The Chicago Home Series is the fifth tournament of the 2020 season, the second to take place in an online setting due to current global circumstances.
Eight of the 12 franchises will be competing online for the lion's share of $100,000 in prize money and the opportunity to become champion.
First-Round Matches
London Royal Ravens v Atlanta FaZe
Kicking off the weekend is the London Royal Ravens taking on the Atlanta FaZe in what could be the match of the day.
The Chicago Home Series marks the first time that London will be in action after demoting Rhys "Rated" Price to the substitutes bench in favour of Byron "Nastie" Plumridge. Visa issues and the current global climate has prevented Nastie from competing in the United States, so Sean "Seany" O'Connor has filled in the gap.
Online practice for the Royal Ravens appears to be going extremely well, with Matthew "Skrapz" Marshall bragging on social media how well practice is going.
On the side of the Atlanta FaZe, the team has allegedly undergone a slight role change ahead of the tournament, with McArthur "Cellium" Jovel becoming the main assault rifle player for the FaZe. It will be interesting to see how this affects what is already a very well balanced team.
In terms of the end result, this series could go the distance. It will come down to the battle of the AR players and given the recent role change, I think that London will walk away with the victory.
Prediction 3-2 London Royal Ravens
Seattle Surge v Los Angeles Guerrillas
This bottom of the table battle between the Surge and the Guerrillas looks to be a relatively straightforward affair given the sheer amount of talent on Seattle.
Currently sat in 10th place, Seattle need to begin moving up the table quickly if they are move into the playoff places and with only 10 points separating them from the top eight, the climb could get underway with a win against a Los Angeles team yet to find its way in the league.
Despite undergoing change before the LA Home Series, the Guerrillas have yet to see any form of improvement in terms of the results of the team. based of its performance at the Dallas online event a couple of weeks ago, unless there has been significant improvement made, then LA is going to be in a tough position to make playoffs if this form continues. For me, this looks like a Seattle win.
Predictions: 3-1 Seattle Surge
Dallas Empire v OpTic Gaming Los Angeles
After finishing third at its home event, the Dallas Empire has been hovering at the top of the Call of Duty League table since the start of the season and a strong showing here could be the start of the Empire mounting a challenge on Chicago and Atlanta at the top. Anthony "Shotzzy" Cuevas-Castro and Indervir "iLLeY" Dhaliwal appear to have found their feet after a rocky start to the season, possibly suggesting a return to pre-season form where the Empire was widely considered the very best team in the league.
On the other side is OpTic Gaming LA, a team that has seen major improvements from the beginning of the season thanks to some role changes within the team. Replacing Austin "SlasheR" Liddicoat as the main AR may seem like a questionable decision but the fast pace of Modern Warfare doesn't suit a static AR player such as SlasheR. Perhaps moving to a more flexible role is the change that the Green Wall needs to start moving up the pecking order.
Prediction: 3-1 Dallas Empire
Chicago Huntsmen v New York Subliners
The final match of the first round is home team Chicago taking on a New York team that has yet to find any real success despite having an extremely talented roster of players.
2020 has not been kind to New York. With plenty of experienced North American talents on the team, the Subliners sit in 11th having only won eight maps this season. The team has undergone more change, bringing in Makenzie "Mack" Kelley into the starting line-up in place of Nick "Happy" Suda. Dallas will be the first time the new-look team has competed since the change, so it will be interesting to see how they fare against the current league leaders.
Widely considered as one of the top teams in the league is the Chicago Huntsmen. The team has been on top or very close to the top of the table since the league started in January and it appears that momentum shows no signs of slowing down despite some questionable performances at the Dallas event.
Dylan "Envoy" Hannon has quickly established himself as one of the best players in the entire league, often dragging his more experienced teammates to map victories.
His teammates appear to be undergoing several role changes. First it was Alec "Arcitys" Sanderson moving into a sub-machine gun role to cater for Matt "FormaL" Piper who is synonymous for his prowess with an assault rifle. This changed at Dallas, with Arcitys moving to the main AR and FormaL using an SMG but this appears to have reverted back to FormaL back with an AR in his hands.
Perhaps it's the nature of online Call of Duty which is forcing the league leaders to change roles within the team? Nonetheless, the Huntsmen are in a prime position to extend their advantage if they are able to produce a strong performance this weekend.
Prediction: 3-0 Chicago Huntsmen
Top 4 Prediction
- Atlanta FaZe
- London Royal Ravens
- Dallas Empire
- Chicago Huntsmen
Alongside Chicago, Atlanta has a real chance to pull away from the rest of the pack and I think that the team will do just that and win the entire event. London taking the runner-up spot may surprise a lot of people but given their impressive form in online practice, the Royal Ravens are certainly going to catch a lot of teams off-guard this weekend.
As for third and fourth, it is going to be extremely close between Dallas and Chicago. I don't think that the role changes within the Huntsmen are going to be enough to compete with the likes of London or Atlanta and as for Dallas, I think that they have a good chance of making it to the knockout phase of the tournament but I don't see them beating Atlanta or London.
A small update has gone live for Modern Warfare across all platforms. Find the full patch notes in this article.
