Grading Minnesota's 2024 Season

With the Modern Warfare 3 regular now complete, it's time to look back through each of the Majors & qualifiers.

We’re going to break down and grade each team that failed to qualify for Champs based on each team's performance based on its expectations. 

Season Expectations

The Rokkr came into the 2024 season with mixed expectations. They had great veteran presence but the question would be if their firepower would stack up against the rest of the midfield. 

The team took a big swing on the French Rookie Thomas “Lynz” Gregorio & surrounded him with veterans. They would be led by Main AR Lamar “Accuracy” Abedi, providing in-game leading skills & fundamentals in respawn. 

Photo by @MediabyIsiah

To pair with the rookie, Minnesota signed Reece “Vivid” Drost. Vivid was known as a player that has great pace in respawn modes while being a fantastic SND player. To round out the roster, they took a gamble at Joseph “Owakening” Conley for the Flex position. Wake had multiple ‘up-and-down’ seasons, but if his slaying power stayed consistent, that would be a huge asset for the team.

At the beginning of the season, Rokkr ranked 6th in the Coaches Poll, above the New York Subliners in 7th. They had promise in practice in at the start but that pressure did not result in diamonds.

The Results

11th Seed: 140 CDL Points, 11-25 Series Record (30.6%), 56-90 Map Count (38.4%)

Major I Quals: 6th Seed, 3-4 Record
Major I: 4th Finish, 2-2 Record
Major II Quals: 10th Seed, 1-6 Record
Major II: Top 8 Finish, 1-1 Record
Major III Quals: 10th Seed, 2-5 Record
Major III: Top 12 Finish, 0-1 Record
Major IV Quals: 10th Seed, 2-5 Record
Major IV: Top 12 Finish, 0-1 Record

The Rokkr started the season off on the right foot, starting the upper bracket at Major 1 and securing a Top 4 finish. Those were the highlights of the season. 

The team secured 75 points during their Stage 1 run, then proceeded to earn 65 points the rest of the season. That includes going 5-16 online and 1-3 on LAN. After such a strong & promising start to the year, they ended in failure.

Due to their dreadful end to the season, the Rokkr finished 11th in the season standings & failed to qualify for CoD Champs.

Roster Performance

The Rokkr had seven players start on the season, one of the largest totals in the League. Outside of Lynz, each of the six starters were veterans of the COD League.

Starting with the rookie, Lynz performed well given the circumstances. The highlight was his SND play, where he finished with a 1.14 KD, 0.81 kills per round, and won 55% of his opening duels. Both respawns showed a good foundation to build upon heading into the next title.

Photo by @CODLeague

Next to the rookie was a pair of SMGs over the season. First came Vivid, who provided excellent SND play but was inconsistent at times. He still holds the record for most damage in an SND at 3,490. When the team decided on a change, they brought in Eli "Standy" Bentz from Las Vegas. Standy showed flashes but was ultimately underwhelming when the Rokkr struggled down the stretch.

The veteran ARs Accuracy, Peirce "Gunless" Hillman, and Owakening all had moments on the year but weren’t able to distinguish themselves against the other League AR duos. Gunless was the clearcut best of the trio, finishing with above-average damage in all three modes and very solid objective work.

When the team needed a fill-in for Accuracy, they called Kris "Spart" Cervantez. He was a highlight for the Rokkr, playing great in SND during the two-series stretch. He finished with 1.59 KD, 0.84 kills per round, and won 77.8% of his opening duels. Given more time, it would've been interesting to see how the team developed with Spart on the roster.

The Grade

D+

Stage 1 of the Season: A

They took advantage of New York’s slow start, secured a great haul of 75 CDL Points, and kick-started their rookie’s career. They were 4th heading into Stage 2, just 25 points below OpTic in 3rd.

Photo by @CODLeague

The rest of the season: F

The Rokkr was one bad stage away from being the Boston Breach, a historically bad team in the CDL. They earned 65 CDL points over the final 3 stages, with 50 coming from online wins. This failure can’t be understated, as they only earned 25 more CDL points over that span compared to Boston. This included the team finishing last at the two tournaments where they had chances to earn valuable points for Champs.

If it wasn’t for a great start, the grade for the Minnesota Rokkr would be an F.