Royal Ravens improve standing at CDL Stage 1 Major qualifying

With the playoff field practically set for the Call of Duty League's Stage 1 Major, the Carolina Royal Ravens picked up a key win Saturday in the penultimate day of qualifying for the playoff that begins Thursday in Madrid.

Playing the Miami Heretics in the day's third and final match, the Royal Ravens won 3-2 to finish qualifying at 5-2, guaranteeing them a top-four finish in qualifying.

The Stage 1 Major, hosted by the Toronto Ultra, will see all 12 COD teams compete in a double-elimination tournament in Madrid beginning on Thursday and ending with the grand final on Feb. 2. Each team plays seven qualifier matches to determine seeding in the tournament. Each qualifier win is worth 10 points.

On Saturday, the Royal Ravens pulled off a reverse sweep to move up the standings, losing 250-186 on Skyline Hardpoint and 6-3 on Redcard Search & Destroy before taking the next three maps -- 3-2 on Hacienda Control, 250-174 on Hacienda Hardpoint and 6-4 on Vault Search & Destroy.

Carolina is the fourth team to reach five qualifier wins, with the other three playing their final qualifier Sunday.

The Vancouver Surge also needed five games to get past their opponent, but did so by trading map wins with the Minnesota Rokkr. The Surge opened with a 250-237 win over the Rokkr on Skyline Hardpoint, but Minnesota responded with a 6-5 win on Vault Search & Destroy. They traded wins again, the Surge taking Protocol Control 3-2 and the Rokkr winning Vault Hardpoint 250-224. The Surge took the match with a narrow 6-5 win on Redcard Search & Destroy to win it.

The other match of the day was a much more one-sided affair with the Los Angeles Guerrillas M8 sweeping the Vegas Falcons 3-0 -- 250-188 on Skyline Hardpoint, 6-3 on Skyline Search & Destroy, and 3-1 on Vault Control.

Qualifying ends Sunday, with three more matches, including biggest match of qualifying to close the day when the 6-1 Toronto Ultra face the 5-2 OpTic Texas -- with OpTic having a shot at the top seed.

Call of Duty League 2025 Stage 1 Major

Sunday's games

--Boston Breach vs. Los Angeles Thieves

--Atlanta FaZe vs. Cloud9 New York

--Toronto Ultra vs. OpTic Texas

Qualifiers standings (win-loss record, map win-loss differential, points):

1. Toronto Ultra, 6-0, plus-10, 60p

2. OpTic Texas, 5-1, plus-8, 50p

3. Los Angeles Thieves, 5-1, plus-7, 50p

4. Carolina Royal Ravens, 5-2, plus-6, 50p

5. Boston Breach, 4-2, plus-1, 40p

6. Vancouver Surge, 4-3, plus-1, 40p

7. Atlanta FaZe, 3-3, plus-1, 30p

8. Miami Heretics, 2-5, minus-1, 20p

9. Los Angeles Guerrillas M8, 2-5, minus -2, 20p

10. Minnesota Rokkr, 2-5, minus -6, 20p

11. Cloud9 New York, 1-5, minus -8, 10p

12. Vegas Falcons, 0-7, minus -17, 0p

--Field Level Media