This article is part of our Call of Duty Recap series.
OpTic Gaming continues to operate on another level while the European teams lag behind the American meta. Somewhat surprisingly, OpTic Gaming was able to take first place without a single series loss, getting the first ever 6-0 weekend of the CWL Group Play. Meanwhile, Enigma6 was able to pressure OpTic Gaming in some cases, but never managed to win a series off of them. And below both the Americans are the European teams of eLevate and Red Reserve. eLevate did have an easier weekend, taking third place, while Red Reserve floundered in fourth place.
OpTic Gaming's aggressive and smart gameplay allowed the team to absolutely dominate this weekend. Matthew "FormaL" Piper and Damon "Karma" Barlow were the team's highlight players, with FormaL scoring the highest Hardpoint KD of the weekend while Karma clutched nearly every fight in Search & Destroy. But even without two players having a massive set of games, OpTic Gaming still played smarter than the rest. They were willing to adapt on the fly to the unique strategies of eLevate and Enigma6, either by playing more aggressive or playing more defensively.
But right behind the Green Wall was Enigma6. The fresh team continues to impress in the CWL thanks to their explosive aggression. Enigma6, unlike other teams, played more for flanks and pinches to guarantee wins. Nicholas "Proto" Maldonado and Jordon "General" General, especially, were just able to win trades thanks to their slaying ability. Impressively, Enigma6 nearly went the entire weekend without losing a single Uplink round, only for that honorable feat to be knocked out of reach by OpTic Gaming in the last series of the weekend. Group Green did reveal a big weakness in Enigma6's gameplay which was a weaker Search & Destroy than most. Simply put, Enigma6 had only two strategies: win a teamfight or go for a pinch. While it may have worked against Red Reserve, it saw mixed results against eLevate and OpTic Gaming.
Taking third place and a guaranteed spot in Stage 2 is eLevate. The European team's lack of consistency continues to hurt them in respawn rounds, but it worked wonders for them in Search & Destroy. Easily the smartest team, eLevate was able to sneak wins by simply outsmarting their enemies, either by playing for picks or simply waiting for the other team to fall out of position. Rhys "Rated" Price was read other teams like a book, especially Enigma6, and often found himself lining up kills in his sights. The only problem was that Rated seemed to be the only player in eLevate that could match the shots of Enigma6 and OpTic Gaming.
Finally, Red Reserve had a predictably hard weekend. Winning only one series all weekend, Joesph "Joee" Pinnington simply couldn't rally his team together. All the weaknesses of the European meta were on display: weaker shots, playing only for picks, timid positioning and an inability to close. While nowhere near as heartbreaking as Millenium's run last weekend, it's always hard to see promising teams gets stomped. But against eLevate, Red Reserve were able to find a silver lining. The slower playstyle of eLevate allowed Red Reserve to finally find room to breath and land shots. Only the team couldn't close out Game 10 in a Round 5 Search & Destroy.
With all seeds set, the playoffs will see OpTic Gaming, Tainted Minds, eUnited, Enigma6, FaZe Clan, Team EnVyUs, Slypce and Luminosity Gaming all competing to see who's the best in the world. The playoffs will take place from May 26th-May 28th. Stay locked to RotoWire for continued coverage.
