The Call of Duty League's final Major of the 2026 season opened in Paris on June 26, and the biggest story of day one was FaZe eliminating home favorites Gentle Mates from the upper bracket in the tournament's opening round.
FaZe Sends Gentle Mates to the Lower Bracket
Gentle Mates walked into their home Major with the crowd behind them, but it wasn't enough to survive the opening round. FaZe won the match and sent the French squad to the lower bracket, flipping the script on what was supposed to be a feel-good moment for the host nation. Neither the scoreline nor the map results from the series have been confirmed, so the specifics of how FaZe closed it out remain unclear. What is clear is that Chris "Simp" Lehr was the standout performer for FaZe, playing a central role in getting his team off to a 1-0 start on the opening day of the season's last Major. For Gentle Mates, the loss doesn't end their run in Paris, but it does mean a trip through the lower bracket gauntlet if they want to keep their Major IV hopes alive in front of the fans who came out to support them.
Drazah's Crowd Moment Steals the Spotlight
The win itself wasn't the only thing people were talking about once FaZe left the stage. Zach "Drazah" Jordan found himself at the center of a separate storyline after the match, reportedly using a translation app to communicate directly with the Paris crowd in a taunting exchange. The specific words he used haven't been confirmed, but the moment was captured and circulated quickly, and it drew a mixed reaction from fans and observers alike. Some saw it as classic competitive theater, the kind of needle that's always been part of CDL culture, while others felt it crossed a line given the setting of a home crowd already smarting from an early loss. Either way, it added an extra layer of drama to what was already a notable result on day one, and it's likely to follow FaZe into their next matches as the story continues to make the rounds online.
Four Teams Reportedly Eliminated Early
Elsewhere in the bracket, day one reportedly delivered an unusually rough outcome for several teams that needed a deep run in Paris to keep their Championship hopes realistic. According to reports, four teams lost their opening matches and were eliminated from the Major before the tournament even got going in earnest — a brutal outcome for squads that came in already needing results just to stay in the Champs conversation. Cloud9 New York, Vancouver Surge, and Carolina Royal Ravens are reported among the teams eliminated, though the full list and the details of each result have not been independently confirmed. If accurate, it's a steep price to pay on day one of the last Major of the year, with little room left for any of those organizations to recover their season in Paris.
Seeding Mostly Holds Elsewhere
Outside of the Gentle Mates result and the reported early exits, day one largely went to form. Favored and higher-seeded teams advanced as expected across the rest of the bracket, giving the tournament a relatively predictable shape everywhere except at the very top of the host nation's bracket and among the teams fighting from the bottom. That combination — a shock result at the top and a reportedly brutal cull at the bottom — set an early tone for a Major that's supposed to decide who's still standing before Champs. One day into CDL Major IV, the story in Paris is already twofold: a home crowd stunned by Gentle Mates' trip to the lower bracket, and a reported wave of early eliminations thinning the field before the tournament has barely started. With Simp making an early statement and Drazah's crowd moment still circulating, FaZe enter the rest of the Major with momentum and a spotlight they'll need to manage carefully.
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