This article is part of our Call of Duty series.
June 10-12, glorious chaos will descend upon Southern California in the form of the MLG Anaheim Open 2016. With a total of 108 teams competing throughout the weekend for a large chunk of the $100,000 prize and 10,000 CWL Pro Points, the action will be fierce throughout.
FORMAT
The Open will begin with a mix of 96 amateur squads and international pros duking it out through a series of double-elimination, best-of-three matches with the top four teams qualifying for Group Play. Those four teams will then be slotted into predetermined groups of CWL teams, with every team slogging through best-of-five series against their group opponents for pivotal positioning within the Championship Bracket.
From there, the top two teams in each group will advance into the Championship Bracket, in which another set of double elimination, best-of-five matches will commence in order to crown the MLG Anaheim Open champion.
Now with the format formalities out of the way, let's break down who has the best odds of advancing into the Championship Bracket!
*Note – Suggested "advancing" teams will not include amateur teams due to the expansive nature of the open bracket format.
Group A
Teams: OpTic Gaming, Cloud9, Team SoloMid
Advancing: OpTic Gaming & Cloud9
The clear front-runners at the event, OpTic Gaming have once again established themselves as the cream of the crop during Stage 2. While Stage 1 MVP and likely Call of Duty savant, Seth "Scump" Abner has terrorized his NA CWL opposition to the tune of a 1.22 K/D, easily the best figure in the league as of this writing, it's the continual rise of Matthew "FormaL" Piper that makes this iteration of OpTic Gaming one of the most dangerous teams to date. Considered for years one of the better snipers in the CWL, FormaL has seemingly upped his game, posting the second best accuracy mark through eight weeks of Stage 2.
The man leading the accuracy category, however, belongs to Adam "Assault" Garcia, who also leads Cloud9 in K/D with a sterling 1.16 mark. Coupled with the added firepower of Colt "Havok" McLendon and the aforementioned Assault, Cloud9 is one of only two teams who boast two players in the top-ten in terms of K/D, and will need every bit of the dynamic duo's slaying capability to push their way into the Championship Bracket.
Group B
Teams: Rise Nation, H2K Gaming, 100 Thieves
Advancing: Rise Nation & H2K Gaming
The runner-ups to OpTic Gaming in Stage 1, Rise Nation has taken their fair share of lumps throughout the second stage of the CWL, uncharacteristically dropping a handful of games to lesser competition during the early portion of the new season. Still, a recent stretch in which the team won five of the last eight matches has put them firmly in the second spot in the standings, solidifying their status in the upper echelon of the CWL. Given that they reside in likely the weakest of the four groups, Rise Nation should easily advance into the Championship portion of the Open.
The other team with the best odds of making it out of Group B may well come to a toss-up, however, as neither H2K or 100 Thieves enter the tournament on a positive note with both teams riding a string of losses heading into Anaheim. With the group stage using the best-of-five format, H2K gets the nod over owner Matthew "Nadeshot" Haag's team thanks in part to 100 Thieves horrendous record in Uplink matches thus far in Stage 2. If ever an amateur team were to advance through the group stages, however, this might be the best group for them to do it.
Group C
Teams: FaZe Clan, eLevate, Luminosity Gaming
Advancing: FaZe Clan, Team eLevate
While Group B only seems to have one team worthy of a Championship spot, a case could be made for each team to come out of Group C.
FaZe Clan, led by their dominant duo of Ian "Enable" Wyatt and Thomas "Zooma" Paparatto, is the only other team to claim two players within the top ten in K/D. And the high K/D marks don't just stop there --- Dillon "Attach" Price and team leader James "Clayster" Eubanks trail shortly behind, ranking 12th and 16th respectively in the NA. While those numbers may indicate a high-degree of slaying potential, it's actually the team's ability to avoid death that has largely factored in their success. In fact, each member of FaZe Clan ranks in the top 20 for the least amount of deaths per round.
While FaZe Clan excels with a methodical approach, eLevate has found success masquerading as the Call of Duty equivalent to the Energizer bunny. Each member of eLevate ranks in the top-20 for most distance traveled per round, with Jared "Nagafen" Harrell clocking in at a remarkable 86,819.7, far-and-away the highest mark in the NA CWL. That amount of map control would explain how Ulysses "Aqua" Silva leads the entire NA CWL in kills-per-round (21.2), but may also explains why he is the only eLevate member in the top-15 in terms of K/D, as more time spent engaging the enemy will lead to higher death totals.
A clash in styles may make FaZe Clan vs. eLevate one of the most interesting matches of the group stages, but Luminosity Gaming could easily spoil the party so long as new addition, Anthony "Nameless" Wheeler continues his assault on the CWL. While the way in which Luminosity Gaming announced the decision to start Nameless in place of underperforming veteran Tyler "TeePee" Polchow was mismanaged, the results have been hard to ignore, as the team has ripped off four wins in the last five matches since bringing Nameless over from compLexity Gaming, catapulting themselves up the standings. They might be a dark horse in the race for a Championship spot, and could do damage should they claw their way into the main event.
Group D
Teams: Team EnVyUs, Dream Team, compLexity Gaming
Advancing: Team EnVyUs, Dream Team
One of the more surprising teams residing near the top the CWL standings, Team EnVyUs has looked dominant at times during Stage 2, recording four 3-0 shutout wins against their competition -- the third best mark in the league. Unheralded offseason addition Johnathan "John" Perez has been impressive, to say the least, leading the team in nearly every major statistical category including K/D, kills-per-round and score-per-minute. And Bryan "Apathy" Zhelyazkov coupled with Austin "Slasher" Liddicoat have combined to form a seemingly impenetrable unit capable of slaying with the best teams in the CWL. EnVyUs has even seemed to pass the almighty "eye-test" with wins over Rise Nation and OpTic Gaming (sans headsets) in recent weeks. Still, an air of uncertainty seems to surround EnVyUs, despite their recent success, but a win at Anaheim may be just what EnVyUs needs to legitimize their success.
Dream Team on the other hand, enters the MLG Open with little fanfare or pedigree of success. While the team was one of the real success stories after starting Stage 2, 5-1, they've since dropped back to the middle of the pack, entering Anaheim with a 7-6 record. The team seems confident heading into the tournament, but will confidence push them through a potentially grueling slate of Championship matches? We'll know by Sunday.
With the action kicking off Friday, make sure to tune into.twitch.tv/callofduty to watch every match unfold!
