This article is part of our Call of Duty series.
It was a hurricane of a weekend with some teams coming out stronger and others looking shakier than ever. The new eUnited lineup had a wild weekend, seemingly growing stronger by the day. This was cemented with eUnited taking the first place seed over Splyce, the Stage 1 Champions. Meanwhile, Red Reserve fell to a devastating third seeding thanks to two losses to Splyce despite having less map loses. And at the bottom was Rise Nation once again.
Day 1 started hot with eUnited kicking the day off against Rise Nation. Though Rise Nation has some top-tier talent, their gameplay continues to need work. James "Clayster" Eubanks started off by absolutely dominating Rise Nation, looking like he's been with eUnited for years, despite just joining the team a few weeks ago. Splyce would start their weekend against Red Reserve, an underrated team who's been constantly living in Splyce's and Epsilon eSports' shadows in Europe. Surprisingly, Red Reserve took Splyce all the way to a Round 5 Search & Destroy. Though Splyce won the series, they, for once, looked beatable. Quickly, eUnited capitalized on Splyce's slow game and beat them 3-1.
Not letting Clayster take all the light, Sean "Seany" O'Connor from Red Reserve would show up on Day 2 and beat eUnited in Round 5 Search & Destroy. With that, everyone was in the running for first and second place. Except for Rise Nation. Day 2 walloped Brice "Faccento" Faccento and Tyler "Felony" Johnson, who both struggled to land shots and support their team. Their day would end with Ulysses "Aqua" Silva leaving the stage frustrated after their 3-0 loss to eUnited and a firm third to fourth seed placement. Splyce would also get their revenge on Red Reserve at the end of the day. This meant Red Reserve would have to beat an increasingly snowballing eUnited on Day 3 to have a chance at a top-two seed. However, Splyce still didn't look like themselves with Trei "Zer0" Morris, their best player, looking fairly weak.
Zer0's woes wouldn't end at Day 2. Instead, they only heated up with Zer0 becoming increasingly paranoid of his own performance, changing his HUD several times in his first match against Rise Nation. Then, the impossible happened. Rise Nation beat Splyce 3-0 thanks to Faccento and Felony finally finding their stride and a weak Zer0 floundering. Seeds were wide open for Red Reserve to play spoiler to eUnited. Only problem -- eUnited was still steamrolling from their previous wins. Justin "SiLLy" Fargo-Palmer and Alec "Arcitys" Sanderson have never looked better than under Clayster, while Preston "Prestinni" Sanderson easily filled the gap Pierce "Gunless" Hillman left. Undeterred, they beat Red Reserve. Then they beat Splyce 3-0. The Stage 1 Champions would finish Day 3 without winning a single map.
The weekend ended with eUnited 3-0'ing every team in the pool, winning every map in rotation and winning top seed. Splyce would come away looking weaker than ever before. The whole team was simply off, perhaps tilted by their early loss on Day 1 or simply lacking practice. In fact, Splyce scraped into second place by the skin of their teeth. If Red Reserve had taken more maps off of eUnited on Day 2 or Day 3, then matters would have been entirely different. Red Reserve may have gotten third place, but they're still a team with tons of potential. Unfortunately, Rise Nation continues to wallow this season, unable to make waves with a star-studded lineup.
Stay tuned to eGamer News for more updates on the latest Call of Duty. Next weekend will see OpTic Gaming, Epsilon eSports, Cloud9 and Team EnVyUs facing off in Group Green.
