After a few days of shocking upsets, the remaining top organizations barreled through the smaller teams to leave only six squads left heading into championship Sunday at the Call of Duty World League Championships. Among the casualties were both European teams, UNILAD eSports and Red Reserve, which put an end to the European region's run on Saturday at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio.
After dropping into the loser bracket on Saturday, both FaZe Clan and Luminosity Gaming have dominated any team that have been unfortunate enough to cross paths with them.
FaZe Clan's comfort in the losers bracket was on full display Saturday as the team blitzed through eLevate and UNILAD eSports with swift 3-0 wins. Opponents couldn't withstand FaZe Clan's fast and aggressive playstyle of flooding objectives with SMGs. Both Thomas "ZooMaa" Paparatto and Preston "Priestahh" Greiner once again looked to be at their peaks, mirroring the team that was crowned champions in Stage 1 of the CWL Pro League earlier this year.
Luminosity Gaming stepped up in the losers bracket as well and finally lived up to the expectations set when the new-look roster was announced before the start of Stage 2 of the CWL Pro League. Matthew "FormaL" Piper, of OpTic Gaming fame, and Johnathon "John" Perez knocked out both Lightning Pandas and Red Reserve with their calculated playstyle. Even Red Reserve, long considered the best team in Europe and a team that thrives in losers brackets, could only take a single map off of the star-studded team.
Evil Geniuses and Team Kaliber light up winners bracket
With Day 4 trimming out the smaller teams, Team EnVyUs faced its first real challenge of the tournament in Evil Geniuses, who's fielding one of the powerhouses of the CWL in Patrick "ACHES" Price. The two teams slugged it out in hopes of winning a place at the winners finals and forced the only Round 5 Search & Destroy of the day. But ACHES, a man known for making clutch plays in big games, managed to defeat Team EnVyUs by winning a narrow 1-vs.-1 against Cuyler "Huke" Garland. Team EnVyUs will now be facing off against a vicious FaZe Clan in the lower bracket on Sunday.
Across the aisle, Team Kaliber defeated eLevate 3-0 to come up against eUnited. The two teams have built a cult-like fanbase over the season, and both had fans show up in full force during the winners semifinals match. Despite the excitement in the air, a cool and collected Team Kaliber scored a 3-1 win to book its ticket to the winners final. eUnited, meanwhile, will be forced to face Luminosity Gaming.
After four exciting days of gaming, only FaZe Clan, Luminosity Gaming, Team EnVyUs, eUnited, Evil Geniuses and Team Kaliber remain to battle it out for the 2018 CWL Championship. The final day will get underway at noon ET on Sunday.