On June 10-12, glorious chaos will descend upon Southern California in the form of the Major League Gaming Anaheim Open 2016. With a total of 108 teams competing for a large chunk of the $100,000 prize and 10,000 Call of Duty World League pro points, the action will be fierce.
Format
The open will begin with a mix of 96 amateur squads and international professional teams duking it out through a series of double-elimination, best-of-three matches with the top four teams qualifying for group play. Those four teams will then be slotted into predetermined groups of CWL teams, with every team slogging through a best-of-five series against their group opponents for pivotal positioning within the championship bracket.
From there, the top two teams in each group will advance into the championship bracket, where another set of double elimination, best-of-five matches will commence. For the sake of brevity, "advancing" teams below will not include amateur teams due to the expansive nature of the open bracket format.
Group A: OpTic Gaming, Cloud9, Team SoloMid
Advancing: OpTic Gaming & Cloud9
The clear frontrunners at the event, OpTic Gaming has once again established itself as the cream of the crop during Stage 2. While Stage 1 MVP Seth "Scump" Abner terrorized his North American CWL opposition to the tune of a 1.22 K/D (kill/death ratio), easily the best figure in the league, it's the continual rise of Matthew "FormaL" Piper that makes this iteration of OpTic Gaming one of the most dangerous teams to date. Considered one of the better snipers in the CWL for years, FormaL has seemingly upped his game, posting the second best accuracy mark through eight weeks of Stage 2.
The man leading the accuracy category, however, belongs to Adam "Assault" Garcia, who also leads Cloud9 in K/D with a 1.16 mark. Coupled with the added firepower of Colt "Havok" McLendon and Assault, Cloud9 is one of only two teams that boast two players in the top ten in terms of K/D. It'll need every bit of the dynamic duo's slaying capability to push its way into the championship bracket.
Group B Teams: Rise Nation, H2K Gaming, 100 Thieves
Advancing: Rise Nation & H2K Gaming
The runners-up to OpTic Gaming in Stage 1, Rise Nation has taken its fair share of lumps throughout the second stage of the CWL, uncharacteristically dropping a handful of games to lesser competition. Still, a recent stretch where the team won five of its last eight matches has put it firmly in the second spot in the standings, solidifying its status in the upper echelon of the CWL. Given that it's in likely the weakest of the four groups, Rise Nation should easily advance into the championship portion of the open.
The other team with the best odds of making it out of Group B may be a toss-up, as neither H2K nor 100 Thieves enter the tournament on a positive note. With both teams riding a string of losses heading into Anaheim and the group stage using the best-of-five format, H2K gets the nod over 100 Thieves, thanks to its horrendous record in Uplink matches so far. If an amateur team were to advance through the group stages, however, this might be the best group for it to do so.
Group C Teams: FaZe Clan, eLevate, Luminosity Gaming
Advancing: FaZe Clan, Team eLevate
While Group B only seems to have one team worthy of a Championship spot, a case could be made for each team to come out of Group C.
FaZe Clan, led by its dominant duo of Ian "Enable" Wyatt and Thomas "Zooma" Paparatto, is the only other team to claim two players within the top ten in K/D. And the high K/D marks don't just stop there. Dillon "Attach" Price and team leader James "Clayster" Eubanks trail shortly behind, ranking 12 and 16 in North America. While those numbers may indicate a high degree of slaying potential, it's actually the team's ability to avoid death that has largely factored into its success. In fact, each member of FaZe Clan ranks in the top 20 for the least amount of deaths per round.
While FaZe Clan excels with a methodical approach, eLevate has found success masquerading as the Call of Duty equivalent to the Energizer Bunny. Each member of eLevate ranks in the top 20 for most distance traveled per round, with Jared "Nagafen" Harrell clocking in at a remarkable 86,819.7, the highest mark in the NA CWL. That amount of map control would explain how Ulysses "Aqua" Silva leads the entire NA CWL in kills-per-round (21.2), but may also explain why he is the only eLevate member in the top 15 in terms of K/D.
A clash in styles may make FaZe Clan vs. eLevate one of the most interesting matches of the group stages, but Luminosity Gaming could easily spoil the party so long as new addition, Anthony "Nameless" Wheeler, continues his assault on the CWL. While the way Luminosity Gaming announced the decision to start Nameless in place of veteran Tyler "TeePee" Polchow was mismanaged, the results have been hard to ignore, as the team has taken four wins in the last five matches since bringing Nameless over from compLexity Gaming. It might be a dark horse in the race for a championship spot, but there's no doubt it could do damage if it claws its way into the main event.
Group D Teams: Team EnVyUs, Dream Team, compLexity Gaming
Advancing: Team EnVyUs, Dream Team
One of the more surprising teams residing near the top of the CWL standings, Team EnVyUs has looked dominant at times during Stage 2, recording four 3-0 shutout wins against its competition, the third best mark in the league. Offseason addition Johnathan "John" Perez has been impressive, leading the team in nearly every major statistical category, including K/D, kills per round, and score per minute. Bryan "Apathy" Zhelyazkov coupled with Austin "Slasher" Liddicoat have combined to form a seemingly impenetrable unit capable of slaying the best teams in the CWL. EnVyUs seems to pass the almighty "eye-test" with wins over Rise Nation and OpTic Gaming in recent weeks. Still, an air of uncertainty seems to surround the team despite its recent success. A win at Anaheim may be just what EnVyUs needs.
Dream Team on the other hand, enters the MLG Open with little fanfare or pedigree of success. While the team was one of the real success stories after starting Stage 2 5-1, it's since dropped back into the middle of the pack, entering Anaheim with a 7-6 record. The team seems confident heading into the tournament, but will confidence push it through a potentially grueling slate of championship matches?