Gentle Mates, Royal Ravens tighten CDL Stage 1 Major qualifying

The Paris Gentle Mates and Carolina Royal Ravens grabbed a share of first place in qualifying for the Call of Duty League Stage 1 Major by posting victories on Friday.

Paris rallied past the Toronto KOI 3-2, and Carolina downed OpTic Texas 3-1 as the final week of qualifying began.

The winners both improved to 4-2, tied for the top spot with FaZe Vegas and the Riyadh Falcons. Texas holds fifth place at 4-3.

The 12 teams are playing seven matches apiece during qualifying, each win earning them 10 CDL points. While all 12 qualify for Major 1, which runs Thursday through Feb. 1 in Dallas, the results will determine whether teams begin the major in the upper or lower bracket.

On Friday, Toronto began with a 250-219 win on Scar Hardpoint before Paris claimed Colossus Search and Destroy 6-1. The KOI jumped on top again by taking Den Overload 3-0 before the Gentle Mates captured Colossus Hardpoint 250-173 and Scar Search and Destroy 6-3.

After OpTic 250-186 on Colossus Hardpoint, the Royal Ravens reeled off three consecutive map wins: 6-3 on Scar Search and Destroy, 5-2 on Scar Overload and 250-133 on Den Hardpoint.

Six qualifying matches remain:

Saturday

--Toronto KOI vs. G2 Minnesota

--Riyadh Falcons vs. Cloud9 New York

--Los Angeles Thieves vs. Boston Breach

Sunday

--Paris Gentle Mates vs. Miami Heretics

--Los Angeles Thieves vs. Carolina Royal Ravens

--Vancouver Surge vs. FaZe Vegas

Call of Duty League 2026: Stage 1 Major qualifiers standings (match record, map differential)

1. Paris Gentle Mates, 4-2, plus-5

T2. FaZe Vegas, 4-2, plus-3

T2. Riyadh Falcons, 4-2, plus-3

4. Carolina Royal Ravens, 4-2, plus-2

5. OpTic Texas, 4-3, plus-1

6. Los Angeles Thieves, 3-2, plus-1

7. Toronto KOI, 3-2, plus-3

8. Miami Heretics, 3-3, plus-2

9. Boston Breach, 3-3, minus-1

10. G2 Minnesota, 2-4, minus-2

11. Cloud9 New York, 1-5, minus-4

12. Vancouver Surge, 1-5, minus -13

--Field Level Media