Britain will be extremely well represented as the CDL Championship Weekend 2025 kicks off in Kitchener, Ontario, on Thursday. The event, running June 26th-29th, is the culmination of the Black Ops 6 competitive scene, with the top eight ranked teams battling it out for the Call of Duty League’s grandest prize.
The UK is best represented by the ‘hometown’ heroes, Toronto Ultra, the host franchise of 2025 Champs. The roster features long-term Toronto Ultra representative, Jamie ‘Insight’ Craven and October 2024 addition Ben ‘Beans’ McMellon. Insight and Beans will be backed up by their Strategic and Assistant Coaches, England’s Ryan ‘Flux’ Oldfield and Joseph ‘Joee’ Pinnington.
Toronto Ultra are somewhat of a dark horse for the event, finishing third in the regular season. The roster also finished 3rd at the second and third Major of the season. With the Toronto crowd behind them, will that be enough to elevate them to a Grand Final and bring another Brit to the top of the FPS mountain?
Shane ‘ShAnE’ McKerral will be in attendance as LA Thieves’ coach. The Brit has won Champs before under the LA Thieves umbrella at Call of Duty League Championship 2022, where he was assistant coach.
ShAne will surely believe he will be a two-time Champs winner at the climax of the weekend, with LA Thieves going into the event as the highest ranked team, going 37-11 in the regular season, amassing 540 points. LA Thieves are in winning form, as they took home Major 3 and 4 in convincing fashion.
Needless to say, LA Thieves are significant betting favourites for CDL Champs 2025.
Qualifying as the 5th seed, Vancouver Surge can be described as an event roster, rather than a league specialist. The roster, featuring Britain’s Byron ‘Nastie’ Plumridge, finished runner-up twice at the 2025 Majors but lacked regular-season consistency. Claiming significant scalps, such as the 3-0 victory over LA Thieves in Texas, they should not be underestimated.
Boston Breach is represented by the Scots Cameron ‘Cammy’ McKilligan (player) and Sean ‘Seany’ O’Connor (Head Coach), as well as England’s Mike ‘Magxck’ Libeccio. Boston Breach snuck into Champs with an overall negative record of 16-19 and 200 points. They will be hoping to be underestimated, with low expectations and freedom to express themselves in the game.
CDL Championship Weekend 2025 begins Thursday, 26th June 8 PM (BST) with Vancouver Surge taking on Miami Heretics. Will it end with British success?
Darragh Harbinson is an esports writer specialising in Counter-Strike. He has written for Esports News UK, Esports Insider, UKCSGO, Dexerto, and Rush B Media.