This victory marks the first time OpTic has won the end-of-season playoffs in the Call of Duty League era and the organisation’s second title at CoD Champs, their first since 2017.

THE WINNING MOMENT FOR @OpTicTexas #CODChamps | @CallofDuty pic.twitter.com/iaUuDxRzj5

— Call of Duty League (@CODLeague) July 21, 2024

Despite a rocky path leading to the championship, including a last-place finish at Major Four, OpTic Texas showed resilience.

Entering CoD Champs 2024 with many questions surrounding their performance, Anthony “Shotzzy” Cuevas-Castro and his team immediately displayed their Major Three form with a dominant sweep of Los Angeles Guerrillas in their first match.

They followed up with a reverse sweep of Los Angeles Thieves and a hard-fought 3-2 victory over New York Subliners, solidifying their spot in the grand final.

Subliners, the Major Four champions and winners of CoD Champs 2023, responded to their loss by beating Toronto Ultra, setting up a rematch with OpTic.

However, the grand final was less competitive than their earlier match, with OpTic earning a decisive 5-1 win in the best-of-nine series.

Notably, OpTic won two Search and Destroy maps in the grand final and posted a 5-2 record in the mode for the weekend, a significant turnaround from their 12-map Search ‘N’ Destroy losing streak heading into CoD Champs.

SU-PER-STAR @Shotzzy | #CODChamps pic.twitter.com/DrWqaMfAKm

— Call of Duty League (@CODLeague) July 21, 2024

Shotzzy was named tournament MVP, posting a 1.27 overall K/D, the highest at the event.

Amer “Pred” Zulbeari, the first player from the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region to win CoD Champs, was close behind with a 1.24 overall K/D.

Brandon “Dashy” Otell, earning his first Champs ring, joined Kenneth “Kenny” Williams and Shotzzy, who now have two Champs wins each.

OpTic Texas’ victory was celebrated by thousands of passionate fans at the Credit Union of Texas Events Center in Allen, Texas.

The storyline was rich, as it was OpTic’s first grand final appearance in over seven years and a chance for Subliners to become the first organisation in CoD history to win back-to-back championships.

Following the win, Shotzzy was awarded the tournament MVP, and the crowd chanted “superstar” repeatedly.

Kenny expressed his joy, saying, “It feels amazing to do it with another team. I love these boys. We worked for this. A lot of ups and downs, but overall, we won it, so I’m happy.”

With OpTic Texas’ victory, Kenny and Shotzzy join the elite group of players with more than one ring.

Meanwhile, Dashy and Pred celebrate their first-ever rings, and their coach Damon “Karma” Barlow adds to his impressive collection, earning his fourth ring overall—three as a player and one as a coach.

OpTic Texas’ incredible resilience proved their doubters wrong and set the stage for an exciting offseason ahead of Call of Duty Black Ops 6, as other organisations strategize to dethrone the Green Wall in 2025.

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New York Subliners have been flying under the radar for most of the season, but they’re finally getting the respect they deserve. Priced at $5.50 on the outright betting markets, the Subliners have a realistic chance to win the CDL trophy, and it’s tough to find a reason not to believe they can finish at least top four.

New York Subliners are the only team that won two Majors this year, and they finished the regular season in third place. Even though the Subliners haven’t won or come close to winning a single Major between December and May, they looked in excellent shape last month.

Minnesota R?KKR have had their moments this season and even finished CDL Major 5 in third place. But while that is impressive, the R?KKR also got eliminated from the Major by New York Subliners – who are 5-1 in the head-to-head with the R?KKR (17-7 in maps).

Betting against Minnesota R?KKR is scary since they can wake up anytime and outperform everyone’s expectations. But, New York Subliners are in exceptional form and have a solid record against the R?KKR.

Had this game been played a couple of months ago, it would be fair to expect a close match, but based on what Seattle Surge have shown over the last few weeks, they shouldn’t cause any issues for Atlanta FaZe. Seattle Surge have looked very weak lately, and even if we assume that Daunte “Sib” Gray and Amer “Pred” Zulbeari will be in prime form for the CDL Championship 2023, Atlanta FaZe would still be the favourites.

Atlanta FaZe are priced as the leading candidates to win the CDL trophy, and rightly so. They’re the CDL 2023 regular season champions and CDL Major 5 semifinalists, which is impressive. And even though FaZe haven’t won a Major since February, they were either second or third in the three succeeding Majors.

There is a world where Seattle Surge steal one map, but siding with Atlanta FaZe to sweep is the right play.

OpTic Texas were not long ago considered by far the best team in the league, but they lost traction soon after securing their second consecutive Major silver medal at CDL Major 4. OpTic have since won Major 5 qualifiers but crashed out of the LAN event in 9th-12th place, showing very concerning form ahead of the season-culminating tournament.

OpTic still deserves respect, as they can pop off at any time and go all the way, but there’s also a danger that OpTic won’t find traction early and potentially crash out of the tournament in the first or second round.

First, they need to make it past Boston Breach, who look like an easy opponent for OpTic, but this might be a bit deceiving since Boston Breach can be dangerous on a good day. We also don’t know how good Boston Breach will be with Eric “Snoopy” Pérez as the latest addition, but according to scrim results, Boston Breach are much stronger than they were in the last stage of the season.

Boston Breach are a good value bet on the moneyline market, but we’re happy with the CDL betting odds offered on the map handicap.

Toronto Ultra and Los Angeles Thieves are two live outsiders to win the CDL Championship 2023 crown, but they need to show a bit more before we can add either of the two squads in the same category as Atlanta FaZe.

The Thieves and Ultra looked good at CDL Major 5, where they placed fifth-sixth and fourth, respectively, and they have very similar results over the entire year, finishing fifth and fourth in the regular season standings.

Of the two, Toronto Ultra look to be in a slightly better position to make a deeper run in Las Vegas, but they’ve not looked that much better than Los Angeles Thieves over the last month, so $1.61 on Ultra to win the game seems a bit too pricey.

This should be a very close and competitive game, so we’re happy with $2.50 on over 4.5 maps.

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?The competition, which took place between August 4 and August 7, was heavily criticized by players and viewers concerning Vanguard for the most part of the year. However, they turned up in their numbers to be a part of the top event at the end of the season.?

?This led to the viewership of the grand final surpassing the season-long viewership count with a peak viewership of around 275,244 views. This is the largest since 2020 and much higher than the 150,000 viewers attained in Major 1 and Major 4.?

?The notable 2020 high viewership was attained when over 330,000 fans watched Dallas Empire (now OpTic Texas) triumph over FaZe in the CDL’s inaugural season championship.? ?The 2021 Call of Duty Championship brought in slightly lower views, reaching just below 230k peak viewership. Another impressive year was 2018 when the championship peak viewership was at 324,000.?

?The entire gaming weekend was a notable one for the Call of Duty League Championship, where all five matches had over 150,000 viewers. OpTic Texas snagged three of the top five. The team was matched up with the Seattle Surge for the elimination finals, and at its peak, the match brought in over 190,000 viewers.?

?Another noteworthy occurrence at the CDL Championship was LA Thieves successfully pulling off a switch in their fortune this season.?

?The franchise won the championship over Atlanta FaZe with a dominant 5-2 victory on Sunday. The match was led by four players: Kenneth “Kenny” Williams, who was named MVP of the game; Dylan “Envoy” Hannon; Zack “Drazah” Jordan; and Sam “Octane” Larew. The win was the players’ first world championship. Matthew “Nadeshot” Haag – the owner of the team, who previously played for OpTic Gaming professionally – also got his first world championship.? ?The franchise won the New York Major title last month; hence, the CDL Champs 2022 win is their second consecutive victory in a major tournament.?

?The CoD League season has wrapped up, and the series is seemingly taking 2023 off. Regardless, there is still the expansive multiplayer offering as well as a global campaign, gameplay changes, and new compact mechanics to look forward to.? ?Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 is also gearing up for release. The launch will continue the tradition of COD titles being released in the last quarter of the year. The title will be released on October 28 across Xbox One, Xbox Series X & S, PlayStation 5 & 4, Steam, and Battle.Net.

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?New York Subliners are back with the same roster that made it to the finals of CDL Stage 3 Major in May, but we wouldn’t overreact to their past success. The game has changed significantly since May, and we must consider that the Subliners’ current lineup might lack synergy.

OpTic Chicago enter this match as heavy favourites, which is fair. Even though the public perception of this team isn’t great, that mostly has to do with the sky-high expectations put on Seth “Scump” Abner and his crew.

The Green Wall have been playing significantly better than many give them credit for, and you can’t ignore the improvement they’ve shown towards the end of the season. The Subliners should look better with James “Clayster” Eubanks back in the team, but that won’t cut it against the surging OpTic.

?Dallas Empire are known for shifting into a higher gear in big tournaments, but that doesn’t explain the latest CDL betting odds. This is a powerful, talented, and experienced roster, but as much as we can praise the Empire for what they have, you can’t feel too confident betting on them in this matchup. Dallas have had some shaky showings of late, including losses to OpTic Chicago (1-3) and Minnesota R?KKR (1-3) in their final games of the regular season.

The R?KKR enter this match following a phenomenal performance at the CDL Stage 5 Major, where they reverse-swept Toronto Ultra in the finals to end the season with a title. You could argue that it was nothing more than a fluke run, but ardent followers of the CDL would know that Minnesota have been on the up for a while.

The R?KKR crushed Dallas Empire just over two weeks ago and have proven that they can take on anyone. Take the outsiders at $2.01.

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