G2 Minnesota and Paris Gentle Mates shine in opening day of CDL Major 1 2026

G2 Minnesota and Paris Gentle Mates have opened their Call of Duty League (CDL) Major 1 2026 campaigns with upper bracket victories.

The opening event of the Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 season saw several notable names in action, with G2 Minnesota springing a surprise over FaZe Vegas.

After securing the top seed following five weeks of online qualifiers, Paris Gentle Mates began the event on the front foot last night with a 3-1 victory over Toronto KOI. An 11 killstreak from Travis ‘Neptune’ McCloud on Exposure Hardpoint sealed the deal, cementing the team’s place as one of Black Ops 7’s elite squads.

As a result of sending Toronto KOI to the lower bracket, Paris Gentle Mates takes on the Los Angeles Thieves in the upper bracket semi-final. Los Angeles Thieves swept aside the Carolina Royal Ravens in its first match, setting up a tantalising battle between two of the world’s best Call of Duty teams.

Heading into Major 1 as the seventh seed, G2 Minnesota took on second seed FaZe Vegas. To the surprise of many, G2 Minnesota struck first on Blackheart Hardpoint with a 250-189 scoreline to take an early lead.

The ball continued rolling for the underdogs in Scar Search and Destroy with a 6-2 win to move within one map win of a shock 3-0 sweep. A late surge on Den Overload established a slender 7-5 lead to complete a 3-0 sweep.

G2 Minnesota advances to the second semi-final of the upper bracket, where it faces off against defending CDL champions OpTic Texas for a place in the top four. FaZe Vegas still has a chance to make a deep run from the lower bracket. The team goes against Boston Breach in Major 1’s second day.

Following the first day of matches, the action continues today (January 30th) at 6.30 PM GMT. The full list of matches is as follows: