This article is part of our Call of Duty series.
Vanguard has been the most mixed year in the history of the CDL with each major having a different winning team and each of those winning teams finishing outside the top six at every single major other than the one they won. In the most unpredictable Call of Duty of all time it's time to take a look at some players to target and to fade for the final tournament of the season, CoD Champs.
Players to Target
Cellium
Cellium and Dashy have been in a two-horse race for MVP for a long time, but it's impossible to look past Cellium for the award and for the top spot in this cheat sheet. With a 1.22 KD on the season headlined by a 1.25 KD in Hardpoint, the MVP in my book simply has to be Cellium. Coming into this tournament in good form, the flex player for Atlanta FaZe is looking at his best, and he's always been someone that shows up on the brightest stages putting together an absurd showing during the Cold War Champs as well. In an unpredictable year it's been Cellium providing a constant high level and he should be awarded with his first MVP honors.
Pred
The best SMG on the year as a whole deserves a spot in the "Players to Target" even if he got off to a slow start this season. Pred has been frying throughout and has shown that he can do everything the top SMG players in the league can do, and maybe even more. Pred has been especially good in Hardpoint where he sits with a 1.10 KD, an exceptional return for an SMG player. Seattle's only issue throughout the 2022 campaign has been consistency as they often struggle to maintain the same level of performance each week. With CoD champs happening across one weekend it comes down to which version of Seattle shows up -- Major 3 world-beaters, or Major 4 bottom of the barrel?
Octane
Octane, the human turret, always shows up when the end of the season comes around and Vanguard has been no different. In Stage 4, Octane put together a 1.12 KD with a 1.10 in Hardpoint and a 1.20 in Control on his way to the sixth-best stat line in the entire CDL. Octane has had a rocky season, with LAT struggling to stay out of the bottom placements in Stage 2 and Stage 3, but in Stage 4 LAT took the title and showed why they stuck with this roster through thick and thin. There's never a better time to hit form than right before Champs and Octane could be perfectly poised to take home his first title.
Players to Fade
CleanX
CleanX is an amazingly talented SMG, but Stage 4 he was one of the worst players in the CDL. The entry SMG ended with a 0.90 KD overall, the worst of any player to qualify for Champs, as well as an awful 0.87 KD in Hardpoint. His brilliant 1.17 in SnD make that easier to swallow for Ultra, but it's really hard to trust CleanX for fantasy purposes with such shaky stats in respawns. Ultra could go on a run -- they are the 2021 runners-up, but at the end of the day that run will likely come from Insight and Cammy, not CleanX.
Scump
Scump was arguably the worst player in the CDL in Stage 4. His slaying numbers were fine, but just fine. Scump has never been a player to play for objectives or blow people away with his brilliance on the map; he's been a pure slayer for this entire past decade. When he ends with a 0.95 KD the underlying stats are going to be ugly, and Stage 4 sure was ugly for Scump and OpTic. When you dig deeper Scump was on a similar level to the much-maligned 2ReaL, and if Optic want to take home their first title since 2017 they need Scump to step up in a big way. iLLeY is back so there's a chance he can once again do the thinking for Scump but it's hard to trust OpTic heading into CoD Champs.
TJHaLy
TJHaLy and Boston made it to CoD Champs, an impressive feat for a roster that was just forming as the Call of Duty League roster deadline ended and also went through two possible parent teams in D.C. and Boston. This team has been aggressively inconsistent and mediocre throughout the 2022 season and seem to be in a bit of a trough heading into Champs. TJHaLY could always bounce back and show the level that got him so much hype heading into the 2020 season but that's a long way back to bet on.
Stats courtesy of Breakingpoint.gg
