This weekend, the best Call of Duty teams in the world descended on Saudi Arabia to compete in the Esports World Cup. Over the course of four days, 16 teams took to the big stage in Riyadh with $1.8 million on the line. After a winning streak, Atlanta FaZe secured the grand prize of $600,000.

It was a relatively surprising event. From Toronto Ultra being knocked out of the playoffs by 100 Thieves to the collapse of Cloud9 again against OpTic this weekend proved to be as exciting as one of the biggest events on the Call of Duty League calendar.

Monumental achievement

It hasn’t been for everyone, but there’s no denying that the Esports World Cup has been exciting of late. This weekend Modern Warfare 3 took the spotlight, with a number of CDL and Challengers teams battling it out for a huge cash prize. When the group stage began, eight teams failed to make it to the first seed:

• OMiT Brooklyn
• Vegas Legion
• G2 Esports
• Gentle companions
• Stallions
• Team Heretic
• Lore Games
• Team Falcons

When the tournament went into the playoffs, only the CDL teams stayed in the race, making it feel like COD Champs again. Many thought OpTic Gaming would snatch the top spot after steamrolling OMiT, Carolina Royal Ravens, and Cloud9, but Atlanta FaZe proved too strong for the reigning world champions.

Curiously, the grand finals were between Atlanta FaZe and 100 Thieves, represented by the LA Thieves squad. These teams hadn’t met in a tournament for years at that point, and the excitement was in full swing as the grand finals began. To get there, 100 Thieves had to eliminate Toronto Ultra and Vancouver Surge, and the squad went into the GF with tremendous momentum.

Unfortunately, Atlanta FaZe’s respawn play was just too clean, and the team secured the first and second rounds of Hardpoint. 100 Thieves were able to take two big map wins in the first rounds of Control and Search, but another FaZe win in the second Search seemed to have all but sealed the deal.

In the second round of Control, Atlanta FaZe kept the pressure on with a score of 3-2 (best-of-seven). 100 Thieves put up a hell of a fight, but with FaZe easily dominating the round on Invasion, it didn’t take long for the team of Cellium, aBeZy, Simp, and Drazah to lift the tournament trophy and celebrate winning $600,000.

For more insider gaming esports news, check out the news that Team Falcons won the $7 million club championship