The Call of Duty League is up and running for another season and Thursday marks the start of the highly anticipated Major One, the first big event on the calendar.
The first Major of the Call of Duty League season takes the 12 teams involved to La Caja Magica in Madrid, Spain, where they will battle it out for the first title of the season as well as 100 Call of Duty League points.
Running from Thursday to Sunday, the Major takes on a double-elimination format with seedings determined by the recent Major One Qualifiers.
The LAN event will be played on Black Ops 6, despite mixed reviews of the gameplay, and the tournament should not disappoint.
Last season's Call of Duty League Grand Final was won by OpTic Texas with New York Subliners, now known Cloud9 New York, finishing as runners-up.
But each of the four Majors last year went the way of different sides, so there are several teams who could spring a surprise at Major One this season.
Atlanta FaZe are favourites to get over the line at +125 but there will also be supporters of OpTic Texas at +175 and LA Thieves at +200.
They are the three teams expected to dominate with Major One hosts Toronto Ultra next in the betting at +900.
It was not until Major Three that OpTic Texas picked up a Major title in 2024 but they nonetheless went on to be crowned champions.
They finished third in the regular-season standings, behind Atlanta FaZe and Toronto Ultra in the points charts, but they exploded into life in the CDL Championship, winning three straight matches to lift the title.
In the final they edged New York Subliners 3-2 with Anthony "Shotzzy" Cuevas-Castro claiming the Finals MVP award and he remains a key part of the roster coming into the new season.
At this stage of the campaign, there aren't too many clues as to how things will pan out but OpTic Texas have shown they can excel when the pressure is on by lifting the CDL Championship title in 2024.
And they were also the standout team in qualifying this year, winning six of their seven series' and 20 of their 30 maps en route to Major One.
They began the double-elimination bracket against Miami Heretics and, after what should be a comfortable win in that opener, they should also be too strong for likely winners' bracket second-round opponents LA Thieves.
Atlanta FaZe are the outright favourites at +125 but the value is with OpTic Texas at +175.
Those bettors who fancy OpTic Texas to go the distance in Major One in the Call of Duty League season are probably not too keen on Atlanta FaZe and that could point to another decent outright wager.
Having topped the regular-season standings last season, Atlanta FaZe naturally deserve respect in the betting but based on qualifying for Major One, they should not be favourites in the main tournament.
They finished the Major One qualifiers with four wins and three defeats from their seven matches.
One of those losses came in their opener against Toronto Ultra, who won 3-1, and Ultra could indeed upset Atlanta FaZe again in the Major One main tournament.
The way the bracket is structured means that if Toronto and Atlanta both win their first matches, they will meet in the second round of the winners' bracket.
The winner of that clash will move on to the Elimination Final in which OpTic Texas could be waiting.
Of course, a defeat to OpTic Texas at that stage would not be automatic elimination and there would be another chance to make the Grand Final via the lower bracket.
But at the odds, the Elimination Final represents value at +350 to be Toronto's stage of exit.
Ultra also won six of their seven qualifiers but if they reach the Elimination Final, they may not be strong enough to defeat Texas and they may not recover from that potential defeat.
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Atlanta FaZe +125
OpTic Texas +175
LA Thieves +200
Toronto Ultra +900
Boston Breach +4000
Carolina Royal Ravens +8000
Miami Heretics +10000
Vancouver Surge +20000
LA Guerrillas M8 +45000
Minnesota ROKKR +50000
Cloud9 New York +75000
Vegas Falcons +100000
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.