Call of Duty 2020: Dallas Empire's Top Plays, Prize Money

The legend of Crimsix can only grow. Nearly two years after being forced off his dynastic OpTic Gaming team, C6 is back with a new Dallas Empire roster, and his team is making its mark.

This time, the Empire worked their way through OpTic Gaming Los Angeles (3-1), the Seattle Surge (3-1), the Chicago Huntsmen (3-0) and, in the weekend's grand finals, the formerly uncontested Atlanta FaZe (3-1).

The Call of Duty League has a $6 million prize pool for 2020, but that's not what matters to this roster.

What matters to the Empire is two-fold, as the team is constructed in a two-fold manner. Dallas has two veterans, the 26-year-old C6 and 27-year-old Clayster, accompanied by three young upstarts: Shotzzy (18 years old), iLLeY (18 years old) and Huke (20 years old).

The veterans care about proving their haters wrong, while the young guns simply care about putting in work. And they accomplished both this weekend, with a balanced effort that concluded with the FaZe's second loss all season.

It must have been particularly cathartic for C6, as the team not only defeated his former organization, OpTic Gaming, on Friday but also got to thrash his former teammates, FormaL and Scump, during Sunday's semifinals.

Friday, April 24

Atlanta FaZe 3-0 London Royal Ravens

Los Angeles Guerrillas 0-3 Seattle Surge

OpTic Gaming Los Angeles 1-3 Dallas Empire

New York Subliners 3-2 Chicago Huntsmen

Saturday, April 25

Dallas Empire 3-1 Seattle Surge

New York Subliners 2-3 Atlanta FaZe

OpTic Gaming Los Angeles 1-3 Los Angeles Guerrillas

Chicago Huntsmen 3-1 London Royal Ravens

Los Angeles Guerrillas 1-3 Seattle Surge

Chicago Huntsmen 3-1 New York Subliners

Sunday, April 26: Finals Bracket

Seattle Surge 1-3 Atlanta FaZe

Dallas Empire 3-0 Chicago Huntsmen

Atlanta Faze 1-3 Dallas Empire

Full schedule and standings available here.

Group Play: iLLeY Gets Silly

On Friday, we got a glimpse into exactly how wild the Empire's comms are with Clayster and Crimsix consistently guiding their young teammates. But iLLeY quickly overshadowed that, dominating with the MP5 SMG.

Dissatisfied with how easy that 4K was with his automatic weapon, iLLeY then upped the ante Saturday by treating the Surge to one of the most classic clutches of the weekend: a pistol cleanup.

Finals: Revenge Is a Dish Best Swept Cold

Sunday was all storylines. Back in 2019, Crimsix was ousted from what most consider to be Call of Duty's greatest professional team ever. To start this season, he explained that a poster of that roster with his two former teammates, now-Chicago's Scump and FormaL, was his motivation to grind every day.

Then, when the Huntsmen defeated Dallas back in January, Scump leaned right into that drama in his postgame interview: "Yo Crimsix, you gotta take that poster down, man. We're living rent-free, brother! Golly!"

This Sunday, C6's team got its revenge with an easy sweep, and the most winningest player in CoD history was surprisingly calm and cool, verging on cold, when prompted to clap back in his postgame interview: "Listen, I'm not going to be like them, I'm not going to talk trash. It's just a semifinal match online."

Following that demolition of a top-tier team, Dallas moved on to the finals against FaZe—who are widely regarded as the best team in the CDL. Once again, the balanced roster kept consistent and provided the space and communications to allow their upsurging young players to shine.

With Shotzzy and Huke shutting it down, the Empire proceeded to defeat the young, prodigal FaZe in a fantastic series. This clinched first place for Dallas, which now meets nearly a monthlong break before its next action.