With a 3-1 victory over the London Royal Ravens today, the Seattle Surge finally got its 2023 Call of Duty League season off to a winning start after a disheartening 0-2 start. This victory ended a very fascinating series against an unbeaten London team.

The first map in the series, Breenbergh Hotel Hardpoint, saw London completely destroyed by a score of 250-68. The current CDL Rookie of the Year from Seattle, Pred, was everywhere, making play after play on his route to an incredible 28-10 statline while doing close to 3,000 damage in the Hardpoint. The Surge squad scored a plus 30 overall, with each member scoring a positive in the killing area.

With a convincing 6-4 victory on Mercado Las Almas Search and Destroy, London did manage to restart the series. Early on in the map, Seattle stormed out to a 2-0 lead and had a three-vs-one match going on with just Zer0 still up for the Royal Ravens. With little under 30 seconds remaining, Zer0 defeated Accuracy, who had the bomb, in a one-on-one match. In an effort to eliminate Accuracy and defuse the bomb, Zer0 charged through the area where the explosive was located. The Royal Ravens’ performance in that round was a turning point in the series, as they tied it at one map apiece.

After taking an early 2-0 lead on the third map of the series, Breenbergh Hotel Control, London appeared set to win the match 2-1. However, Seattle and its star SMG player Pred produced enormous plays in the following two rounds to knot the game at 2-2. Seattle found themselves at a life disadvantage late in the game since they began the fifth and final round on the attacking side. However, the team piled the point to win the map and take a 2-1 advantage courtesy to some huge plays by Sib, who went 31-28 throughout the map.

Late in the game, when the score on the fourth map of the series, Mercado Las Almas Hardpoint, was knotted at 188 each, Sib made yet another huge play by picking up a three-piece to totally turn the map and series on its head. When he discovered two more Royal Ravens to extend his winning run to five, Seattle was given the breathing room they needed to take a commanding lead that they wouldn’t give up as they defeated them 250-235.

After losing their first two games to the Los Angeles Guerrillas and the Boston Breach, respectively, Seattle earned their first win of the season with their 3-1 triumph. Against Sunday, December 11 at 3:30 PM CT, The Surge will take on the Toronto Ultra in an effort to conclude the Major One qualifications with a 0.500 record.

On the other side, London suffered its first loss of the year and will try to bounce back when they play OpTic Texas on Saturday, Dec. 10 at 3:30 CT. These online qualifying games are preparing the field for Raleigh, North Carolina, which will host the CDL’s first Major of the 2023 campaign from December 15 to December 18.