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Call of Duty fans, get ready for some action-packed weekend! The League is finally ready to host the Kickoff Classic starting from January 21. The tournament will be featuring all 12 of the league’s teams competing. Kickoff Classic is not an official part of the 2022 CDL regular season but will have a whopping prize of USD 30,000 for the winners. Also, the game will be played in person at Esports Stadium Arlington in Texas.
The top four teams of last year's CDL Championship have been given a first-round bye. That means Atlanta FaZe, Minnesota RØKKR, OpTic Texas, and Toronto Ultra will all await winners of the matches in the first round. The rest of the teams will have to play in the first round against one another for the right to make it into the second round. There are some really good matchups to look up to. The most exciting first-round matchup is probably the New York Subliners taking on the currently unnamed team from Boston.
There could also be an enticing rematch between Seattle Surge and Atlanta FaZe if Seattle bests London in Round 1. The last time Seattle and Atlanta played, the Surge pulled off one of the best upsets in COD history.
Seattle Surge vs London Royal Ravens to kick-off tournament
The $30,000 prize tournament will kick off with a clash between Seattle Surge and London Royal Ravens. It will be followed by the much-anticipated face-off between New York Sublimers and the team from Boston. Interestingly, the team from Boston has taken the Chicago spot previously owned by OpTic and Envy after those two franchises merged to form OpTic Texas late last year. The third face-off on Friday will be between the Los Angeles Thieves and Paris Legion. The last match will see Florida Mutineers taking on Los Angeles Guerillas.
Super Saturday will start with Atlanta Faze taking on the winner of the Seattle Surge versus London Royal Ravens game. It will be followed by Minnesota RØKKR against the winner of New York vs Boston game. The third game of Saturday will have Optic Texas against the winner of LA Thieves vs Paris Legion. The last game will see Toronto Ultra facing the winner of Florida Mutineers vs Los Angeles Guerillas.