CDL Minor I Kicks off Friday Afternoon, ending the CDL’s Holiday Hiatus

(Gray News) - After three weeks, the Call of Duty League is finally back from its holiday break, and the first thing on the docket is Minor Tournament I. Adding these Minor Tournaments halfway through qualifiers for Majors I & II is a new step for the CDL. The value of these Minor Tournaments for teams is a chance at the $20,000 prize reserved for first place and a few more CDL points for the podium finishers. The winner gets 30 CDL points. Twenty points go to second place, and the teams tied at third and fourth place get 10 points each. These points won’t hold weight in the regular season seeding but will influence the postseason seeding instead, meaning a team could make or miss the postseason down the road based on their performance this weekend.

Seeding for Minor Tournament I comes from the season standings after the first two weeks of Major I Qualifiers. The tournament is a single-elimination bracket with eight teams making up round one and the remaining four receiving byes into round two. Those four teams are the Carolina Royal Ravens, Boston Breach, Toronto Ultra, and the Los Angeles Thieves. They will wait to see who emerges victorious from Friday’s matches to face them on Saturday. So, let’s take a look at the matches for this afternoon.

Matches scheduled for Friday, January 10th:

• Minnesota RØKKR vs. Los Angeles Guerrillas M8 - 3 PM EST / 2 PM CST / 12 PM PST
• Miami Heretics vs. Atlanta FaZe - 4:30 PM EST / 3:30 PM CST / 1:30 PM PST
• OpTic Texas vs. Vegas Falcons - 6 PM EST / 5 PM CST / 3 PM PST
• Vancouver Surge vs. New York Cloud9 - 7:30 PM EST / 6:30 PM CST / 4:30 PM PST

RØKKR is taking on the Guerrillas M8 to kick off the tournament in a bit of a lopsided matchup. While RØKKR is not perfect by any means, they are still 2-2 on the season, while the Guerrillas M8 are still looking for their first win. RØKKR also beat the Guerrillas M8 3-2 in the first match of the season. The Guerrillas could have been cooking during the break and come out firing on all cylinders, but as it stands on paper, RØKKR is the better bet in this one.

The Miami Heretics are facing the Atlanta FaZe in the second match of the day, and unlike match one, these two are both 1-3 on the season. The only edge goes to the Heretics, who have a 50% game-win percentage compared to FaZe’s 37.5%. Historically, any fan would lean toward picking FaZe as the favorite in any matchup, but they have not been themselves so far this season. Their team flow in matches has been off, and they are searching for something. The Heretics have a good shot at taking down FaZe today, but it will be a nail-biter.

In match three, the 2024 Champs OpTic Texas will face the Vegas Falcons. This match is more straightforward to analyze because OpTic has a 3-1 record while the Falcons are still winless. OpTic had a rough season opener against Boston Breach, in which they lost 2-3, but since then, they have looked solid. The Falcons, on the other hand, have only won two maps all season. It’s safe to say OpTic should pull this out, barring the Falcons finding some magical strategy during the break.

To finish off the opening day of Minor I, the Surge will take on Cloud9. Both teams have 1-3 records, and the Surge’s game-win percentage at 42.11% only slightly outweighs Cloud9’s 37.5%. Fans should expect a fierce battle between the two, and it will probably be the day’s closest match.

Schedule for Saturday, January 11th:

• Toronto Ultra v. (Winner of RØKKR v. Guerrillas M8) - 3 PM EST / 2 PM CST / 12 PM PST
• Boston Breach v. (Winner of OpTic v. Falcons) - 4:30 PM EST / 3:30 PM CST / 1:30 PM PST
• Carolina Royal Ravens v. ( Winner of Surge v. Cloud9) - 6 PM EST / 5 PM CST / 3 PM PST
• Los Angeles Thieves v. (Winner of Heretics v. FaZe) - 7:30 PM EST / 6:30 PM CST / 4:30 PM PST

Go to the Official CDL YouTube channel to watch all the matches live. Streams start 30 minutes before the first match each day.

Gray Television is an investor in OpTic Gaming.