5 players to watch during CDL 2021\u2019s Stage 4 OpTic Home Series Dexerto \/ Call of Duty LeagueThe Call of Duty League is approaching its penultimate stage and, with roster changes galore, there are some key players to watch during CDL 2021\u2019s Stage 4: OpTic Chicago Home Series. With only eight teams making CDL Champs this season, the pressure is on. And, with only two stages left, there are still critical placement points to secure (and a clean $1 million in prizing). Stage 4 is inherently a big deal and it all kicks off with the OpTic Home Series. Ahead of this stage, six different teams made roster changes in an effort to regain and surge (sorry, pun intended) into the CDL\u2019s upper echelon. Four of those new or returning starters make our must-watch list: Reece \u2018Vivid\u2019 Drost, Alex \u2018Alexx\u2019 Carpenter, Thomas \u2018TJHaLy\u2019 Haly, and Nicholas \u2018Classic\u2019 Dicostanzo. While those four look to help their teams (and themselves) bounce back, the fifth player to watch is in a familiar situation hoping to maintain momentum. You can\u2019t ignore the home team, so Matthew \u2018FormaL\u2019 Piper rounds out this week\u2019s list as OpTic look to build on their Stage 3 Major. Reece \u2018Vivid\u2019 Drost (Dallas Empire) Widely considered the Los Angeles Guerrillas\u2019 top player, Vivid was surprisingly moved to the bench in late-April. Now, following an appearance from Justin \u2018SiLLY\u2019 Fargo-Palmer on , it seems that the upsurging SMG may have actually benched himself. A month later, Vivid finds himself replacing Tyler \u2018FeLo\u2019 Johnson on the reigning champion Empire \u2014 and, especially if the former Guerrilla did bench himself, this opportunity needs to be seized. Vivid has a 0.93 K\/D this season and is easily one of the league\u2019s most aggressive players (he ranks top five in kills and deaths per 10 minutes on both Hardpoint and Control). Dallas benched Cuyler \u2018Huke\u2019 Garland, then benched FeLo after an 0-2 Major, so it\u2019s time to turn things around. A new, talented SMG can help the Empire justify their (and his) decisions during Stage 4\u2019s opening week. Alex \u2018Alexx\u2019 Carpenter (London Royal Ravens) Alexx had only played 20 maps this season before leaving the Royal Ravens club due to personal reasons. In those 20 maps, he produced a serviceable, albeit uninspiring 0.92 K\/D. Now, London cut rookie Alex \u2018Zaptius\u2019 Bonilla and brought Alexx back into the lineup. With Zaptius notching a 0.95 K\/D in his brief London career, the Royal Ravens impressed in a 2-1 showing at the Stage 3 Major. Still sitting at 10th in the CDL standings, Alexx will need to prove he\u2019s rejuvenated and deadly for an improving London to convince fans this was a good choice. Thomas \u2018TJHaLy\u2019 Haly (Los Angeles Thieves) The Thieves spent \u201chundreds of thousands of dollars\u201d (per Tommy \u2018ZooMaa\u2019 Paparatto\u2019s sources) to replace TJ with Huke. Then, within a month, they benched Huke for TJ after going 1-2 in the Stage 3 Major and dropping to 6th in the standings. It\u2019s one of the wildest storylines in CoD esports history and TJ finds himself at the center of it all. Understandably then, no performance will be monitored as closely this week than TJ\u2019s as LAT should comfortably drub a revamped Seattle Surge. Matthew \u2018FormaL\u2019 Piper (OpTic Chicago) FormaL isn\u2019t in the same boat as these other cats, but with great power comes great responsibility and there are simply higher expectations for the Green Wall. At fifth in the standings following a 3-1 weekend in the Stage 3 Major, FormaL\u2019s level of play can dictate OpTic\u2019s progress as a true contender. After having Chicago\u2019s highest K\/D during an otherwise-rough Stage 3 groups stage, FormaL had the team\u2019s lowest in the Major. And he was OpTic\u2019s only player to have a negative K\/D in each of their three map losses to the Ultra. It\u2019s hard to imagine OpTic losing if his teammates play like they did in the Major and FormaL plays like he did in each map win. That\u2019s a tough bar to reach, but it\u2019ll be needed during their Home Series \u2014 as OpTic host the No. 7 Minnesota ROKKR and No. 1 Atlanta FaZe. Nicholas \u2018Classic\u2019 DiCostanzo (Seattle Surge) Third time\u2019s the charm? First, Seattle benched veteran Daniel \u2018Loony\u2019 Loza. Then, his replacement, Jacob \u2018Decemate\u2019 Cato, is believed to have benched himself. Now, dead-last in the league with just four wins, Seattle tries a third option: Classic. Before being benched by the Paris Legion, Classic had an unexciting 0.88 K\/D on the year. But numbers often lie in Call of Duty and new environments can mean renewed productivity \u2014 especially as the SMG rejoins his former teammate, Sam \u2018Octane\u2019 Larew. If Seattle wants to make a run into the Top 8, then Classic and the Surge need to mesh immediately. That starts this week against another changing roster: the Thieves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
5 players to watch during CDL 2021\u2019s Stage 4 OpTic Home Series Dexerto \/ Call of Duty LeagueThe Call of Duty League is approaching its penultimate stage and, with roster changes galore, there are some key players to watch during CDL 2021\u2019s Stage 4: OpTic Chicago Home Series. With only eight teams making CDL Champs […]<\/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-22179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22179","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=22179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22179\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}