BO6 Call of Duty League Stage 2 Viewer Guide — What You Need To Know
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 has undoubtedly been a commercial success for Activision and Treyarch. It's been one of the best-received Call of Duty titles in years and it did it not by copying the old tried and true Call of Duty formula, but by attempting something new with its unique omnimovement system.
Casual and hardcore fans alike have been enjoying the latest installment to the Call of Duty franchise. With competitive Call of Duty being much different from a regular public match, it makes sense that some years are better for one than the other. This year's title seems to be one of the few that satisfy both sides.
Call of Duty's premier esports league since the 2020 season has been the Call of Duty League. Major 1 of the Call of Duty League just wrapped up a few weeks ago where Atlanta FaZe earned the first major title of the Black Ops 6 season. Now it's time for stage 2.
What Is The CDL Format?
The Call of Duty League has a simple formula. Teams will compete in online qualifiers each weekend from Friday, February 14 through Sunday, March 16. They will then compete in a 4 day LAN Major tournament from Thursday, March 20 to Sunday, March 23.
At the halfway point during the online qualifiers, the teams will compete in a Minor tournament that is single elimination with a much smaller prize pool and is online. The seeding for the minor is determined by the rankings at the halfway point of the stage.
After all the online qualifier matches have concluded, the standings for the individual stage determine seeding for the major. A Major is a double elimination tournament on LAN, with all series being the standard best of 5 formats except for the grand finals, which is a best of 7. The top 8 teams in the standings at the end of the stage start in the winner's bracket and the bottom 4 teams start in the loser's bracket.
When And Where To Watch Stage 2 Of the CDL?
All matches of the Call of Duty League are streamed on its own official YouTube channel. During each weekend of the online qualifier matches some teams will play two series and some teams will play one. Online qualifier matches start at 3 PM EST with 90-minute time blocks. Fridays have 3 matches, Saturdays have 4 matches, and Sundays have 3 matches.
As mentioned above all matches are scheduled with 90-minute blocks of time in mind. If a series goes game 5 than the following series will be starting a little bit late. Every CDL match will be scheduled to start at a time of (all times in the list below are in EST for online qualifiers or in the local time where the tournament is being held if for the major tournament):
- 12 PM
- 1:30 PM
- 3 PM
- 4:30 PM
- 6 PM
- 7:30 PM
When is OpTic Texas Major 2?
After all of the online qualifier matches from mid-February to mid-March have been concluded, teams will meet in Texas for OpTic Texas Major 2 from March 20 to March 23. Fans can watch the tournament matches by buying a ticket and attending the event in person. The event will be played in the Credit Union of Texas Event Center in Allen, Texas which is where last year's world championship was held.
The other way to watch is online through the official Call of Duty League YouTube channel.
Biggest Storylines for CDL 2025 Stage 2
The major headlines during stage 1 were about the big 3- OpTic Texas, Atlanta FaZe, and Los Angeles Thieves. Each of these teams had a big storyline following them throughout stage 1 and for two of these teams, those stories loom large in stage 2.
FaZe False Start
Let's start with Atlanta FaZe. They had their worst start to the year in franchise history, losing their first couple of series. They were down bad heading into the stage 1 online minor tournament. They ended up winning that minor tournament and wouldn't lose a single series from that point onward in stage 1 where they won the first major in Madrid, Spain.
Hope for OpTic?
OpTic Texas started the year a little shaky, but fans were optimistic the defending world champions would figure things out. However, things got weird for OpTic Texas as one of their superstars, Pred, was dropped from the team under very weird circumstances that have still not been explained by him or the organization. They brought in Huke and finished the online qualifers as the number 1 seed heading into the major in Madrid. OpTic Texas would bomb out of the tournament at a top 8 finish and now Pred is back in the lineup for stage 2.
LA Thieves Super Team
Coming into the year, the Los Angeles Thieves (100 Thieves) were the talk of the town. With team owner Nadeshot taking a pay cut himself to assemble a super team comprised of top AR Scrap, top SMG Hydra, top flex Ghosty, and former world champion Envoy. At the start of the Major 1 qualifiers, they looked to be playing the part of the super team, as they were incredibly dominant. That dominance did not last, however, and they started to look human. The super team went to Madrid for Major 1 and came up short with second place in a game 7 round 11 loss to FaZe. They enter stage 2, looking to prove the super team claims correct.
