Standy and Vegas Legion Complete Revenge Game Against Toronto Ultra
On February 18, the Toronto Ultra made the surprise roster move to move Eli "Standy" Bentz to the bench and bring up Charlie "Hicksy" Hicks from Challengers. On March 22, Toronto decided to release Standy, and two days later, Vegas made the move to sign him to the starting roster. Today, the Vegas Legion squared off against Toronto Ultra, with Standy taking on his former squad.
The match has been highly anticipated since the announcement of the Major 4 schedule. The likely Rookie of the Year, Thomas "Scrappy" Ernst, had plenty to say about Standy. The two had a back-and-forth on Twitter, creating plenty of drama leading up to the match.
"We're talking about practice? Brother, we were getting slammed in matches, but we're talking about practice. Are we kidding? Absolute joke." Scrap said on Toronto Ultra's Major 3 YouTube video. "[Following the Boston Series] We leave the facility and a few hours later I get a call that we are going to be benching Eli Standy and I said, thank the lord."
"It became very clear to us, if it wasn't already, that there was some dysfunction in the team, particularly the way we exited Major 1 and Major 2. We were definitely having some problems with communication and teamwork and closing out games. We were making some really amateur mistakes, and it became clear to us as a team and coaching staff that a change was probably needed." Toronto Ultra Coach Ryan "Flux" Oldfield said.
Coming off of a Major 3 Championship, Toronto is in a blender this Major, with Vegas starting to put it all together. The addition of Standy has helped turn their respawn game around. We all knew it was going to be a back-and-forth battle to the bitter end. And that's exactly what it was.
Toronto started the match off on Mercado Hardpoint and put it to Vegas, beating them 250 to 181. With how good Vegas is, it wasn't surprising to see them take down Toronto 6-4 on Mercado SnD.
Where it got interesting was the Expo Control round. Vegas has been dreadful in control, while Toronto has been the best in the league. To everyone's surprise, Vegas went up 2-0, putting Toronto quickly on their heels. Toronto was able to get the round to 2-2 before Vegas ultimately took the round and went up 2-1 in the match.
Toronto continued their Hardpoint dominance, beating Vegas 250-193, bringing us to a game five on Hotel SnD. And this round couldn't have been any crazier.
5-1. That's what Vegas goes up by. It's all but over with Toronto struggling to put out the fire that is Vegas' SnD game. Standy gets the final kill in that round six and decides to shoot bodies on his way to defusing the bomb.
That nearly put a bad spell on Vegas, as they drop the next four games, bringing the round to a 5-5 tie and onto a round 11. Vegas nearly choked the game away but clutched up in the final moments to complete the revenge game for Standy against Toronto.
Toronto might be stuck between a rock and a hard place as they will head to the Losers Bracket for Major 4, but there's no denying that the decision to move on from Standy was a smart one. Adding Hicksy brought another element to their game that they were missing.
There's also no denying that the move was a positive one for Standy. This allowed him to find a team that desperately needed that SMG slaying potential. The drama and emotion will naturally be there for these two, but we can all agree that the move greatly benefited both parties.
While Toronto starts Major 4 in the Losers Bracket - Vegas gets to start in the Winners Bracket for the first time ever.
To whomever it may concern... 🤫 pic.twitter.com/yvJy6qWxHV
— Call of Duty League (@CODLeague) April 14, 2023
How to watch Major 4 of the Call of Duty League?
Viewers can watch the 2023 Call of Duty League Major 4 through the Call of Duty Twitch channel. The CDL Major 4 will take place every Friday-Sunday over the course of four weeks.
Zack is the Publishing Manager for Esports Illustrated. He grew up playing videos as a kid, mainly sports games and the Call of Duty series. Before his work at Esports Illustrated, Zack published content for the NFL Draft for various sites since 2017, including partner sites on FanNation and has appeared on various shows across the country and videos across the FanNation group. Outside of work, Zack enjoys spending time with his wife and three children. He loves playing football and video games with his son, taking his two daughters to get their favorite treats, and binge-watching shows with his wife. Zack began covering Esports at the end of 2022, mainly covering the Call of Duty League.