CoD Rec League Rostermania: Recap
My first short story covering the CRL Rostermania news, specifically in Silver Premade, got a lot of positive feedback, so here is a full story about CRL rostermania except this time I will try to focus on all of the major stories that have happened so far.
It has been an offseason of mixups, shockers, surprises, and changes in and around the CoD Rec League so far. Every single division at this point has experienced one or two major changes at this point of the offseason and it certainly appears like there will be more.
One thing to note before I take a deep dive into these stories: when I first heard rumors about certain teams from Platinum last season reforming to join Diamond for Vanguard, the assumption at the time was that Diamond would be ready in time for the release of Vanguard. Since that is no longer the case, a few of my previous reports are relatively inaccurate but these teams are still expected to be among the most serious contenders in Platinum Premade. Since Diamond will likely be an invite only division, it will be interesting to see what comes of those teams when Season 2 rolls around.
One of the biggest pieces of news that was reported was the retirement of 3x CRL Chump boozies, who won all of his CRL Chump matches in whatever the highest division was for each season at the time. Boozies’ Maui Chums squad was already informed of his decision before any announcement was made, likely some time earlier in the month. Even though he announced his retirement, Boozies left open the possibility of rejoining in preparation of the Halo Rec League, an announced branch off of the Call of Duty Rec League. With this announcement, Maui Chums was left to search for a 4th player for their roster going into Vanguard, although it is speculated that they have found their 4th player already. When I reached out to Gother, he declined to comment on the matter.
In more Platinum news (although this was initially reported as possibly Diamond), it was reported that Snoop is getting back an old Gold Premade roster from Season 3. The roster consists of him, Waly, Magz, and Zenny. This roster finished 6–1 before losing to Maui Chums (led by Boozies at the time) in the semifinals. They will be playing in Platinum, although depending on how they do in Season 1 of Vanguard could jump up to Diamond should they perform well. Snoop’s roster is definitely catching some eyes. A poll ran on twitter showed about 50% think the team will be a top tier contender in Diamond, whereas 50% think it is probably too soon to tell. Regardless of what happens to their Diamond ambitions, they have to focus on Platinum for the upcoming season, and on paper this roster looks borderline unstoppable.
Wrapping up the news in Platinum, the ever popular “Utah Squad” have their fourth roster member as well. Moosey will be joining them, with a roster consisting of him, Alex, Prufio, and Zire. While this wasn’t a complete surprise seeing this squad come back for the first season of Vanguard, it could be an interesting challenge for them adding a new player to their roster and experiencing a full season of Platinum.
So that’s just about it for the heavy hitters of the league. I am not sure how many teams will be invited to Diamond for Season 2, but regardless I think all three of those teams have a realistic shot of getting that invite. I would love to see how the pools for Platinum will be divided up, as it looks like a lot of teams are suiting up and reforming for the challenge.
The news coming out of Gold Premade has been very slow, and not much is known about the division at the moment. However, it is widely believed that the Gold Premade Seattle Sloths roster led by Jimz, head mod of the CRL, will be completely disbanded due to time constraints and dissatisfaction with Vanguard itself. According to Jimz, he has a strong dislike for Modern Warfare, and seeing as how Vanguard is built off of the same engine, the discontent is not completely surprising. I would imagine Jimz will probably play a bit during launch week to get a final confirmation of his status on playing, but regardless the Seattle Sloths will definitely be disbanding as each player looks to move on.
The only other major news to come out of Gold is from the Florida Muted Tears. It sounds like they are potentially looking to undergo some roster changes and attempt to move up to Platinum. When I reached out to Fallen, it sounds like he is definitely teaming up with Eggy and LeMay, but I didn’t get any information on a 4th or any substitutes. Florida ended up bringing on Trademarks during the season in place of Resent and had a respectable 5–2 season, but were defeated by LA Dweebs in the first round.
Alright, now for the crazy stuff.
Silver Premade has been by far the most action packed division in the Call of Duty Rec League this offseason. As I type this I’m realizing this division alone could easily be two pages worth of information for all of the news and information that has come out about these teams. I’ll just go ahead and dive right into it.
One of the more interesting stories that has come out of Silver has been the amount of new players joining the Rec League for the first time this season. There are even some, such as BigMike, who have never played competitive CoD. BigMike will be having his CRL and competitive debut on the same day, with teammates Dapper, Real_Ransom, and Moose (no relation to Moosey). It is a little difficult to tell how this squad will play, as apparently this team has NEVER played with each other for any matches. Some role changes are expected for a couple players to overcome this challenge.
Some players who had previously played in Bronze will also be making their Silver debuts. For example, Azlo and Wayzy are both expected to team up and form their own squad, although it is unclear who their teammates will be. Azlo managed to get all the way to the Bronze Premade finals with his Toronto Falters squad, before losing to the Minnesota Floppr.
Interestingly enough, the Bronze Mixed chumpion himself, Groz, plans on teaming up with Cigburn, Marshallaw, Msa, and Dobz for the first season of Vanguard. On paper, this roster already looks very well balanced, but when I reached out to Groz, he added that apparently his roster will also include a “dark horse” secret substitute that nobody has seen before. Admittedly, I am not quite sure what that means but I am always excited to see a new roster come together for the first time, especially if it includes someone new!
As far as rosters in Silver Premade sticking together completely, we have New York Subpar, with a roster of Floofy, Alex, Vini, and Elusive Sniper. Unfortunately their squad missed the playoffs last season, but with some teams looking to move up, there could certainly be a chance for that team to squeeze into a playoff spot next season. We also have Maui Chums who are led by Majestic who will be sticking together for Vanguard. The interesting thing about them is they will almost certainly be title favorites after being bounced out in the semifinals last season after a strong 6–1 season.
And finally, I’m gonna move on to Bronze. There are so many stories in Silver that I couldn’t fit them all in here, otherwise this whole story could be about 10 pages long.
News in Bronze has been relatively slow, however there will be some players making their debuts.
There will be a brand new roster going into Bronze Premade at the start of Vanguard consisting of Nuclear, Storm, Stitch, and Shockey. Nuclear was originally released last season from Toronto Falters, and the rest of the players are making their CoD Rec League debuts so they are a bit of a mystery.
The only other major news story came out of Bronze Mixed as it was announced that the runner ups in Bronze Mixed, the Dallas Flat Tires, would not be sticking together to form a Premade squad. This announcement came as a little bit of a surprise, as they were widely considered one of the most improved rosters throughout the season. With that said, Goose, who made her CRL debut last season, will be forming a new Bronze Premade squad of her own, consisting of herself, Grimm, Fearless, and Moyer. These players have all played on a variety of teams before, however I believe this is the first time this team has ever played with each other.
Regardless of what happens from here on out in the Rec League for roster moves, it seems like the optimism going into the first season of Vanguard for the vast majority of the players is very high. I can imagine the first season may be a little chaotic with the new players and GAs for the first month or so of the game.
For more information on roster moves and team updates, please follow @BrendonTheNerd on twitter. For information regarding league operations and league updates, follow @CRLIntel on twitter.
