Armchair GM: What LA Guerrillas need for the 2024 Call of Duty League season LA GuerrillasIn Armchair GM, I take on the role of General Manager for various Call of Duty League franchises to discuss the moves I would make in the 2023 offseason. In this part, I take a look at the LA Guerrillas, and what I would do if I was running that team. The LA Guerrillas are in a very strange spot this summer. After rumors that they could be looking to cease esports operations completely after parent company The Guard laid off a number of its staff earlier in 2023. For the sake of this piece, we are going to assume that the LA Guerrillas stay on but in a more limited capacity, meaning no Academy team, no blockbuster player purchases, and going back to basics with their squad. This will also limit the types of players they could attract, so while we\u2019re sure they would want Amer \u2018Pred\u2019 Zulbeari to come in and turn their fortunes around, it doesn\u2019t feel like a realistic target. So, what would I do with LA Guerrillas? Who would I keep? LA Guerrillas find themselves in the somewhat unenviable position of having been one of the worst teams in the league but with high costs and two players locked into lengthy contracts. If I were the LA Guerrillas, I would opt not to extend the contracts of Adam \u2018Assault\u2019 Garcia or Kaden \u2018Exceed\u2019 Stockdale. This is not through any fault of their own, especially Assault, who was the team\u2019s best assault rifle player, but with Alec \u2018Arcitys\u2019 Sanderson having an extra year fully guaranteed on his contract, it makes it hard to justify keeping Assault when a change has to be made. Therefore, I would keep Arcitys for the next year of his contract and take the option to extend JoeDeceives\u2019 contract too. This would mean paying out Kris \u2018Spart\u2019 Cervantez to get him out of the additional year on his contract \u2014 though it\u2019ll mean spending more, long-term it\u2019s a budget-friendly option that means not having to pay him for the entire year. Who would I bring in? With the above in mind, we would be looking for a second AR or flex, as well as another submachine gun player. To play on the AR alongside Arcitys, I would prioritize someone that will draw attention to the team, bring some fans in, and add fire to the franchise, after what was a poor year on the PR front. For me, that would be between two players: Indervir \u2018iLLeY\u2019 Dhaliwal, who will have a huge chip on his shoulder and something to prove, with serious in-game leader (IGL) acumen is the key option here. Alternatively, saving Donovan \u2018Temp\u2019 Laroda from Vegas Legion could be beneficial, as he would bring more slaying ability to the team and has been actively competing at the top level more consistently since iLLeY was dropped by OpTic. When looking for another SMG, Reece \u2018Vivid\u2019 Drost would be my number one target. He\u2019s a free agent and has consistently been undervalued despite top performances as an aggressive sub. While the top teams fight for the likes of Pred or Dylan \u2018Envoy\u2019 Hannon, Vivid is the type of player that could really help elevate a struggling team to bring them up the standings, and he played with iLLeY under Dallas Empire during the Cold War season. As for alternatives, players like Eli \u2018Standy\u2019 Bentz and Thomas \u2018TJHaLy\u2019 Haly are viable options (though Standy may be aiming higher) as would be a Challengers star like Elliot \u2018WarDy\u2019 Ward or Byron \u2018Prolute\u2019 Vera, both of whom have pro level experience to varying degrees. That would make a realistic target LA Guerrillas roster for the 2024 season something like: Arcitys – iLLeY – JoeDeceives – Vivid – This team isn\u2019t likely to be fighting for championships, but it\u2019s impossible for all 12 teams to be doing that at once. LA Guerrillas need to show that they\u2019ve not given up yet and improve on their 2023 performances, ideally qualifying for Champs and actually taking on the top dogs of the COD League. The players listed above are also unlikely to have too much competition for their signature \u2014 despite how good they are, their stock may have been affected throughout the season, meaning the top teams won\u2019t be rushing to bring them in. The Los Angeles outfit should look to move quickly once the free agency period opens to secure the best options possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Armchair GM: What LA Guerrillas need for the 2024 Call of Duty League season LA GuerrillasIn Armchair GM, I take on the role of General Manager for various Call of Duty League franchises to discuss the moves I would make in the 2023 offseason. In this part, I take a look at the LA Guerrillas, […]<\/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-22614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22614","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=22614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22614\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}