Los Angeles Guerrillas complete insane Lower Bracket Run in CDL Major 2

Something that a lot of people will agree with when it comes to Call of Duty League in 2022 is that it is the year of comebacks. During the first CDL Major, we had OpTic Texas come in from having a hard time in qualifiers, to prove that they are better than everyone. Now, the comeback story for CDL Major 2 with Los Angeles Guerrillas is even better!

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Our story begins

LAG started off their journey in CDL Major 2 in the winner’s bracket as they finished the qualifiers with a score of 3-2.

While the score was not the most impressive, it was good enough to give them an advantage over others. However, before the team arrived at the Mystic Lake Center, one of their players, Pierce “Gunless” Hillman was, could not participate in the tournament because of his serious illness. Because of that, LAG had to call in their sub, Kris “Spart” Cervantes.

Many thought that LAG got a bit lucky with their qualifications, and now that they are playing with the sub, they would stand no chance to accomplish anything relevant in the tournament. Unfortunately, those who believed that were proven right when LAG went 0 – 3 against Boston Breach in their first match.

In most situations, when someone goes 0 – 3 in their first match and is sent to the loser’s bracket, especially without one of the main players on the team, it is understandable if the team loses the will to compete. However, that was not the case.

Comeback!

The first match in the loser’s bracket that LAG had to play against was against Toronto ULTRA, and they easily beat them 3 – 1. The following match was an even cleaner victory against London Royal Ravens, which was 3 – 0. While the next two matches against Seattle Surge and Florida Mutineers were not the cleanest wins, 3 – 2 still got them to advance all the way to the finals of the loser’s bracket.

Like every comeback story, somehow, it always turns out that the team who is climbing all the way from the bottom of the loser’s bracket is going to meet the nemesis that put them there. So the finals of the loser’s bracket were Los Angeles Guerrillas VS. Boston Breach.

Since Breach was doing quite well in the winner’s bracket until they ran into Atlanta FaZe, who destroyed them 3 – 0, most people assumed that it was going to be a rematch as Breach will quickly crush Guerrillas. However, that was not the case, and LAG snatched their victory against the team that defeated them at the beginning of the tournament with a score of 3 – 2.

They were now in the grand finals!

Best CDL Major Grand Finals to date

There was some history between the Guerrillas and FaZe, the history that analysts and spectators knew very well, and that is the fact that FaZe has been beating them quite often in the past. Despite everyone’s predictions that FaZe was going to win, LAG was not phased by the atmosphere in the stadium, and they decided to do what they do best, play some high-quality Call of Duty.

Unfortunately, they did have a rocky start when FaZe snatched the first win of the match in the Gavutu HP for Map 1, but they kept their cool and pushed on. Los Angeles Guerrillas then snatched two wins in a row, one on Bocage SnD and the other one on Gavutu control. They were now 2 – 1.

FaZe is quite an experienced team, and they often find themselves in high tournament placings, so they too know how to keep their cool and perform their best. The two defeats did not break them,  and they kept playing. They performed pretty well, but the determination of LAG was so strong that they beat them on Tuscan HP for Map, followed by an amazing display of skill on Desert Siege SnD, where they won the map 6 – 1. This ultimately put them to 4 – 1 in map wins. LAG was just one win away from taking it all!

This time, LAG seemed to be becoming a bit nervous because they were about to pull the ultimate comeback in the history of CDL. FaZe noticed that, and they took the opportunity to defeat LAG on Tuscan Control, making the map score 4 – 2. While some thought that LAG lost their cool due to the nerves of being so close to victory, the majority really wanted them to win.

The final map was Berlin SnD, which was probably the most intense match of the tournament, as the final score was 6 – 4, in favor of Los Angeles Guerrillas. With this victory, LAG won the Major 2 finals with a score of 5 – 2, a fantastic journey from the bottom of the loser’s bracket to winning it all.

We can only hope every CDL Major plays out this way. Sitting on the edge of seat for 4-hours straight as esports history is being made is one of the exhilarating feels one can ask for.

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