FaZe Vegas won the Call of Duty League Championship 2026 with a 5-2 grand final victory over OpTic Texas on July 19, ending the defending champions' bid for a third consecutive title. The series was played on Black Ops 7 at the Michelob ULTRA Arena inside the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas.
It is FaZe's second CoD Champs title, according to Dot Esports. The organization first won the world championship in 2021 on Black Ops Cold War, when the roster was based in Atlanta. The current line-up of Simp, Drazah, Abuzah and 04 had already beaten OpTic once this season, in the CDL Major 2 final.
Simp collected his third CDL championship, having previously won with eUnited in 2019 on Black Ops 4 and with Atlanta FaZe in 2021. That puts the 25-year-old alongside Crimsix, Clayster, Karma and Shotzzy as the most decorated players in the league's history. He was also named the tournament's Most Valuable Player.
Drazah won his second world title after lifting the trophy with LA Thieves in 2022 on Vanguard. Abuzah and 04 took their first, having lost the previous year's final to OpTic as members of Vancouver Surge.
How the grand final played out
OpTic opened the series with a 250-216 Hardpoint win on Colossus, led by 34 kills from Mercules and 31 from Shotzzy. FaZe levelled on Raid Search and Destroy, taking the series' first round 11 after Simp opened it with a kill on Dashy, then won Scar Overload 4-3 and Scar Hardpoint 250-194 behind 39 kills from Drazah.
A second round 11 win, on Den Search and Destroy, moved FaZe to championship point. OpTic answered on Den Overload, taking it 4-3 on the back of a strong second half, but FaZe closed the series out on Hacienda Search and Destroy: down 4-5, Simp took two pickoffs to force a third round 11, and Abuzah won a 1v1 against Mercules to end it. Two maps, Gridlock Hardpoint and Sake Search and Destroy, went unplayed.
FaZe reached the grand final through the upper bracket, beating G2 Minnesota 3-1, Riyadh Falcons 3-0 and OpTic 3-2 in the winners final. The title carried the $800,000 top share of the $2 million prize pool, with OpTic taking $480,000 as runners-up.
OpTic's defeat ends a run of back-to-back championships won on Modern Warfare 3 and Black Ops 6. With the 2026 season closed, the Call of Duty League now moves into its Modern Warfare 4 cycle, which Dot Esports reports is expected to bring significant changes.
Join the conversation — sign in to comment.
Sign in