five players who fans need to keep an eye on at Atlanta FaZe\u2019s Home Series event. Professional Call of Duty is back and revamped for 2021. With a change to 4v4 in Treyarch\u2019s Black Ops Cold War, rosters have shuffled and so have player expectations. During the Kickoff Classic preseason event, we locked in seven players whose performances were worth monitoring. Now, based on that limited sample size, we\u2019ve centered on five Week One x-factors. Some play for championship contenders while others for more hopeful organizations, but all need to be watched closely as Stage 1 of the 2021 campaign gets underway. Matthew \u2018FormaL\u2019 Piper (OpTic Chicago) The tale of \u201cTexas FormaL\u201d In 2020, FormaL played below his standards due to Californian connection issues. In 2021, like much of the league, he is based in Texas. And, even if you\u2019re not a Green Wall diehard, you\u2019ve likely heard that \u201cTexas FormaL\u201d means the return of the beast. Sweeping the Los Angeles Thieves in the preseason, FormaL posted a 1.40 and 1.23 K\/D in both respawn maps. That suggests the AR may, once again, be shooting as straight as ever. This week, he faces the Paris Legion and Atlanta FaZe, providing another test of OpTic\u2019s revitalized AR and the Lone Star State\u2019s internet. Christopher \u2018Parasite\u2019 Duarte (London Royal Ravens) A fresh start after a decade of uncertainty Having started his professional career in 2011, Parasite has spent a decade gunning kids, talking his talk, and burning bridges throughout the CoD community. Relegated to the amateur scene for much of the past four years, the man known as Haggy is now back on a pro roster. The 2013 world champion has played for over 40 teams in his career and, unsurprisingly, many believe this is his last chance to cement a place among the pros. On a two-week contract as Trei \u2018Zer0\u2019 Morris deals with visa issues, Haggy will look to re-establish his place in the pro CoD scene while helping the Royal Ravens bounce back. He\u2019ll start against the Seattle Surge, after London fell 2-3 to the Legion in the preseason (during which Zer0 went -26 in both Hardpoint losses). Tyler \u2018aBeZy\u2019 Pharris (Atlanta FaZe) Time for the Tiny Terror to go big Every team in the CDL knows just how dangerous the Tiny Terrors are. But a retooled FaZe lost 2-3 to the Florida Mutineers in the preseason and, while statistics should be taken with a grain of salt, they do paint an intriguing picture. FaZe won both maps in which aBeZy notched a positive K\/D, while losing all three in which he went negative (a combined 9-18 in SND and a 17-27 in the Hardpoint loss). Whether it\u2019s aBeZy\u2019s play or the team\u2019s gameplan, Atlanta will need more terror than error out of him if the hosts intend to make a statement against the LA Guerrillas and OpTic Chicago this weekend. Michael \u2018MajorManiak\u2019 Szymaniak (Minnesota ROKKR) Is 2021 Maniak for real? To be candid, few would credit MajorManiak\u2019s AR play for FaZe\u2019s 2020 run to the CDL Championship Grand Finals. The team went out and replaced him with Alec \u2018Arcitys\u2019 Sanderson for 2021 and, in response, the Major gifted his new team, the ROKKR, one of his best performances in recent memory during a preseason win against the Toronto Ultra. The veteran AR helped the fully retooled Minnesota roster to a victory by posting a cumulative 1.50 K\/D across the match, the highest among all CDL players in the preseason (per BreakingPoint). Now, with matches against the highly touted Thieves and Dallas Empire, fans will discover if that early 2021 form was a fluke. Indervir \u2018iLLeY\u2019 Dhaliwal (Dallas Empire) From dirty work to 30-bombs In 2020, iLLeY was an easy fan-favorite who put up highlight plays and handled the Empire\u2019s dirty work, but understandably didn\u2019t have league-leading statistics given that role. Potentially overshadowed in the mainstream by fellow rookie Anthony \u2018Shotzzy\u2019 Cuevas\u2019 MVP campaign, iLLeY\u2019s time to shine may now be upon us. With a swap to 4v4, games have become more methodical and the youngster has already made waves. With less sloppy duties, the young upstart posted absurd stats alongside patented highlights in a preseason sweep of the New York Subliners. NYSL\u2019s roster is in flux due to injury and visa complications, but iLLeY\u2019s stats in the show match (a combined 1.43 K\/D, third-best in the league) shouldn\u2019t be discounted. Now, they\u2019ll be tested by the Surge and ROKKR. If this is the form and role he\u2019s bringing to 2021, a new MVP candidate may make Dallas the year\u2019s championship favorites. You can follow all of this weekend\u2019s action live with our CDL 2021 Opening Weekend hub, which includes live streams, full schedule, up-to-date scores, and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
5 players to watch during CDL 2021 Opening Weekend Activision\/DexertoThe 2021 Call of Duty League season finally kicking off with the Opening Weekend and we\u2019ve keyed in on five players who fans need to keep an eye on at Atlanta FaZe\u2019s Home Series event. Professional Call of Duty is back and revamped for 2021. With […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22169\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}