As the curtain falls on Columbus, one thing is certain. Reports of Call of Duty’s death have been greatly exaggerated.

A buzzing bar, a kitchen backlogged with one order after another, and desk slams kept to a minimum. All signs of a scene that has finally learned how to celebrate itself. There is little doubt in anyone’s mind that last weekend was an undeniable success. That is to say, for some teams, it was an undeniable failure. In the midst of rostermania, it’s clear that not everything went according to plan. Some squads are already taking steps to correct course, making changes in preparation for whatever comes next, but this write up isn’t about what is yet to come, it’s about what has just passed us by.

Group Stage A

Some called it the weakest group heading into LAN. And the proof will be in the pudding. The first match of the day was a banger, and what we thought would be the deciding match to dictate who would end up 3rd in the group. To everybody’s surprise this match only ended up mattering for UP.

Who woulda thunk, Goon’s only win of the day ended up throwing a wrench in Group A, losing to Regicide AND RollTheDice, which had Goons ultimately eliminated and out of Play-In contention. Unfortunately these screenshots could not be found as athn has removed them from the discord. For some reason, Group A had a real hard time posting any kind of screenshots and this article will suffer tremendously from it.

The final tally was as follows, with RollTheDice sliding into 4th behind UP, who won their head2head against them:

Group Stage B

Hard for Group B to be as chaotic as Group A was, but again, the same way as Group B, the afternoon started off with a bang.

With Awakening trying to avoid the same disaster they had experienced in GoTN Season 1 Playoffs, they pulled off every trick in the book. With Nemesis up 3v1 in round 1 on Matmata, bomb planted, and neoo at dome truck with 30 seconds left to defuse the bomb, the server crashed. Awakening, shaking in their boots after that first round, decided to uphold the rules, and were granted a ‘fresh restart’. To no one’s surprise, it was an extremely tight match, and lo and behold, that round ended up mattering more than you’d think.

At the same time, a very important match for group rankings was also taking place, with EMP going up against NEPH, again, on Matmata.

Most of the other matches went by, with predictable results, until the showdown for 4th place was streamed. Lewis, with another incredible showing tried to push his team over the edge, but once again, Nemesis were edged out with a solid team outing by Empyrean.

Ultimately, the last matches were going to decide the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd seeds, and in typical GGEZ fashion, Check 6 did not compete in the Group stage on Matmata and fell short to Bricked.

A close match, won by Awakening, was played on stream and ended up costing Check 6 their 2nd seed, sending them back to their BnB for VOD review, boycotting the play ins for a second straight time.

The final tally for Group B is as follows, with a couple of surprises, and Bricked reigning as champs without a blemish:

Play Ins:

With Goons out of the picture and UP taking third place, both Regicide and RollTheDice go through, each facing their own set of challenges with different match ups.

Seed #4 RollTheDice vs Seed #5 Nemesis

A close fought series, with Nemesis edging it out, and with Eric crashing out after 10pm and adept struggling to not bottom frag, RollTheDice had no chance really. Lewis once again broke the other team’s legs with timed clutches and 7 nade kills, tied with the nade-king himself, Berry, who also had 7 throughout the series.

Seed #4 Empyrean vs Seed #5 Regicide

If Regicide had clutched out Toujane, this could’ve been a whole other series, but backed by top fragging tweeterman Redz on consecutive maps, Empyrean made this one look easy with a timely 2-0. 10 nade kills for Empyrean might’ve made the difference here on Toujane. On Matmata, Regicide seemed to have issues getting the bomb down, which makes the map a hell-hole for allies.

A long day for some teams. Special shoutout to Strokers who kept the redhead at the bar busy while others were fragging out, and Nephilim who were on the cusp of making a splash and having a chance to prove themselves in Play-ins. Regicide surprised everyone, not by being competitive, but by actually leading by example and upsetting teams. Goons have no comment.

But at the end of the day, 5 teams make it out of Group B, and only 3 teams make it out of Group A. For some teams, the goal was to make it out of groups, and for the others, the real deal starts on Sunday.