LA Guerrillas M8s BO6 Season Preview

LA Guerrillas M8s Black Ops 6 Season Preview: Welcome Gentlemates... Sorta

As the offseason comes to a close, the Call of Duty League gears up for another thrilling season. The landscape of the CDL has changed drastically with franchises joining & new super teams being formed. Rumors were swirling about the LA franchise all offseason, as many suspected the Guerrillas would be departing the CDL after declining the Esports World Cup invite. While the reports are the Gentlemates are joining the League, they will reportedly still use the Guerrillas naming for this season. For this season's preview, we’ll dive into LA’s offseason moves, key players to watch, and their expectations compared to the competition within the CDL.

📸 Photo by @dannyelkc

Offseason Recap: Ushering in a New Era

Signings [Reportedly]:
+ Cesar "Skyz" Bueno
+ Matthew "KiSMET" Tinsley
+ Thomas "Lynz" Gregorio
+ Preston "Priestahh" Greiner
Releases:
- Justice "Estreal" McMillan [Pre-EWC]
- Conor "Diamondcon" Johst [Pre-EWC]
- Kevin "Fame" Bonanno [Pre-EWC]
- John-Alexander "Flames" Dieguez
- Adam "Assault" Garcia
- William "Veohz" Lachance
- Arian "Arian" Chitsaz
- Ashkan "CheeK" Chitsaz

The LA Guerrillas looked to be departing the CDL early in the offseason, as they opted to decline the invite to compete at the Esports World Cup. Their roster & coaching staff would be released shortly after and rumors began to swirl about the sale of the franchise. The current reports have EU-based Gentlemates purchasing the franchise but were unable to change the branding before the year begins. Therefore they'll compete this season as LA Guerrillas M8s for the Black Ops 6 season.

With the franchise situation looking to be stabilizing, the roster construction began. They would target the core of the Modern Warfare 3 Championship-winning team in KiSMET, Skyz, and Priestahh. Joining them would be a new Frenchman in Lynz, taking the position of HyDra. If they can unlock the past chemistry and get the most out of Lynz, the team will turn into a true dark horse to watch out for this season.

The LA Guerrillas M8s roster heading into Black Ops 6:

○ Cesar "Skyz" Bueno
○ Matthew "KiSMET" Tinsley
○ Thomas "Lynz" Gregorio
○ Preston "Priestahh" Greiner
○ Coaches not reported

Offseason Reactions

Ronnie: "This off-season saw the duo of Cesar "Skyz" Bueno and Matthew "KiSMET" Tinsley going back to an old friend and former world champion-winning teammate Preston "Priestahh" Greiner after they dropped him for more firepower heading into the MW3 season. This wasn't the only change that was made, although the next one was enforced, with superstar Paco "HyDra" Rusiewiez feeling his current team wasn't good enough and making the move to LAT, leaving LAG-M8S. Needing a 4th, they went for another French player Thomas "Lynz" Gregorio. Some fans say he's Hydra from TEMU, but I see a lot of promise with Lynz and do think this is the perfect situation for him to show it. Hydra wasn't the only one from this team that left for LAT. Troy "Sender" Michaels assistant coach also departed the team he won champs with for a fresh start. He will be reunited with former LAG and Toronto Ultra head coach Mark "MarkyB" Bryceland, working alongside Ehsan "DREAL" Javed."

Easy Mac: “The LA Guerrillas had a very sneaky good offseason this year. From the dying org to a team of solid veterans just one year removed from winning the World Championship. They are each very good players but did lose HyDra to LA Thieves. They'll each need to raise their slaying to make up for that loss, but overall, it was a good offseason and could get better depending on their coaching hires."

Season Expectations

Ronnie: “Season expectations should be to pick up an event win while also making sure the team is staying more consistent compared to what we saw last season. This is the type of roster that will be expected to be peeking come the end of the season, ready for a run at COD Champs and the Esports World Cup."

Black Ops 6 Season Predictions

Best Placement: Top 3
Team MVP: Skyz
Final Regular Season Seed: 5th
Will they qualify for Champs: Yes

Easy Mac: “This is one of the harder teams to predict this season because each piece could have high variance in their performances. I think the middle of the pack in the CDL is as close to each other as ever. Any of Vancouver, New York, Toronto, M8s, etc could take that 4th spot. But with them each being good teams, someone could easily underperform. I'd expect at least one Sunday run to a Top 4 but it'd be hard to see anything further unless 2 of the 3 elite teams falter early in a tournament. In the end, I think they'll take the 8th seed and qualify for Champs."

Black Ops 6 Season Predictions

Best Placement: Top 4
Team MVP: Lynz
Final Regular Season Seed: 8th
Will they qualify for Champs: Yes

Players to Watch in Black Ops 6

Ronnie: “Thomas "Lynz" Gregorio A lot of this team's success will come down to whether Lynz can capture the form he showed on the Minnesota Rokkr he showed around stage 1 last season. If he finds his flow with Kismet, this SMG duo could be very fun to watch and cause the big 3 some problems while being the best SMG duo out of the rest of the teams."

Easy Mac: “Lynz will be the main piece to this roster. How he grows and develops this year will be very important to their success. He had plenty of flashes of potential, but he'll have to improve to pick up the slaying for this team. I think with the 3 vets, he'll get plenty of guidance and potentially turn into a Top 10 SMG this season."

Stage 1 Matches

Qualifier Match 1: December 6th at 3:00 EST vs Minnesota Rokkr
Qualifier Match 2: December 8th at 3:00 EST vs Carolina Royal Ravens
Qualifier Match 3: December 13th at 3:00 EST vs LA Thieves
Qualifier Match 4: December 14th at 4:30 EST vs OpTic Texas
Qualifier Match 5: January 17th at 3:00 EST vs Cloud9 New York
Qualifier Match 6: January 19th at 3:00 EST vs Toronto Ultra
Qualifier Match 7: January 25th at 4:30 EST vs Vegas Falcons

The first Minor begins on January 10th, while the first Major begins on January 30th.