The Call of Duty League just got done with the group portion of Stage 4, and it is now time to look to the future. Up next is the fourth Major tournament. We now know the CDL Stage 4 Major brackets for the tournament that will be used to see who the next winner is.

To recap, each stage of the 2021 season for the Call of Duty League is divided into two main parts: the group portion, where teams compete against the other teams in one of two groups and the Major. This is where we have the culmination of everything that happened earlier in the stage.

With the third and final week of the group play in Stage 4 now over, Activision has revealed the CDL Stage 4 Major brackets. Scheduled to begin this week on June 17, the next Major will feature all 12 teams competing against one another for points and prizes alike. 

The fourth Major is also the second-to-last one that we will see in the 2021 season, so it is one of the most important events in the entire season to date with so much at stake here. Teams will not only have the chance at prize money but those precious leaderboard points. 

Any team hoping to be in the top eight for the season and have a chance at the championship trophy in the playoffs will want to do well in the Major to earn as many points as possible. Before we get to the next tournament, we know about the CDL Stage 4 Major brackets.

The fourth Major will be divided into two main brackets: the upper bracket known as the winners one and the lower bracket known as the eliminations one. The past several Majors have used this double-elimination bracket format in the 2021 season. 

Groups A and B have concluded their matches, and the best from each group have been determined. While everyone in the league will compete in this tournament, only the top three teams from both groups will start the upper winners bracket. 

At the same time, the bottom three teams from each group will start the event in the lower eliminations bracket. In the eliminations bracket, a single loss means the end of the road for that event as they are eliminated while an upper bracket loss means the team moves to the bottom bracket for a second chance. 

When it comes to Group A, the top three teams are Atlanta FaZe, who won the group with the only undefeated record in the fourth stage, OpTic Chicago, and Minnesota Rokkr. The other three teams —Paris Legion, Los Angeles Thieves, and Seattle Surge — will compete in the bottom bracket to start. 

On the other hand, the very competitive Group B has the top three teams of Toronto Ultra, who won the group after their swift defeat of the New York Subliners in the LA Thieves Home Series, the Subliners the Dallas Empire. 

The bottom three teams are Florida Mutineers, London Royal Ravens, and the Los Angeles Guerrillas, who will start in the bottom bracket. Furthermore, the best of the top three and bottom three from each of the two groups are also given a one-round bye. 

In the winners bracket, the two winning teams of Toronto Ultra and Atlanta FaZe will have a one-round bye for the tournament and face off against the winners of the first two matches there. The same goes for the bottom bracket, where the Mutineers and Legion will have a one-round bye. 

What is surprising about this situation is that the tiebreaker in Group B has resulted in the Dallas Empire being the team to go to the winners bracket, rather than the tremendously-performing Florida Mutineers. The two teams were tied in win/loss record, with three wins and two losses. 

The tiebreaker usually goes to the games that were won if the matches won are tied, and this is where it gets strange. Florida had 13 game wins and nine losses, while Dallas Empire had 11 game wins and 10 losses, making for 59% and 52% game wins, respectively. 

This indication should mean that the Florida Mutineers should be the team that moves on to the winners bracket instead. However, Dallas Empire is the team in the winners bracket, so perhaps it has to do with the fact that Dallas beat Florida in their match in Stage 4, but it is unclear for now.

Regardless, this results in the first round of matches in the upper bracket being New York Subliners and Minnesota Rokkr, and OpTic Chicago and Dallas Empire. The first match winner will face off against Atlanta in the second round, while the second match winner will battle Toronto Ultra. 

On the bottom bracket side, the first two matches are the Thieves taking on their city companions of the Guerrillas and the London Royal Ravens taking on the Seattle Surge. The winner of those two matches in that order will take on Florida Mutineers and Paris Legion, respectively. 

The CDL Stage 4 Major brackets are important because they mark LAN play’s long-awaited return. Since the global pandemic began, teams have been competing remotely online, but all changes this week with the return of competitors playing locally on the same stage. Stay tuned for our full breakdown of the Stage 4 Major and our predictions later this week.