A high-octane season of the Call of Duty League is soon to reach its conclusion with the Call of Duty League Championship - one of the most highly-anticipated events on the Esports calendar.
The top-tier event gets underway on Thursday and follows a turbulent campaign which began back in December 2023.
The Call of Duty League season is initially split into four majors, known as stages, with all 12 teams competing.
And it has been a particularly competitive campaign with each of the four Stage Majors having been won by different teams this year.
Toronto Ultra, Atlanta FaZe, OpTic Texas and New York Subliners have all been Stage Major winners and will be in the mix for the title.
But while previous majors feature all the CDL teams, the end-of-season CDL Championship will involve just the top eight and they will compete in a double elimination bracket and battle it out to be crowned CDL champions.
Atlanta FaZe are favorites to land this year's CDL Championship title at +110 but it could be much closer than the odds suggest.
FaZe lead the way in the overall CDL standings with 560 points and they have won 37 of their 45 matches this season.
They have also reached three of the four Stage Major finals in the CDL season, although they have come out on top in just one - in Stage Two back in March.
On that occasion, they crushed OpTic Texas 4-1 in the Grand Final, but their other defeats are sure to play on their mind.
They could face fierce competition to win the CDL Championship and bettors could be better placed backing last year's winners, New York Subliners, to defend their title at +225.
Form is most definitely on the side of the Subliners, who won the Stage Four Major in May, defeating Atlanta FaZe 4-2 in the Grand Final, having cruised to 3-0 wins over Toronto Ultra and Los Angeles Guerrillas in the lower bracket beforehand.
The Subliners also came a win away from the lower-bracket final in the Stage Three Major in which they won three of their five knockout contests, while they were runners-up in the lower-bracket final in the Stage Two Major, so they know how to hang about.
They are also good at handling adversity, having dropped down to the elimination bracket in last year's CDL Championship and squaring up against favorites Atlanta FaZe.
But they won their elimination final clash 3-1 and went on to destroy Toronto Ultra 5-0 in the Grand Final.
They have experience of winning big events and are worth chancing at more than double the price of FaZe.
Expect a strong start from them when they clash with Seattle Surger in their opener.
Punters will not get a run for their money backing Atlanta FaZe to reach the final of the Call of Duty League Championship at -250, while New York Subliners also look short enough in that market at -110.
Instead, it could pay to back Toronto Ultra as outsiders to make the final at +200.
Ultra are +500 to win the event, which might also warrant consideration, but it is hard to see them overturning the big guns in a best-of-nine Grand Final.
Therefore just backing them to make the final is a better play and they have shown they could be in the mix after a strong season.
Ultra won the first Stage Major of the season back in January, posting a 6-1 win-loss record in the regular season before going on to defeat Atlanta FaZe 4-1 in the Grand Final of the playoffs.
But they have since remained competitive, reaching the final of the Stage Three Major and impressing in the regular-season standings.
Ultra are second only to FaZe in the overall season table with 495 CDL points to their name and 35 wins from 40 matches.
There is little margin for error in the CDL Championship given the double-elimination bracket format, so big teams can falter and Ultra could be ready to capitalise if either FaZe or the Subliners slip up.
Toronto begin their CDL Championship against LA Thieves.
Atlanta FaZe | +110 |
New York Subliners | +225 |
OpTic Texas | +450 |
Toronto Ultra | +500 |
LA Thieves | +3300 |
Seattle Surge | +4000 |
Miami Heretics | +6000 |
LA Guerrillas | +8000 |
This article was written by a partner sports writer via Spotlight Sports Group. All odds displayed on this page were correct at the time of writing and are subject to withdrawal or change at any time.