5 players to watch during CDL 2021\u2019s Stage 2 Major Dexerto \/ Call of Duty LeagueWe\u2019ve reached the Call of Duty League\u2019s Stage 2 Major and the 2021 season has already shifted dramatically. From returning stars to questioned big names, here are five players you need to watch at CDL Major II. Last week, for the LA Guerrillas Home Series, we honed in on five x-factors on the precipice of changing trajectories. On the positive end, Brandon \u2018Dashy\u2019 Otell, Reece \u2018Vivid\u2019 Drost and Luis \u2018Fire\u2019 Rivera all proved doubters wrong, going undefeated and notching positive K\/Ds (kill-death ratios) on the week. Maintaining momentum, Preston \u2018Prestinni\u2019 Sanderson held a 0.99 K\/D despite two losses \u2014 poor games compared to his Week 2 demolition, but proof of an elevated, new baseline. On the opposite end, Cuyler \u2018Huke\u2019 Garland improved incrementally, securing a 0.95 while going 1-1. Now come the games with higher stakes ($500,000 worth, to be specific). On the biggest stage of the season, three players can cement their recent form: Seth \u2018Scump\u2019 Abner, Eli \u2018Standy\u2019 Bentz and Justin \u2018SiLLY\u2019 Fargo-Palmer. Meanwhile, two big names need to shift increasingly unpleasant narratives: Indervir \u2018iLLeY\u2019 Dhaliwal and Kenny \u2018Kenny\u2019 Williams. Indervir \u2018iLLeY\u2019 Dhaliwal (Dallas Empire) At this point, every single member of the Empire is going to be put on our must-watch list. After coming in as the 2021 Champs favorites, Dallas have sputtered toward wild inconsistency \u2014 and, this past week, iLLeY became an obvious focal point. As discussed by Jonathan \u2018Pacman\u2019 Tucker in our Reverse Sweep review show, many hoped iLLeY \u2014 a renowned S&D prodigy and grinder \u2014 could fix the Empire\u2019s problems. Instead, the so-called \u201cGuru\u201d was one of the team\u2019s shakiest performers in a disappointing 1-1 week. After a strong showing in a 3-0 of the Florida Mutineers, iLLeY dropped a team-low 0.74 K\/D in the Empire\u2019s 2-3 loss to a resurging OpTic Chicago. If Dallas is going to get back to CDL Champs form, they need the third, wildcard prong of XEO to sharpen up. Winners Round 1, against the New York Subliners, will be a good time to start. Justin \u2018SiLLY\u2019 Fargo-Palmer (Los Angeles Guerrillas) In an absolutely demonic week, SiLLY introduced CoD\u2019s big brands to big beams. A top-ranked Atlanta FaZe and a beloved Los Angeles Thieves? SiLLY\u2019s Guerrillas treated each to a loss, with major thanks to the AR\u2019s absurd 1.45 K\/D on the week. It wasn\u2019t enough to get LAG into the Stage 2 Major\u2019s Winners Bracket, but it was enough to build expectations. To make that Losers Bracket run, LAG will need more of SiLLY\u2019s best \u2014 starting in Round 1 against the Mutineers. Kenny \u2018Kenny\u2019 Williams (Los Angeles Thieves) What an absolute mess. The Thieves started the season off on a win streak and then dropped into the nether, moving their roster around like the \u201cCha Cha Slide.\u201d First, they dropped Donovan \u2018Temp\u2019 Laroda for Carlos \u2018Venom\u2019 Hernandez. Now, they\u2019ve dropped Austin \u2018Slasher\u2019 Liddicoat for Zack \u2018Drazah\u2019 Jordan. But it\u2019s not Drazah who needs to be watched this week, it\u2019s Kenny. Ignoring statistics this season, his own performance has been streaky and has come with various role changes. Now, he becomes the \u201cmain AR,\u201d but coach Jordan \u201cJKap\u201d Kaplan has argued that the role discussion means nothing as CoD becomes \u201cpositionless.\u201d Whatever his role actually is, Kenny is now one of the Thieves\u2019 last two remaining veteran stars on the roster. Having asked for a trade or benching weeks ago, Kenny\u2019s new situation should be closely watched as LA meets Paris in Losers Round 1. Eli \u2018Standy\u2019 Bentz (Minnesota ROKKR) While the aforementioned rookie, Venom, couldn\u2019t turn his team\u2019s trajectory around, Standy most certainly has. The ROKKR wanted to speed up and their rookie SMG has done that, and more. Since joining in Stage 2, the ROKKR are 3-0 (securing the second seed overall) and Standy has posted the ninth-highest K\/D of the stage, with a gnarly 1.11. The Rookie of the Year favorite now meets the bright lights of tournament play and one question remains: Will the rookie crack under $500,000 worth of pressure? Seth \u2018Scump\u2019 Abner (OpTic Chicago) Oh boy, after a week crumbling, the King may have just rebuilt the Green Wall. In Stage 2, Week 2, OpTic went 0-2, failing to win a single map against the ROKKR and Mutineers. Then, in the Guerrillas Home Series, OpTic went 2-0, including an impressive 3-2 over the Empire. Read more: Enable: Scump Doesn\u2019t NEED TO Compete! – That turnaround can, in major part, be attributed to Scump \u2014 who posted a 1.17 K\/D (his first positive rate in two weeks) and some pure clutch behavior. It appears that, if OpTic want to dethrone the league\u2019s best, they need Scump to live up to his royal namesake. He\u2019ll get the chance to keep slaying in a Winners Round 1 matchup against Toronto.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
5 players to watch during CDL 2021\u2019s Stage 2 Major Dexerto \/ Call of Duty LeagueWe\u2019ve reached the Call of Duty League\u2019s Stage 2 Major and the 2021 season has already shifted dramatically. From returning stars to questioned big names, here are five players you need to watch at CDL Major II. Last week, for […]<\/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-22176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22176","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=22176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22176\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}