CDL 2025 Stage 1 Major Qualifiers betting picks – January 18

The second day of Call of Duty League (CDL) 2025 Stage 1 Major Qualifiers Week 3 kicks off on Saturday, January 18, featuring a match between two struggling teams, Vancouver Surge and Vegas Falcons, followed by a clash between Cloud9 New York and Miami Heretics, and ending with a meeting between Carolina Royal Ravens and Boston Breach. Here are our CoD betting picks for the three games, with esports odds courtesy of South Korea.

Vancouver Surge exited CDL 2025 Minor 1 in the first round with a 0-3 loss against Cloud9 New York. This brings Surge’s 2025 season record to 1-4, with just one victory from the three CDL 2025 Stage 1 Major Qualifier fixtures.

Desperate to get back on track, Surge will resume their qualifier campaign with an easy match as they face the struggling Vegas Falcons. The Saudi team had their moment at Minor 1, where they nearly took a map off OpTic Texas; however, despite their small flash of greatness, the Falcons have a lot more to prove.

Vancouver Surge need this win, but they have not been playing well. So, it is not beyond the realms of possibility that the Falcons pull out an upset.
A smaller position on the underdogs at the offered betting odds is worth a look.

Cloud9 New York reached the second round of CDL 2025 Minor 1, where they lost to the surging Carolina Royal Ravens in a closely contested five-map game. While not the result C9NY were looking for, they have been improving since the rough start of the 2025 season.

Miami Heretics crashed out of the tournament in the first round with a 1-3 loss against Atlanta FaZe. They are now 1-4 with just one victory against the Vegas Falcons, although the three losses all went the distance.

Cloud9 New York are trending up, but they have not shown enough for the top CoD betting sites to price them as $1.53 favourites. Miami Heretics can bite, and with Diego “SupeR” Escudero getting his visa approved, we can expect to see a much better version of Heretics for the rest of the season.

Carolina Royal Ravens made the finals of CDL 2025 Minor 1 with wins against Cloud9 New York and OpTic Texas, but they could not deliver in the finals against Atlanta FaZe. Not a bad run, but it also exposed that the Royal Ravens struggle on Hardpoint, which is something Boston Breach can exploit.

With a 53.8% Hardpoint win rate, Carolina rank as the fifth-worst CDL team on the game mode, whereas Boston Breach rank third-best at 60%. On the other hand, Royal Ravens are much better on Search & Destroy and Control, so they should not be in any danger of dropping the game.

Boston Breach have shown enough to believe they can stand up against any team, but the Royal Ravens should be a bit too much for them to handle.

Esports betting tips