The 2020 Call of Duty League season has been a tumultuous journey for the Seattle Surge so far. The team hasn’t managed to find any momentum, sitting in the bottom third of the standings. Heading into their own Home Series, Seattle’s 40 CDL Points are all courtesy of the last-place Los Angeles Guerrillas.
“This is, without a doubt, the hardest season I’ve ever had,” Seattle’s Sam “Octane” Larew admitted. “It’s frustrating. We’ve been on the brink of beating a lot of really good teams. Our record looks like we’re getting blown out, but in games we’ve lost they’ve been really close for the most part. There really isn’t anything behind the scenes that our team is trying to keep secret. Obviously there’s a lot of frustration with the way we’ve been playing so far.”
Seattle has played 14 series to date, with a 4-10 record. Almost a third of their losses have been in game fives that went the distance against teams like the Florida Mutineers, who won the Dallas Empire Home Series, and the Minnesota Røkkr, who have reached multiple tournament finals.
Close games don’t earn CDL Points, however.
Now Seattle is bringing Ian “Enable” Wyatt back to the starting lineup after he was benched in favor of Casey “Pandur” Romano, to see what the team can make happen at their Home Series this weekend.
“When we initially made the roster swap for Casey [Pandur], it was because we were underperforming,” Octane explained. “The schedule is unforgiving. If you come out slow or if you have a couple bad events, then that can really set you back. We were immediately on the back foot thinking that if we don't improve now, chances are we could get screwed in the future… We knew Casey was going to bring more to the table at the time.”
The team saw gains with Pandur, but ultimately the results weren’t there in matches. “Maybe it was asking too much [of Pandur] but you simply don’t have time to wait,” Octane said.
He expanded on the reasoning behind the swap of Enable to Pandur, which elicited a wealth of reactions from players, coaches, analysts, and fans.
“When we initially benched [Enable], even he admitted he really wasn’t passionate enough about the game,” he said. “He has been absolutely grinding since he got benched.… The first couple of days back in scrims he has been more vocal than he ever was before. I think it was kind of a kick in the ass.”
Octane knows the type of person that Enable is outside of the game. They teamed together throughout the Black Ops 4 season, and they won two tournaments plus a second-place finish at Champs. “I knew that when he got benched it would help him, not hurt him. That’s why I wasn’t super against doing it,” he said. “The way I went about doing it, it wasn’t great on my end. I’ve admitted that a couple times in tweets and streams and stuff. But I knew that in the long run it would help.”
Octane addressed team chemistry and concerns that the swap would have lingering consequences.
“There’s no ill will on the team or anything like that,” he said. “[Enable] is happy to be playing again and he wants to improve… I don’t think the way that we went about making the change was the best. We didn’t really handle it that well. So there was definitely some frustration there, which is one hundred percent warranted. But…we’ve moved past it.”
The focus is on the future now, and the Seattle Surge are working to get Enable acclimated into the system and ready to go on Friday. “Getting the rust off there is definitely priority number one. You know, basically integrating him into what Casey was doing and all of our tendencies on super minute respawn things.”
Octane says the first season of the Call of Duty League has forced him to grow, too.
“Dealing with the tumultuous start that we’ve had and the ups and downs throughout the season have definitely molded me into a new person,” he said.
He emphasized the importance of chemistry and “vibes” on a team’s ability to find success.
“For me, specifically, if I’m not able to get along with my teammates in an out-of-game setting, then chances are I’m not going to be able to do it in game…. That's just a characteristic of mine as a teammate that I’ve always held close to the chest. If I have the ability to be best friends with you and get to know you out of the game well enough to where I can adapt how I speak to you in game, then that helps a lot.
“I know the word ‘vibe’ is super cliché and everyone always memes it whenever you bring it up, but in Call of Duty, every single pro player will tell you that it is one of the most important qualities in a team. If you hate all of your teammates, you’re not going to have a good time playing, period. You’re going to get on every day and you’re going to dread it. So it’s something that is, at least to me, one of the most important things in a team.”
Octane believes the team can do better, in particular, with their performance in Search and Destroy—which has drawn criticism from fans, analysts, and even from some veterans on Seattle’s roster.
“We have a lot of players on our team, myself included, that haven’t always been known for being the best at SnD,” he said. “It’s a matter of being on the same page, which is something we have struggled with this entire year, not just in SnD. We’re a fairly decent respawn team so we can push series to game five, but we’re always going to be on the back foot. SnD is still our Achilles Heel.”
Octane acknowledges that it doesn’t matter how well he plays individually if his team isn’t winning. That’s something he hopes to change this weekend as he tries to put his team in the best position possible to win their own event.
Despite the results so far, and the pressure to win now, Octane remains appreciative and level-headed in processing both fan support and community criticism.
“People like to twist everything that I say, but I’m grateful to everyone that has been showing support even through all of the rough times we have. It’s no illusion we haven’t been playing well. So to everyone who is continuously cheering us on and wants to see us succeed, I thank you. To everyone that wants to see us fall and lose, I thank you as well.”
