5 players to watch during CDL 2021\u2019s Stage 4 LA Thieves Home Series Dexerto \/ Call of Duty LeagueOne week until LAN and the CDL Stage 4 Major. And then one stage left until CDL Champs. It\u2019s crunch time and big players need to make big plays as we move into the LA Thieves Home Series. Pride and reputation are at stake as the CDL approaches the 2021 season\u2019s end. More tangibly, there\u2019s $3.5 million ripe for the taking. Only eight teams will fight over the final $1.5 million at Champs, but the first mill gets split over two league-wide majors. For context, 230 CDL points separate No. 1 from No. 8 right now \u2014 and 100 separate No. 8 from No. 12. That may seem like a lot, but, including this week, whoever wins the Stage 4 Major can earn between 105-145 points (depending on what side of the bracket they start on). It won\u2019t be easy, and luck needs to be factored in, but a lot can change in the standings before Champs. Good teams need to keep their foot on the gas and bad teams need to pounce when the top eight slip up. The latter might be difficult, as this week\u2019s five players to watch are all serious X-factors who might be reaching nasty form. McArthur \u2018Cellium\u2019 Jovel (Atlanta FaZe) Fans may meme about the snaking, but pros always emphasize just how deadly Cellium is. And, considering last week\u2019s matches, MC\u2019s fangs may have just gotten sharper. Sweeping Seattle, Cell dropped a 1.43 K\/D\u2026 \u2018Nuff said. Then, while Chris \u2018Simp\u2019 Lehr got attention for feasting on the LA Thieves in Map 3, Cell had already cleaned out his plate. MC had a 1.71 through the first two maps, before finishing with a tidy 1.21. He\u2019s hitting some absurd form right now, especially in Search & Destroy \u2014 where he posted a 3.14 on the week. If Cell keeps playing like this, the Stage 4 Major might already be in the bag. Reece \u2018Vivid\u2019 Drost (Dallas Empire) It\u2019s hard to be encouraged by losses, but something may have clicked for Vivid and that could be critical for a Dallas team that seemed to be flatlining. The Empire benched Cuyler \u2018Huke\u2019 Garland and didn\u2019t improve. Then they benched his replacement, Tyler \u2018FeLo\u2019 Johnson, for Vivid and, again, didn\u2019t improve. But after sweeping the Guerrillas last week, in one of Vivid\u2019s worst games ever, something changed and the newcomer proceeded to nearly carry Dallas to a win against the red-hot Subliners. Ian \u2018Crimsix\u2019 Porter, reacting to the LA match being Vivid\u2019s first CDL sweep, noted that the newfound confidence would turn the SMG into \u201ca f**king weapon.\u201d And boy, was he right. Against the Guerrillas, Vivid had a 0.87 K\/D with the fewest kills and least damage on the team. In a 2-3 loss to New York, he was the reason it went to five maps \u2014 posting the team\u2019s most kills (joining NYSL\u2019s Makenzie \u2018Mack\u2019 Kelley in the 100-plus club) and second-highest damage. That\u2019s a f**king weapon. Joseph \u2018Owakening\u2019 Conley (Florida Mutineers) At 7\u20192\u201d and with a thousand suns coursing through his fiery thumbs, Demon Joe is a presence on the map. And when he\u2019s on point, the Mutineers can sink any team in the league. Last week, Big Wake played well enough in a 2-3 loss to New York, posting a 0.95 and pushing the Subliners to a tie-breaker. But, against the Guerrillas, he was on another level \u2014 notching a 1.32, with over 20 kills and over 2,000 more damage than the next highest player for either\u2026 in the entire game. The \u201cTampa Turret\u201d has one of the highest ceilings in all of CoD. Florida are a top-three team when he reaches it. Austin \u2018SlasheR\u2019 Liddicoat (LA Thieves) He\u2019s back. And he\u2019s not alone. Following a Huke tell-all video about his CDL struggles, Huke and SlasheR have been announced as Thieves starters. SlasheR struggled before getting benched in April, but he also showed flashes of his veteran, superstar play. Now, with LAN returning for the Stage 4 Major, his return could not be more perfectly timed. As far as players to watch go, SlasheR is an obvious candidate \u2014 as he replaces his replacement, Zack \u2018Drazah\u2019 Jordan, in the starting lineup. Paco \u2018HyDra\u2019 Rusiewiez (New York Subliners) There\u2019s a reason why caffeine is omnipresent in first-person-shooters. High energy and laser focus are key to cracked gameplay. So you can imagine the CoD community\u2019s surprise when HyDra looked like he was about to fall asleep in both matches last week \u2014 and still put up one-plus K\/Ds. Despite being sick, New York\u2019s rookie phenom dropped a 1.04 in a 3-2 vs Florida and a 1.16 in a 3-2 vs Dallas. The \u201cFrench Felon\u201d dropped serious kills on upsurging teams while under the weather. Either health is overrated or he\u2019s still improving. If it\u2019s the latter, Toronto might be in for one hell of a matchup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
5 players to watch during CDL 2021\u2019s Stage 4 LA Thieves Home Series Dexerto \/ Call of Duty LeagueOne week until LAN and the CDL Stage 4 Major. And then one stage left until CDL Champs. It\u2019s crunch time and big players need to make big plays as we move into the LA Thieves Home […]<\/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-22178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22178","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=22178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22178\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}