This article is part of our Call of Duty Recap series.
Day 2 of Major League Gaming Las Vegas' Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare LAN was packed with action, as Saturday saw the end of Open Bracket and Pool play, as well as the start of the championship bracket portion of the event. In the end, tournament favorites such as Team EnVyUs, OpTic Gaming and FaZe Clan all found themselves in the loser's side of the bracket, giving way to multiple surprises rising through the ranks in the fight over the $100,00 purse. Here's how the day unfolded.
Cloud nine lives
Five times Cloud9 have played to the last round in a best-of-five match during MLG Las Vegas. Four times the team led by Patrick "Aches" Price has walked away with a victory, including three such matches during Day 2. As a result, Cloud9 is guaranteed at least a top-three finish at the first major LAN event of the year. Many things have to come into effect in order for a team to win four consecutive Round 5s in a given tournament, but first and foremost on the list would be stellar Search and Destroy play, something Cloud9 have excelled at thus far.
Cloud9 have put together a 6-3 mark in the pivotal game mode, most notably rallying to win a critical Round 5 Search and Destroy against Allegiance in the upper bracket semifinal. With an upper bracket final against Rise Nation looming on Sunday, Cloud9 may need to go the length of the series in order to advance yet again. And you can bet they'll need to rely on their Search and Destroy in order to advance to the grand finals.
Open bracket teams makes instant impact
At this point, it wouldn't be a stretch to suggest MLG Las Vegas sported the most dangerous open bracket to date in Call of Duty, as the four teams who survived the 160-team bracket managed to win nine games in pool play, with three of those teams advancing into the upper bracket portion of the championship bracket. European stalwarts Splyce and eLevate as well as North American favorites Evil Geniuses made their mark on pool play, but it was the performance by relative newcomers Enigma 6 (known for their Halo team) that had everyone talking on Saturday.
Finding themselves slotted into the dreaded Group B which sported icons in the scene such as OpTic Gaming and Rise Nation, Enigma 6 immediately announced their presence in the group, sweeping every team they faced en route to a perfect 3-0 record in the pool, and 9-0 map count. Jordan "General" Holloway and Nicholas "Proto" Maldonado were brilliant throughout the three games, routinely leading the lobby in slaying. While Enigma 6 would lose their opening match in the winner's bracket to Allegiance, they appear to have a favorable spot in the loser's bracket and would need just two wins to make it to the loser's bracket finals. Not bad for a team few expected to make it out of the open bracket.
Favorites fall
Perhaps it was the lack of practice time or maybe just overconfidence, but the two best teams throughout Call of Duty: Black Ops III, Team EnVyUs and OpTic Gaming, struggled mightily in the first major LAN tournament of Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. Projected to at least make it into the upper bracket portion of the championship bracket, neither team would win more than one game in their respective pool, setting themselves up to have to traverse the rest of the tournament through the lower bracket.
Uncharacteristically poor performances by their respective leaders, OpTic's Seth "Scump" Abner and EnVyUs' Jordan "Jkap" Kaplan have seemingly handicapped the teams as neither has strung together a series of strong performances. Given the skill level of each player, it's only a matter of time until they right the ship, but the Green Wall nor the Boys in Blue can afford to have a repeat performance of Day 2 if they have any hope of making it to the grand finals.
The final day of the tournament starts on Sunday at 1pm ET.
