This article is part of our Call of Duty Recap series.
CWL Anaheim was an explosive weekend that saw new stars rise, new rivalries form, and veterans break. Action began as early as Thursday when both Cloud9 and Supreme Team/Bittersweet made big names for themselves as they stormed through relegation. Cloud9, lead by Partick "Aches" Price, dropped Andres "Lacefield" Lacefield right after the CWL Pro League pool play. Lacefield then teamed up with Supreme, where they shocked everyone with outstandingly strong games. At the same time, the new team Aches formed did surprisingly well at relegation, proving that these two teams were going to be contenders at CWL Anaheim.
Friday saw the beginning of CWL Anaheim with a massive pool play. Group A held Splyce, Enigma6, Rise Nation, Cloud9 and Lethal Gaming. Despite a strong showing in relegation, Cloud9 struggle against the top players in the game. Even Splyce, the CWL Pro League Champions, struggled to plow through the group as both Enigma6 and Rise Nation gave them trouble. In the end, both Enigma6 and Splyce rose to the top, while Cloud9 and Rise Nation sunk.
Group B was a hectic group that consisted of Luminosity Gaming, Epsilon eSports, Team EnVyUs, Red Reserve, and Rogue. Group B held the first surprises as Team EnVyUs, last year's world champions, sunk into the loser's brackets with Rogue, the open bracket entry. Meanwhile, Luminosity Gaming and Epsilon eSports developed a friendly rivalry of sorts, with both teams moving onto the winner's brackets after Epsilon eSports took a game off of Luminosity Gaming.
FaZe Clan, Bittersweet, eLevate, Evil Geniuses and eRa Gaming formed Group C. This group contained the most upsets as Bittersweet, hot from the relegation run, dominated the bracket with perfect four wins. Evil Geniuses took the second spot in the winner's bracket, the dark horse once again showing they have the talent compete with the best. But it was FaZe Clan and eLevate sinking into the loser's bracket that shocked everyone as both teams are full of long-time veterans. FaZe Clan, in particular, looked shockingly weak on the first two days of the tournament.
To no one's surprise, OpTic Gaming utterly dominated Group D as they scored a flawless map record. Following behind them was eUnited, Fnatic, Fury Gaming and Mindfreak in that order. OpTic Gaming were set to take all of CWL Anaheim as the brackets formed. Right before seeds were announced, Ian "Crimsix" Porter even got on stage to demand a rematch against Luminosity Gaming, the team that knocked OpTic Gaming out of the Stage 1 Playoffs. Crimsix got his wish. Luminosity Gaming and OpTic Gaming were the first match of the CWL Anaheim playoffs.
Everything was on the line for OpTic Gaming and Luminosity Gaming, revenge match of epic proportions. The series went all the way to a Round 5 Search & Destroy until Luminosity Gaming narrowly beat OpTic Gaming to take down The Green Wall. Splyce, meanwhile, knocked Bittersweet down to the losers bracket. In the loser's brackets, things got interesting. Allegiance, an open bracket team, took out Team EnVyUs in brutal fashion. Cloud9 then made a brilliant run through the bracket after their subpar pool play, kicking FaZe Clan, eUnited, Allegianc, Red Reserve, and Evil Geniuses all out to the curb. Cloud9's momentum was only stopped by a frustrated Splyce stomping them out.
The finals saw a glorious rematch from the Stage 1 Playoffs between Luminosity Gaming and Splyce. Except this time, Splyce was the team down, having suffered a defeat from Epsilon eSports. The championship match turned into a nail-biter with rounds literally coming down to the wire, such as Round 1 Hardpoint ending 250-249 and Round 4 Harpdoint ending 250-245. But in the end, the North American squad of Luminosity Gaming took their revenge against Splyce, the European titans. Splyce left the stage frustrated, hinting at what is sure to be a new long-standing rivalry.
