Royal Ravens extend stay at CDL Major 1

The Carolina Royal Ravens won six of the seven maps they contested on Friday while winning two matches in the lower bracket of the Call of Duty League Stage 1 Major in Madrid.

After sweeping the Vegas Falcons 3-0, the Royal Ravens raced past OpTic Texas 3-1 to move into the lower-bracket quarterfinals. OpTic had edged the Los Angeles Guerrillas M8 3-2 earlier on Friday.

The day's other two matches were both in the lower-bracket opening round. The Minnesota Rokkr edged the Vancouver Surge 3-1, and Cloud9 New York eliminated the Boston Breach 3-2.

The 12 Call of Duty League teams began play in the Stage 1 Major on Thursday, with the seeding determined by four weeks of qualifying matches. The top eight teams from qualifying landed in the upper bracket of the double-elimination tournament, while the bottom four were assigned to the lower bracket.

All matches are best-of-five until the grand final on Sunday, which will be best-of-seven.

On Friday, the Royal Ravens topped the Falcons 250-161 on Protocol Hardpoint, 6-5 on Vault Search and Destroy and 3-2 on Vault Control.

Carolina then dropped its first map to Texas, 250-248 on Protocol Hardpoint, before bouncing back to claim Red Card Search and Destroy 6-3, Protocol Control 3-0 and Hacienda Hardpoint 250-193.

In their first match of the day, OpTic fell behind when the Guerrillas captured Protocol Hardpoint 250-110, but Texas then won Skyline Search and Destroy 6-5 and Hacienda Control 3-0. Los Angeles extended the match by prevailing 250-188 on Skyline Hardpoint, but OpTic sealed the series with a 6-2 victory on Vault Search and Destroy.

The Surge started by taking Hacienda Hardpoint 250-187, but the Rokkr captured the next three maps: 6-3 on Red Card Search and Destroy, 3-2 on Protocol Control and 250-159 on Skyline Hardpoint.

After the Breach claimed Protocol Hardpoint 250-244, Cloud9 captured Skyline Search and Destroy 6-3 and Protocol Control 3-0. Boston logged a 250-184 win on Skyline Hardpoint, but New York sealed the series by taking Protocol Search and Destroy 6-3.

Five matches are scheduled for Saturday.

--Upper-bracket semifinal: Miami Heretics vs. Los Angeles Thieves

--Upper-bracket semifinal: Toronto Ultra vs. Atlanta FaZe

--Lower-bracket Round 2: Minnesota Rokkr vs. Cloud9 New York

--Lower-bracket quarterfinal: Team TBD vs. Carolina Royal Ravens

--Lower bracket quarterfinal: Teams TBD

The Stage 1 Major is the first of four to be contested in the CDL season. OpTic Texas will host the Stage 2 Major at Dallas in late March; the Miami Heretics will host the Stage 3 Major at Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in late April; and the Stage 4 Major will be part of DreamHack Dallas in late May.

--Field Level Media