Toronto Ultra claim CDL Major 3 championship after crushing OpTics dream run at final hurdle

The Toronto Ultra has claimed the Call of Duty League’s Major Three Championship with a 4-2 victory over OpTic Texas, winning their second major championship in the CDL era.

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After OpTic had rattled off nine straight Hardpoint wins, Toronto finally put an end to that streak on Hotel Hardpoint. The Ultra jumped out to a lead after some back and forth action in the early goings, and they never looked back. Toronto was an incredible plus-30 in slaying in the map on the back of 53 combined kills from CleanX and Hicksy en route to a dominant 250-152 map to take a 1-0 series lead. 

In the Fortress Search and Destroy, OpTic made sure to leave that disastrous map one in the past. They jumped out to a massive 5-0 lead off clutch plays, but Toronto wouldn’t go quietly. The Ultra rattled off three straight rounds to bring the map to a 5-3 count, but ultimately Texas would prevail when Shotzzy and Dashy won a two-vs-two with the bomb down. With the win, the best of seven series was knotted at a map each.

The series pivoted to the first Control of the map set, with Hotel set to play host for the third map. Toronto started off strong, taking it to OpTic on offense in the map’s first round to take an early lead. But Texas won an offensive round of their own to level the playing field, and then snagged a defensive round to go up 2-1. The Ultra did a much better job in their second go at defending, holding OpTic to just one point captured.

With that defensive performance, Toronto were given a defensive round to decide the map. But Texas had no problem winning a second attacking round. They stacked the B point and there were no members of Toronto close enough to contest, giving Texas the map and a 2-1 lead.

Ghosty went absolutely massive in this map, posting a 28-15 statline in the win and making numerous timely plays. 

Toronto got out to a  big lead after two hills in the Hydro Hardpoint, and that was the story for the rest of the map. OpTic continued to try to go on flanks in the water to flip spawns and win rotations, but the Ultra sniffed them out every single time.

In the win, Scrap was extremely impressive, not only in his slaying but in his role in winning rotations and getting spawns at key times.

OpTic got back out to a big lead early in the Hotel Search and Destroy, taking four out of the first five rounds in the map five. But Toronto continued to chip away, and after sending it to a round 11, found themselves in a four-vs-one lives advantage. Shotzzy was found out immediately and with the kill, Toronto were now just one map away from their first championship since the Cold War season. 

The series headed back to Control, with El Asilo set to play host for these two teams, with a championship on the line. Toronto found themselves up one round when they found an opening that led to an offensive round win to go up 2-0.

But OpTic won an offensive round to steal one back and then won the subsequent defense to send it to a round 5. 

Toronto proved to be too strong in the end, as they put up a wall around the last B point OpTic needed. Time eventually ran out on Texas’ loser’s bracket run, as the Toronto Ultra claimed the season’s third major championship by a count of 4-2.

Texas made a valiant effort after getting swept in the opening round by the Boston Breach, but fell just short of a championship.

Toronto’s championship is their first since 2021 when they defeated the Atlanta FaZe at the Cold War Stage II Major.

It’s the first CDL championship for Toronto’s rookie duo, Scrap, and Hicksy, and it’s the second for veterans Insight and CleanX. Both CleanX and Insight were on the Ultra team that defeated Atlanta during the Cold War season. 

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