This article is part of our Call of Duty Recap series.
Europe has finally done it. After nearly seven years, a European team has won a Call of Duty Championship in North America, and it's all thanks to Splyce. Meanwhile, Luminosity Gaming, who went up against Splyce in the finals, made a dream run through the loser's bracket against the best in the world, beating out eUnited, OpTic Gaming and FaZe Clan. The entire weekend turned into an unpredictable storyline of new rivalries and crushed dreams thanks to the absurd performances of Splyce and Luminosity Gaming.
The twists began as early Friday when Enigma6 beat eUnited and FaZe Clan found redemption against OpTic Gaming. In particular, Thomas "ZooMa" Paparratto made his grand return against OpTic Gaming after a month of being out of commission due to an injury. ZooMa zipped and dived between enemy lines causing the kind of havoc that made him famous during Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. James "Clayster" Eubanks also started absurdly strong with a six killstreak on OpTic Gaming. Between the two of them earning massive killstreaks, OpTic Gaming couldn't find the ground they needed to steady themselves, falling to the Loser's Bracket after their first match.
Enigma6 also scored a shocking performance as eUnited made some extremely amateurish mistakes. Preston "Prestinni" Sanderson ignored spawn rotations multiple times, drastically affecting eUnited's map and spawn control that made them famous. But the true story starts with Luminosity Gaming. Long considered an underrated team, masters of respawn, but terrible at Search & Destroy, Sam "Octane" Larew cemented the team as a championship threat. All weekend, Octane was beaming down his opponents with laser-like shots, sometimes scoring kills across lanes on maps like Throwback and Retaliation. Luminosity Gaming also finally fixed their Search & Destroy games by simply slaying.
By Saturday, the bracket seemed like anyone's game… until Luminosity Gaming fell to FaZe Clan. Both Octane and ZooMa continued their freakish performance, but it was ultimately Scorestreaks from FaZe Clan that forced Luminosity Gaming into the lower bracket against OpTic Gaming and eUnited. Meanwhile, Splyce, the only European team in the tournament, were having a god-like weekend. Dylan "MadCat" Daly and Trei "Zer0" Morris obliterated teams. At the end of the day, it seemed their true test would be against FaZe Clan, the European killers. Meanwhile, dropping into the lower bracket didn't faze Luminosity Gaming. Instead, they took out eUnited, one of the top two teams, to close out Saturday in a strong fashion.
Octane and Zer0 were the titans of slaying by Sunday, but questions surrounded every team, most of all OpTic Gaming. However, Luminosity Gaming was swift to answer with Octane landing some unbelievable shots that broke OpTic Gaming, the "Green Wall". After that shocking match, FaZe Clan couldn't keep up with Splyce as Zer0, much like Octane, racked in the kills. In the end, the only team that stood in Luminosity Gaming's way to the championship was FaZe Clan. Octane, in revenge for Saturday, swiftly dominated FaZe Clan by dropping a Warden on Round 1 Hardpoint. Unsurprisingly, the rest of the series was a blow-out against FaZe Clan. Absolutely nothing was going to stand in Luminosity Gaming's way.
The championship match pitted the two best slayers of the weekend against each other, Luminosity Gaming's Octane and Splyce's Zer0. And both gave the fight of a lifetime in that final match. Every member of each side stepped up to clutch tight games, but it all came down to a Game 11 in Round 5 Search & Destroy on Crusher, a fitting conclusion. Ultimately, Splyce clutched out by finding first blood before Luminosity Gaming could. Splyce would sweep the weekend without dropping a match and would become the first European team to win an American tournament. But in the their shadow still stands Luminosity Gaming, a team that may very soon take a tournament of their own.
