[Call of Duty] CWL Dallas by MLG Kicks Off

It’s do or die time for teams around the world competing to join the Call of Duty Global Pro LAN League, and a final competition in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas will determine league placement.  Activision’s Call of Duty World League and tournament runners MLG are putting on the Dallas Open on March 17th through the 19th.

Teams will compete in the event from all three regions in the CWL: North America, Europe, and APAC.  All of the players are battling it out for a share of the $200,000 prize pool, and precious pro points that will allow them to qualify for the Global Pro LAN League that begins in April.

Teams to Watch

The 16 pool play teams were seeded according to the results of Pro Points they earned playing in various CWL tournaments online and on LAN during the Infinite Warfare season.  On Day One viewers will be treated to the spectacle of an esports El Clasico, OpTic v EnVyUS.  Once brother teams owned by the same company, OpTic and EnVy have one of the best rivalries in FPS esports, and the fans on both sides are sure to make this primetime match up a memorable one.

Keep an eye out for the international teams in pool play, like Tainted Minds (APAC), Mindfreak (APAC), Elevate (EU), Team Infused (EU), Splyce (EU), Red Reserve (EU) and Fnatic (EU).  A North American Call of Duty tournament rarely has so many non-NA teams starting from the group stages, and the top NA teams may be tripped up early by teams and some plays they are not used to seeing.

Group D looks particularly evenly matched, with Rise Nation somewhat underperforming in tournaments as of late, and PNDA and E6 both fielding younger teams of semi-pro players that have been doing well in the online 2k tournaments each weekend and at North American LAN tournaments.  Splyce is a team of EU stars (Bance, Jurd, Madcat, Zero) that could also make a lot of noise in Group D, provided they don’t solely rely on individual efforts.

In the Open Bracket (click here for bracket), #1 seed Epsilon will be hoping to make quick work of their foes so they can make it into Pool Play on Saturday.  Meanwhile, iGame (formerly Team 3G) have already been through a lot before coming to the States to compete, as they rushed to replace two players following ESWC, and found themselves in 7th place in the EU, just one spot off of qualification for the LAN League.  The team also scrambled to find an organization to fund their trip to the event, and at the last minute they were picked up by iGame, a new organization that had their first showing with two teams at CWL Atlanta in February of this year.  A good result at CWL Dallas will net the new team and the new organization some much needed pro points, and they could end the weekend in serious contention to qualify for the LAN League.

Pool Play Groups

  • Format: Round Robin Best-of-Five Pool Play feeding into a double-elimination bracket
Group A Group B Group C Group D
OpTic Gaming eUnited FaZe Clan Rise Nation
Team EnVyUs Team Infused  Millenium Luminosity Gaming Splyce
Red Reserve Cloud9 Elevate Enigma6
Tainted Minds Mindfreak Fnatic Pnda Gaming
OB OB OB OB

Key Information and Schedule

Dates: March 17-19, 2017

Stream: MLG.tv

Broadcast Schedule (times subject to change, all times CET)

Friday:

2:00 PM

  • Rise Nation vs Splyce
  • Team EnVyUs vs Red Reserve
  • Enigma6 vs PNDA Gaming
  • OpTIc Gaming vs Tainted Minds

3:30 PM

  • eUnited vs Infused
  • FaZe Clan vs Elevate
  • Luminosity vs Fnatic
  • Cloud9 vs MindFreak

5:00 PM

  • OpTic Gaming vs Red Reserve
  • Rise Nation vs Enigma6
  • Splyce vs PNDA Gaming
  • Team EnVyUs vs Tainted Minds

6:30 PM

  • eUnited vs Cloud9
  • FaZe Clan vs Fnatic
  • Luminosity vs Elevate
  • Infused vs MindFreak

8:00 PM (Primetime)

  • OpTic Gaming vs Team EnVyUs
  • Splyce vs Enigma6
  • Rise Nation vs PNDA Gaming
  • Red Reserve vs Tainted Minds

9:30 PM (Primetime)

  • FaZe Clan vs Luminosity
  • eUnited vs MindFreak
  • Elevate vs Fnatic
  • Infused vs Cloud9

Saturday:

11:00 AM – Open Winners 5 (Bravo Only)

1:00 PM – Pool Play Match 1 (Pro Team vs Open Team)

2:30 PM – Pool Play Match 2 (Pro Team vs Open Team)

4:00 PM – Pool Play Match 3 (Pro Team vs Open Team)

5:30 PM – Pool Play Match 4 (Pro Team vs Open Team)

8:00 PM – Winners Round 1 (Primetime)

9:30 PM – Winners Round 2 (Primetime)

Sunday:

10:00 AM – Winners Semifinal #1

11:30 AM – Winners Semifinal #2

1:00 PM – Losers Round 6

2:30 PM – Winners Final (Primetime)

4:00 PM – Losers Final (Primetime)

5:30 PM – Finals (Primetime)

7:00 PM – Finals Set #2 (If Needed)

 

2017 CWL Dallas Open Prizes

  • 1st – $80,000
  • 2nd – $48,000
  • 3rd – $32,000
  • 4th – $16,000
  • 5th – $8,000
  • 5th – $8,000
  • 7th – $4,000
  • 7th – $4,000

2017 CWL Dallas Open Pro Points

  • 1st – 25,000
  • 2nd – 15,000
  • 3rd – 11,000
  • 4th – 9,000
  • 5th – 8,000
  • 7th – 7,000
  • 9th – 5,500
  • 13th – 4,500
  • 17th – 3,000
  • 21st – 2,750
  • 25th – 2,250
  • 29th – 1,800
  • 33rd – 1,600
  • 41th – 1,400
  • 49th – 1,000

Esports Source CWL Dallas Open Coverage

Tournament Preview and Info | Pool/Championship Scores | Final Placements