With a complete rebranding of its Call of Duty League (CDL) division, the organization once again takes on the mantle of Heretics, replacing the Florida Mutineers identity.

This strategic move signifies a remarkable phase in the evolution of CDL, offering an international flavour to the primarily domestic-driven competition.

One of biggest esports brands in Spain’s history, Team Heretics, has had a protracted absence from Call of Duty esports.

Despite their hiatus, their global prestige pervaded esports circles, fostering anticipation for their eventual return.

The unveiled rebranding showcases a rejuvenated logo, epitomizing the phoenix-like rebirth of the team’s Call of Duty division.

Exuding the quintessential Heretics spirit, the logo intermingles aesthetics of Miami’s sports legacy as a nod of appreciation towards the city, which had been previously represented by the Mutineers.

Javier “Vikul” Milagro, who is the lone Spanish player from the Mutineers rosters, will be the only player who will transition to the new Heretics roster.

Vikul will be joined by Alejandro “Lucky” López, Adrian “MettalZ” Serrano, and Juan “JurNii” Antonio González Mu?oz, who all represented Heretics in the esport back in 2019.

It remains to be seen whether Team Heretics will conquer the CDL arena as they did during their triumphant past in Call of Duty esports.

Both existing fans and new audiences eagerly await what the future will hold for this resurrected titan of esports competition.

READY TO CONTINUE WHAT WE DID IN THE PAST

This is our CDL roster:

@Luckyy7_
@MeTTalZz
@EriKBooM_
@JurNiii
@VikulJM
@MethodZSicK

Pending league approval pic.twitter.com/jIboQkcxyq

— Miami Heretics (@MiamiHeretics) August 24, 2023

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Seattle Surge are 1-2 ahead of the final week of CDL Major 5 Qualifiers, with defeats against Toronto Ultra (0-3) and OpTic Texas (0-3) and a solid 3-1 victory over Boston Breach. Those results make it tough to say where Seattle Surge stand, and while they can have good games, their Search & Destroy against elite teams isn’t good enough for us to have high hopes for Seattle to end the season high.

Las Vegas Legion are 2-2 with wins against the New York Subliners (3-2) and Minnesota R?KKR (3-2) and two defeats against OpTic Texas (2-3) and Atlanta FaZe (0-3). Those results don’t look bad on paper, but the Las Vegas Legion still need to show a lot more before we can start talking about a deep CDL Championship 2023 run.

Seattle Surge and Las Vegas Legion are tough to set apart, mainly because they have produced mixed results over the first two weeks of CDL Major 5 Qualifiers. But the Legion seem to be a bit more efficient in Search & Destroy, and their respawns are on point – good enough to defeat the Surge.

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Florida Mutineers got stomped by Boston Breach (0-3) in the first match of Week 2 but then produced a nice upset against Los Angeles Thieves (3-1). Still, that was the Mutineers’ only notable accomplishment over the last month.

Their Search & Destroy is still very concerning, and while the Mutineers are solid on respawns, they are missing pieces to be considered a competitive team. So even though the Mutineers aren’t terrible, expecting them to defeat OpTic Texas might be too much to ask.

With their clean 3-0 sweep of Atlanta FaZe in Week 1 of CDL Major 5 Qualifiers, OpTic Texas earned the tag of the best team in the league, and it’s very tough to argue with that. They did drop two maps against Las Vegas Legion (2-3) on day one of the qualifiers but have since looked unstoppable, with wins against FaZe (3-0), Seattle Surge (3-0), and Toronto Ultra (3-1).

There’s not much to analyse here. OpTic are levels above Florida Mutineers, who should crumble on Saturday, as many other teams have against OpTic Texas.

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Los Angeles Guerrillas enter Week 3 of Call of Duty League Major 5 Qualifiers with a 1-3 record. They overpowered London Royal Ravens (3-1) on Friday and came one map short of beating Florida Mutineers (2-3) in Week 1, but they got rammed by Atlanta FaZe (0-3) and New York Subliners, who defeated them 3-0 on Sunday.

The Guerrillas are not in the best spot and it’s tough to feel overly optimistic about their future. Unless something changes, this squad only has two more matches ahead of it, and after that, we can expect a major roster overhaul ahead of the next season.

Toronto Ultra lost their only CDL Major 5 Qualifiers Week 2 match against OpTic Texas (1-3), but despite the final result, Toronto battled well. They came out short, but it was against the current hottest team in the league, so we wouldn’t criticise Toronto Ultra too much.

The Ultra are playing much better this split and have already proven themselves in Week 1 against Seattle Surge (0-3) and Los Angeles Thieves (3-1). They still have some work to do before we start talking about a potential CDL title run; however, Toronto Ultra shouldn’t struggle to defeat lesser teams like Los Angeles Guerrillas.

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Atlanta FaZe will play back-to-back games, as they first have to meet with Las Vegas Legion on Friday and play London Royal Ravens 21 hours later. But this won’t matter as it’s unlikely that they’ll be fatigued. Even if FaZe aren’t at 100%, they shouldn’t struggle against the Royal Ravens.

FaZe have not looked too good of late (for their standards), but they’re still vastly superior to the London Royal Ravens. Unlike Atlanta FaZe, who are legitimate contenders to win the league, London Royal Ravens are one of the leading candidates to win the wooden spoon.

There’s not much to analyse here, nor can we find a good reason to believe London Royal Ravens can do much. This should be a quick 3-0 victory for Atlanta FaZe. The FaZe -2.5 maps is paying $1.85 with sports betting sites.

Florida Mutineers won their CDL Major 5 Qualifiers Week 1 match against Los Angeles Guerrillas (3-2), but that doesn’t mean much considering it was Mutineers’ only second victory over a nine-game stretch. The only other team Florida Mutineers won against were Las Vegas Legion in the CDL Major 4 lower bracket.

Los Angeles Thieves won their first CDL Major trophy last month when they defeated OpTic Texas (4-2) in CDL Major 4 finals. However, despite entering CDL Major 5 Qualifiers with a run of eight wins and just one loss (8-1), they stumbled in the first week and lost to Toronto Ultra (1-3) and New York Sublibers (2-3).

Those results are slightly concerning, but Toronto Ultra and New York Subliners are two powerful teams, whereas the Mutineers aren’t. There’s a world where the Mutineers sneak in a map, but we’re ready to take a chance with the Thieves to sweep.

The second day of CDL Major 5 Qualifiers Week 2 will end with another lopsided match, as Seattle Surge take on OpTic Texas, who are fresh off another CDL Major finals appearance.

Seattle Surge have had some good moments this season, but their showing at CDL Major 4 was very concerning. They lost against FaZe (1-3), won against the Guerrillas (2-3), but then got eliminated by Minnesota R?KKR (2-3). And with results like that, it’s hard to believe they can compete with OpTic.

If Amer “Pred” Zulbeari performs well, the Surge can steal a map from OpTic – likely the first Hardpoint – but anything beyond that seems unlikely.

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London Royal Ravens enter Week 2 of CDL Major 5 Qualifiers with a 1-7 record, which includes a 0-3 defeat against Minnesota R?KKR last week. The Royal Ravens are not doing too well, but their lack of success stretches way back, so it’s not like seeing them struggle is a new thing.

The Royal Ravens are arguably one of the weakest teams in the league, so it’s fair to doubt them everytime they play. However, it is fair to expect the Royal Ravens to do well in this match.

Los Angeles Guerrillas are priced as the favourites to win on Friday, but that doesn’t make much sense. They lost both of their series last week, against Atlanta FaZe (0-3) and Florida Mutineers (2-3), which extends their losing streak to 10 straight games.

They’ve picked up a few maps over that stretch, but not once did LAG produce a good showing, so as much as we can doubt the London Royal Ravens, there are even fewer reasons to back Los Angeles Guerrillas.

Florida Mutineers are priced at $3.25 for their meeting with Boston Breach, and that looks fair. Besides Los Angeles Guerrillas and London Royal Ravens, they’re one of the weakest squads in the CDL, and their past results would confirm it.

The Mutineers are 2-7 from their last ten outings, with their only two wins coming against Las Vegas Legion (3-2) and Los Angeles Guerrillas (3-2). They took two maps from FaZe at the start of CDL Major 4 Qualifiers, but that was when FaZe were struggling, so even that doesn’t count for much.

Boston Breach looked good at CDL Major 3, where they placed fourth, but have since not accomplished much, with an eighth-place finish at CDL Major 4 Qualifiers and a round-one exit from the Major. Still, Boston Breach looked excellent in their 3-1 win against Minnesota R?KKR and are a solid team – the only thing missing is their decision-making.

Boston Breach are known to be somewhat inconsistent, so we’ll give the Mutineers the benefit of the doubt and say they can steal one map. Anything beyond that is unlikely.

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MajorManiak declared himself an unrestricted free agent leading into Stage 3 of the 2023 Call of Duty League season. However, the North American team is yet make any statements about the player’s exit.

The 24-year-old player, who has racked up a total of $427,903 in earnings, has been in the Call of Duty competitive scene since 2019, when he was signed to Gen.G Esports. Over the years, he has also played for Atlanta FaZe, Minnesota ROKKR, WhateverItTakes, Shady Kings, and the Mutineers, who he joined just in time for the 2022 Call of Duty Challengers: Toronto Open last June.

MajorManiak has made appearances in quite a number of the Call of Duty variations, which include Black Ops 4, Black Ops: Cold War, Modern Warfare, Modern Warfare II, Vanguard, and WWII.

He has won several tournaments over the years, such as the 2020 Call of Duty League: Week 3 in Atlanta, 2020 Call of Duty League: Week 7 in Florida, 2021 Call of Duty League Stage 5 Major, and 2022 Call of Duty Challengers: Toronto Open. He has also reached the final at the 2019 CWL Anaheim, 2019 CWL Pro League Finals, and 2020 Call of Duty League Playoffs.

From all indications, the player has not formed any ties yet with a new team. The Mutineers, on the other hand, have a place to fill on their roster. If it was their decision to release the player, then it is highly probable that they already have a replacement on the radar.

With MajorManiak’s departure, the players left on Florida’s Call of Duty roster are:

• Colt “Havok” McLendon
• Javier “Vikul” Milagro
• David “Davpadie” Maslowski
• Carson “Brack” Newberry (substitute)

The CDL returns on February 17 with the Stage 3 Major online qualifiers. The Mutineers will be playing against FaZe in their first series on Saturday, February 18, at 3:30pm CST.
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The 22-year-old American player who had been benched since June of last year will be replacing Carson “Brack” Newberry, who has now been moved to the inactive roster. Brack will now be serving as the team’s substitute player.

“Davpadie will play our remaining qualifier matches from New York. He will be joining the team in Florida shortly after Major 2,” the team tweeted. With this change Brack has been moved to our substitute position.

Davepadie took to his official Twitter account to share his excitement to be back on the active roster.

“I am officially starting for the @Mutineers. Very grateful for this opportunity and can’t wait to get to work with the boys and show what I can do,” he wrote.

Davpadie, who started his call of duty career in 2020, has competed for teams like Triumph, UYU, and Iron Blood Gaming before being signed to the Florida Mutineers in October 2021. Through these times, he has played through Black Ops 4, Black Ops: Cold War, Modern Warfare, Vanguard, and Warzone.

He has also won a handful of tournaments, which include the 2020 Call of Duty Challengers—Dallas and the 2021 Call of Duty Challengers Elite — Stage 2: NA Fantastic Four. His last match with the team last year, before he was benched, was the 2022 Call of Duty League Pro-Am Classic, where they came out in fifth-eighth place, and the 2022 Call of Duty League Stage 3 Major, where they came out in fifth-sixth place, losing to Atlanta FaZe.

The Call of Duty complete roster now consists of 24-year-old player Colt “Havok” McLendon, who joined the team in December 2019, Michael “MajorManiak” Szymaniak, who got signed in June of last year, the 19-year-old Spanish player Javier “Vikul” Milagro, Brack as a substitute, and Davpadie.

This roster shake-up could be a result of their poor performance last season. Hence, they are looking forward to putting up a good fight to have a top placing in Call of Duty tournaments, since the team is in 10th place in the CDL points standings. However, their decision to bench Brack has come as a shock to many, as he was one of the players with good ratings and showings in recent games. Brack has an overall KD ratio of 1.05 and 793 total kills.

Los Angeles Guerrillas rebuilt its CDL division following a terrible display at CDL Major 1, where the Guerrillas placed ninth-12th, with their one win against Decimate Gaming (3-0). Shockingly, the Guerrillas decided to proceed with its academy lineup, which did well at the Major, placing third in the group with Seattle Surge, Atlanta FaZe, and London Royal Ravens.

The new-look roster features three academy players and Alec “Arcitys” Sanderson, creating an interesting lineup that might impress. Or, at the very least, the Guerrillas won’t do worse than they had in CDL Major 1. With a new roster, it’s hard to put too much weight on the Guerrillas’ performances so far, but it’s fair to mention that they are fairly solid on Search&Destroy (56.56%).

Florida Mutineers are not one of CDL’s top teams, and given their inconsistency; it’s hard to believe they will make it far. But somehow, the Mutineers always find a way to grind out solid results. This is not the most talented team, and their Hardpoint (25%) is the worst in the league, but the Mutineers perform well on S&D (58.33%) and Control (55.56%).

There’s a world where the Guerrillas win, but we don’t know much about this team nor how will they perform in the big league. At $1.66, the Mutineers are priced at fair odds and are a solid pick to start CDL Major 2 Qualifiers with a W.

London Royal Ravens failed to impress in the opening Major of the 2023 Call of Duty League season. They reached the Major with two wins against New York Subliners and Los Angeles Guerrillas but have since lost four series against Seattle Surge (1-3), OpTic Texas (2-3) and Seattle Surge (0-3) and Los Angeles Guerrillas Academy (2-3) at the Major.
The Royal Ravens are in terrible form, and their map record is nothing to write home about. Hardpoint (50%) is their best game mode, but Royal Ravens sport a sub-50% win rate elsewhere, including 33.33% on Control.
Minnesota R?KKR finished seventh-eighth at CDL Major 1, thanks to their solid showings on Control (77.78% win rate). But their S&D (40%) and Hardpoint (46.67%) records aren’t great, and until R?KKR show some improvement, we wouldn’t overhype this team.
London Royal Ravens are in a rough spot and have yet to give us anything to feel excited about this team. However, this is a match where the Royal Ravens can do some damage. On paper, R?KKR should win, but this has the potential to be a five-map series.

Atlanta FaZe and Seattle Surge will clash on Saturday in a CDL Major 1 Winners Final rematch, which belonged to Seattle Surge (3-2). It was an extremely close series which could’ve easily ended the other way, so it’s not fair to say that the Surge are vastly superior.
However, even though FaZe can win, there’s no reason to have them priced at just $1.36. FaZe are the most successful CoD team in the CDL era, and are one of the main candidates to win the 2023 Championship, but that doesn’t explain why they’re priced at such low CDL betting odds.
Seattle Surge have been playing extremely well this season, and even though you could consider their W against FaZe at the Major as a fluke, they shouldn’t be priced at $3.00 to emulate that success. At the offered odds, betting on Seattle Surge to win offers far more value.

This report is coming barely a day after the New York-based franchise brought home a Call of Duty League trophy to the City after putting in a great performance in the COD Major One tournament.

The Subliners defeated the Seattle Surge in the grand finals of CDL 2023 Major One in a best-of-seven series.

The Call of Duty League (CDL) 2023 Major Four was originally scheduled to be hosted by the New York Subliners (NYSL) in mid-April 2023. However, according to unconfirmed reports, the event will no longer be held in New York City as originally planned.

The Major Four was originally intended to be held at Kings Theatre, the venue where the New York Subliners (NYSL) had a strong performance in the fourth Major of the previous season. During that event, NYSL advanced through the upper bracket by defeating Minnesota R?KKR, Florida Mutineers, and the Los Angeles Thieves, thrilling the home crowd before ultimately losing in the grand finals to the Thieves.

The decision to move the Major to a different city is primarily due to the size of Kings Theatre, which may not be large enough to accommodate a CDL Challengers Open. In the previous year, the Challengers event took place at the Helix Esports facility in Foxborough, Massachusetts. However, it is said that there are some “disagreements” between NYXL, the managing organization of NYSL, and Oxygen Esports, the organization behind the Boston Breach.

The creative director at NYXL Matt Lucero had earlier given a statement where he revealed that New York is ready to host events in the future. The NYSL players and staff reportedly did not learn that Major Four would no longer be held in New York until they were already in Raleigh for the recent Major One event.

Inside sources at the New York Subliners (NYSL) also reported that the team is disappointed that it will not be able to host the 2023 Call of Duty League (CDL) Major Four event as planned. However, the team remains hopeful about hosting future events in New York.

The report also revealed that the Florida Mutineers are the top contenders to host the Major Four event. However, no official decision has been made yet. The location for the 2023 Call of Duty League (CDL) Championship has not been announced either. The Major Two event will be held in Boston, Major Three will take place in Texas, and Major Five is scheduled to be held in Toronto.

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Across the opening weekend of the 2023 Call of Duty League, the viewership peaked at 192,943 viewers — according to the stats released by Esports Charts.

The MWII Major 1 Qualifiers were only ranked below the last three CDL Championships on Modern Warfare, Vanguard and Cold War.

In 2019, the franchised Call of Duty competition came into existence and its streaming services moved exclusively to YouTube, but the viewership dropped dramatically between then and 2022.

However, at the start of the Modern Warfare 2 season, CDL returned to Twitch exclusively.

Week one of #CDL2023 had the FOURTH highest viewership in the Call of Duty League era, peaking at 192k (according to @EsportsCharts)

Top 5 all time

1) MW2019 Champs 331k
2) Vanguard Champs 275k
3) Cold War Champs 238k
4) MWII Major 1 Qualifiers 195k
5) Vanguard Major 1 157k

— CDL Intel (@intelCDL) December 5, 2022

The team that viewers wanted to see was OpTic Texas, as they recorded the two highest viewer counts — 170,766 viewers in their first match against Minnesota ROKKR, and 192,943 in their second match against Florida Mutineers.

The reason that the numbers are so impressive is that these matches over the weekend were only Stage 1 Major online qualifiers, and the numbers they are being compared to are grand finals with millions of dollars in prize money on the line.

We may only be one weekend in, but it seems that the move back to Twitch will be a success for the CDL in 2023.

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The franchise has seemingly bounced back from a controversial start to the campaign. A few days earlier, the team refused to replay a map due to a kill-streak glitch and was forced to forfeit the game, thereby conceding defeat to the Minnesota ROKKR.

Anthony “Shotzzy” Cuevas-Castro and Brandon “Dashy” Otell led the OpTic Texas charge in the first map of Sunday’s series. Mercado Las Almas (Hardpoint) saw the duo register a combined total of 50 frags while only sustaining 34 deaths.

Seth “Scump” Abner — who had earlier revealed that the 2023 CDL season will be his last — was good for 21 kills and 17 deaths. Texas won the map by a score of 250–202 to commence what became a dominant performance.

While Shotzzy and Dashy reigned supreme in the first map, Indervir “iLLeY” Dhaliwal and Scump were the heroes of the second map. On Embassy (Search & Destroy), iLLeY post some excellent plays using his signature sniper rifle.

Despite suffering a 3-2 round deficit, OpTic were fortunate to have a 3v2 advantage over the Mutineers. ILLeY certainly did not need the advantage as he dealt Carson “Brack” Newberry a headshot and went on to take down Javier “Vikul” Milagro, bringing the round to a 3-3 score. Scump led the team with 11 kills and six deaths as OpTic won the round 6-3 and claimed the second map.

On Hotel (Control), OpTic were excellent on defence and very sharp on offense. With clutch play after clutch play, they soon racked up a two-round advantage.

Although the Mutineers were expected to clinch the B point and were close to doing so, Texas took over the point and prevented their opponents from progressing. This gave them room to run down the clock as they sealed the series without losing a map.

In a post-game interview, Scump described the game as the most “fugaze” he has ever witnessed.

“Friday was the most fugaze that I’ve ever seen in my career,” Scump said.

“It’s hard to lose a match when you don’t even lose the match.”

With momentum on their side, OpTic Texas will take on the Los Angeles Thieves, who are the defending champions of the league, on December 11. Florida, who were the underdogs in the match against OpTic, will play against the Minnesota ROKKR in their next outing on December 9.

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