eUnited Call of Duty Heads to Vegas, PUBG Travels to Sweden
By: Zachary Lange
Call of Duty begins year in Sin City
With the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 back on Oct. 12, competitive teams were given nearly two months to prepare for CWL Las Vegas.
Still, there will be an element of the unknown for eUnited in the weekend tournament which features a prize pool of $250,000. A competitive ruleset was only established a few weeks ago, and all 274 teams participating have had limited to no experience playing Black Ops 4 in a LAN environment.
To receive as much quality practice as possible, eUnited traveled to Frisco, Texas earlier in the week to participate in scrimmages against top contenders such as OpTic Gaming and Team Envy.
eUnited’s pool play competitors at Vegas include Team Reciprocity, 100 Thieves and two teams that will be determined through a play-in tournament and open bracket on Thursday and Friday.
There is a lot on the line for the first event of the competitive Call of Duty season. In addition to the prize pool, the top-4 teams at Vegas will earn an automatic seed into the pro league, which is set to begin in February. Teams that fail to place fourth or better but finish in the top-32 at Vegas will play in a qualifying tournament for the pro league in January.
Team Reciprocity is a unique lineup that combines four European players with Australian Denholm “Denz” Taylor. All five players participated in one or both stages of the pro league last season during Call of Duty: WWII and have relocated to a team house in Las Vegas to compete full time.
Also unique is 100 Thieves, who formed a North American Call of Duty team by placing veteran forces in the scene such as Ian “Enable” Wyatt alongside young guns like Maurice “Fero” Henrique.
CWL Las Vegas is set to kick off pool play action Friday at 5 p.m. Eastern time.
PUBG faces big competition in Sweden
The Global Loot League (GLL) Season 3 Finals will be the first time Taylor “TaylorJay” Johnson represents eUnited on LAN.
Since joining the team in July, TaylorJay and teammate Tom “PistolaTime” Banel have helped provide more aggressive gameplay for the team who finished the fifth in the GLL standings to qualify for the $100,000 event held in Stockholm.
“This is my first time flying overseas and the view on the plane was so sick,” TaylorJay said. “I’m so excited to play with the team. I can’t stop smiling and thinking about it.”
Flying to Sweden today for @GlobalLoot. I feel good, I look good, I’m gonna do good. Gonna frag so hard 🤙🏼 @eUnitedgg best team in the game pic.twitter.com/LuMFA2cWOX
— eU TaylorJay (@TaylorJaytv) December 3, 2018
One key for the team to perform well this weekend according to TaylorJay was maintaining all angles and spreading out when in team fights with the opposition. Top teams that are also competing in the finals include European heavyweights such as Team Liquid, Ninjas In Pyjamas and FaZe Clan.
The uptick in offensive play has led to some of eUnited’s best performances in PUBG, something Andrew “GICE” Geisinger attributed to the team’s synergy as a whole.
“I think we possess the necessary ability to reset quickly when we have an off day and look back at our natural success as a team to regain our potential,” GICE said. “Most importantly, I think our friendship keeps us going as a solid unit.”
Currently, the team has five members on a team that features four starters, with practice time being split between Jaden “Vegas” James and Dylan "Dylhero" Bolduc, who will join the starting lineup for all events after this weekend’s event. Still, GICE said that the team is capable of reaching good form for a respectable placement in the finals.
After playing 15 games across three days, eUnited will fly back home and have a couple days to prepare for an online qualifying tournament into the preseason for the National PUBG League (NPL), which is set to begin in February of next year.
Coverage of the GLL Season 3 Finals can be found on their official Twitch channel. Be sure to follow eUnited across all social media platforms for the most recent updates.