CWL Las Vegas 2018 Final Placements

December 9, 2018 ESportsSource

The start of the Black Ops 4 season was a hot one in Las Vegas where the best Call of Duty teams in the world were competing for the $100,000 Grand Prize and automatic qualification for the 2019 Pro League.

It was a disappointing start to the season for fans of FaZe Clan, who crashed out of the tournament in 13th-16th place. A troublesome start for Team Envy too, who famously signed the World Championship winning team from Evil Geniuses in the off-season, but finished out of the money alongside OVO-backed newcomers 100 Thieves.

Teams with a majority of European players did relatively well at the tournament, with Team Sween and Lightning Pandas finishing in 5th-6th place. Luminosity struggled against the very best of the best teams, and ended up with a respectable 4th place finish.

An extremely well-practiced and prepared Splyce team looked downright nasty all weekend long, only stumbling against a rampaging OpTic Gaming.

Temp was an absolute monster throughout the tournament, especially during their Loser’s Final match against EUnited. For their part, EU showed a lot of poise on the mainstage, bouncing back from a tough hardpoint loss to win the Search, but they looked scattered on Control and Splyce simply outplayed them. EU fought bravely in the next respawn map to even up the score and take Splyce to a Game Five. With their tournament lives on the line, EU clutched up to win Search and Destroy 6-4 and move on to the Final.

Both of the above teams had only lost to fan-favorites OpTic Gaming during the tournament, and that was who was waiting for EUnited when they made it out of the Loser’s Bracket Final. EU would need to win two best of five series matches to be crowned the winners of the tournament, and the team came into the match warmed up and well practiced from their earlier win. In his post match interview, Arcitys was asked what two things EU would need to focus on to win against OpTic, and without hesitation he said, “Dashy and Scump.”

Indeed all five of the players (Scump, Crimsix, TJHaly, Karma, Dashy) on OpTic would be stars on any other team, but Dashy and Scump both had an absolute blockbuster of a tournament thus far, and when the teams took the stage for the Final series, it was clear those two would be the players to shut down for an EU win. OpTic won their first tournament match against EU 3-1, but could they do it again with $100,000 on the line?

EUnited came out hot on the first map, Seaside Hardpoint, leading almost the entirety of the map, but OpTic suddenly switched on and came alive, winning by a narrow margin 250-246.

Next up was Arsenal Search and Destroy. OpTic leapt out to a 3-1 lead, but EU brought it back to 4-3. But thanks to some nasty plays by Dashy, OpTic managed to close out for the 6-3 win. One more map and OpTic win it all.

EUnited came out swinging on the Arsenal Control map, and took the first round easily. OpTic bounced right back to win the next two rounds, and suddenly EU were playing to stay in contention once again. EUnited played lights out that round to make it 2-2 and force a 5th Control round. OpTic Gaming weren’t about to let EU take a map, and they took the hot 3-0 win. OpTic Gaming win CWL Las Vegas, dropping just five maps throughout the entire tournament and the young SnD star Dashy won the MVP award.

Place Pro Points Cash
1st (q) 25,000 $100,000 OpTic Gaming
2nd (q) 15,000 $60,000 EUnited
3rd (q) 11,000 $40,000 Splyce
4th (q) 9,000 $20,000 Luminosity
5th – 6th 8,000 $10,000 Lightning Pandas Team Sween
7th – 8th 7,000 $5,000 Str8 Rippin Evil Geniuses
9th – 12th 5,500 Reciprocity 100 Thieves Red Reserve Team Envy
13th – 16th 4,500 FaZe Clan UYU G2 Esports PIT Knights
17th – 20th 3,000 Team Heretics Mindfreak Excelerate Mazer Gaming
21st – 24th 2,750 Tainted Minds FC Black The Imperial Team Revenge

Feature photo courtesy of Activision/MLG.