Call of Duty – Boston Breach Start Great at 2023 CDL

Today marked the start of the fourth CallofDuty League season, with the Boston Breach defeating the Atlanta FaZe 3-1 to kick off the professional Modern Warfare 2 circuit.

Following a season in which FaZe advanced to four grand finals without winning a title, the most dominating team in the CDL made a change going into 2023 by switching out two-time global champion Arcitys for seasoned pro SlasheR. SlasheR, who in 2016 won a world title with Envy, has relocated to Atlanta after playing for the Los Angeles Guerrillas the previous year.

Boston had a mediocre first year in the CDL, but they did manage to make CoD Champs. Unfortunately for the Breach, they never placed higher than third at any event last season, so they decided to make a change and brought in Owakening, who had previously played for the Florida Mutineers, to take TJHaLy’s place.

Since Simp, aBeZy, and Cellium joined the squad before the CDL’s debut season in 2020, Atlanta has continuously been the greatest team in the globe. Since that time, the squad has advanced to the league’s prior championship games’ grand finals, winning the 2021 CDL Championship during the Cold War season. However, Boston handled business in Owakening’s franchise debut today.

Embassy Hardpoint, the first map of the series, was won by Atlanta by a score of 250–207, and it looked like FaZe was on their way to another resounding series triumph. In the slaying area, all of the members of Atlanta scored positives, with SlasheR and Simp topping the pack with 1.44 and 1.56 K/Ds, respectively.

But before entering the Al Bagra Fortress Search and Destroy, the revamped Boston squad had other ideas. At two rounds each, the map was deadlocked, and Owakening was left in a one-vs-two retake situation. Despite having more players, Cellium and aBeZy were unprepared for Owakening to be behind them. As a result, Owakening won the round and the two-piece, giving Boston a lead that it would not lose for the remainder of the map.

The third mode of the game called for the teams to square off on Al Bagra Fortress with the series tied at one map apiece. Boston started off as the more aggressive and offensive side, winning two of the attacking rounds and one of the defensive rounds to complete the clean sweep and put the Breach ahead 2-1 in the series.

Boston won the fourth map of the series, Zarqwa Hydroelectric Hardpoint, with a commanding 250-203 victory, led by another outstanding performance from the team’s newest acquisition, Owakening. In the pivotal map of the series, Big Wake—as he is widely known across the Call of Duty community—dropped a 1.42 K/D. His series-high K/D for the game versus FaZe was 1.31, demonstrating that he might be one of the top free agent additions of the previous offseason.

In a repeat of the 2022 CDL Championship finals, Atlanta will return to action on Sunday, Dec. 4 at 5pm CT when they take on the Los Angeles Thieves. On Saturday, December 3 at 5 p.m. CT, Boston plays host to the Seattle Surge in their first game back. The first Major of the 2023 season will take place in Raleigh, North Carolina, from December 15 to December 18, and all of these online qualifying matches are leading up to it.

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