Dallas Empire finally explains why Huke was benched from championship CDL roster Twitter: Dallas EmpireSeven weeks after the sudden benching of 2020 Call of Duty League champion Cuyler \u2018Huke\u2019 Garland, Dallas Empire\u2019s Owner Mike \u2018hastr0\u2019 Rufail and Head Coach Raymond \u2018Rambo Ray\u2019 Lussier have finally explained the decision that sent shockwaves throughout the scene. When Dallas Empire quietly announced that Huke was no longer in the starting lineup on April 23, it instantly became one of the biggest roster changes in Call of Duty history. Empire won the 2020 trophy and by all accounts, Huke was among the best players in the League. Weeks of silence went by before the Los Angeles Thieves forked out for his allegedly hefty buyout, only to bench him once again a few days later. While the frequent shakeups were shrouded in mystery, Huke finally broke his silence on June 9 with a 30-minute video aptly titled \u2018My Story.\u2019 Throughout the lengthy explanation, the CoD star outlined his struggles with Adderall and mood swings that accompanied frequent usage. With the air now cleared from his perspective, Empire has since chimed in to explain that their decision was not at all motivated by these drug-related issues. \u201cIt was always only gameplay-related.\u201d Following on from Huke\u2019s video, Dallas Empire\u2019s @hastr0 & @ramboray have explained their perspective in benching the 2020 World Champion.pic.twitter.com\/eEkYWN1o3O \u2014 DEXERTO Call of Duty Esports News (@DexertoIntel) June 10, 2021 \u201cWe\u2019re really proud of Cuyler for coming out and making the video that he did,\u201d hastr0 emphasized in a brief video on his personal Twitter account. \u201cThere\u2019s only happiness from our side that he\u2019s actually speaking about these subjects.\u201d After supporting Huke\u2019s decision to speak up on the controversial topic, he quickly pivoted to outline why the 21-year-old was benched in the first place. In short, \u201cit was always only gameplay related,\u201d hastr0 assured. In no way was their decision based around substance issues, according to the Empire owner. \u201cNever in our history have we ever influenced a player to make unhealthy decisions, it\u2019s actually the opposite. We\u2019re always pushing our players to make the best decisions possible. We hope that Cuyler\u2019s video influences other players to make healthier decisions.\u201d Ultimately, the 2020 championship roster simply wasn\u2019t achieving the same success. Before it was too late, Empire stepped in to make a tough decision. \u201cWe didn\u2019t feel like we could reach our goals with the roster we had.\u201d If I ever do a poor job of that, I will quit. I appreciate all of you who have supported my teams and cheered for us to reach our goals. \u2014 Mike Rufail (@hastr0) June 10, 2021 \u201cOur goal every year is to win CoD Champs,\u201d Head Coach Rambo Ray added. \u201cThere comes a point in the year when you have a sense of progression. If things are trending to where you want to be, you have a good sense of what\u2019s going on and you really feel like you can achieve that goal. Sadly, this year that wasn\u2019t the case for us.\u201d Despite sitting at second place in the overall standings at the time Huke was benched, Empire\u2019s staff couldn\u2019t see a clear pathway to the top spot with that iteration of the roster. \u201cWe got to a point where things weren\u2019t progressing, kind of almost regressing from a gameplay standpoint. We felt that changes needed to happen.\u201d This decision wasn\u2019t made lightly, according to hastr0. Huke was working closely with Empire\u2019s players and staff \u201cfor over a month to address gameplay issues,\u201d he said. Ultimately, the team didn\u2019t feel as though the \u201cissues were fixed\u201d. \u201cI let [Huke] know two weeks in advance that we were considering benching him before we did.\u201d Our #LAThieves starting roster as we move into the Stage 4 Major will be:@Kuavo@Huke@SlasheR_AL@TJHaLy Drazah and Venom will be moved to sub for this week. pic.twitter.com\/IJ68RsfRVE \u2014 LA Thieves (@LAThieves) June 9, 2021 Now comfortably back on the LA Thieves starting line-up after yet another roster shuffle, Huke will be back in action on June 11 in a series against Minnesota ROKKR. The former world champ is \u201cexcited to be in an environment where [he\u2019s] respected again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dallas Empire finally explains why Huke was benched from championship CDL roster Twitter: Dallas EmpireSeven weeks after the sudden benching of 2020 Call of Duty League champion Cuyler \u2018Huke\u2019 Garland, Dallas Empire\u2019s Owner Mike \u2018hastr0\u2019 Rufail and Head Coach Raymond \u2018Rambo Ray\u2019 Lussier have finally explained the decision that sent shockwaves throughout the scene. When […]<\/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-25574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25574","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=25574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25574\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}