The Call of Duty League has seen some amazing performances from all sorts of players in its inaugural season, but only one of them will be named MVP. Here's the case for each of the front-runners, statistically and in their own words.
All statistics courtesy of Atlanta FaZe analyst Austin "Easy Mac" O'Neil. Adjusted Kill/Death ratios have been adjusted so that Search and Destroy counts equally percentage-wise as a third of a player's overall K/D.
Dylan "Envoy" Hannon (Chicago Huntsmen)
Kill/Death Ratio (raw and adjusted): 1.02 (raw), 1.08 (adjusted)
Slayer Rating: 90.78
Average Hill Time and Team Placement (Hardpoint): 59.4 (third overall on the Huntsmen)
Kills Per Round (Search and Destroy): 8.88 (third overall in the league)
Other Standout Statistics: 1.27 K/D on S&D (second overall in the league)
Envoy has rightfully earned the reputation as "the smart one" on the Chicago Huntsmen, particularly on Search and Destroy. His most impressive statistics this year come from that game mode, with the second-highest S&D K/D in the league, tied with the Florida Mutineers' Joseph "Owakening" Conley. This number is made more impressive by the fact that he played in all 38 of his team's S&D matches, where Owakening joined his team later in the season and played a total of 21. Envoy is Chicago's S&D star and his statistics along with his adjusted K/D showcase this.
Across the board, not only are Envoy's individual statistics strong, but he rarely has bad performances. You could easily make the argument that an average performance for Envoy is a "bad" one, but that added context says more about his consistency than anything else.
Why vote for him, in his own words: "I guess you should vote for me because I try to keep my consistent gameplay, I try to bring a lot of energy to the team and in the tournament vibe and that's why I'd vote for me."
Chris "Simp" Lehr (Atlanta FaZe)
Kill/Death Ratio (raw and adjusted): 1.17 (raw), 1.21 (adjusted)
Slayer Rating: 93.75
Average Hill Time and Team Placement (Hardpoint): 56.4 (second on Atlanta FaZe)
Kills Per Round (Search and Destroy): 0.81
Other Standout Statistics: 50 kills on a Hardpoint map (CDL record)
After a 2019 Champs victory and Champs MVP along with the strong performances of the Atlanta FaZe throughout 2020, it's difficult to remember that eUnited's initial decision to bench Jordan "JKap" Kaplan for eUnited Cadets rising star Simp was fairly unpopular. Winning solves just about anything, and going into 2020, all eyes were on Simp and the Atlanta FaZe after preseason scrim results pinpointed them as the team to beat. Somehow Simp not only stayed at the top of professional Call of Duty, but arguably surpassed his 2019 performance, at least individually. This year he set a Hardpoint kill record, promptly broke said kill record weeks later, has been FaZe's lights-out sniper on Search and Destroy maps, and has been a crucial voice behind the FaZe's success.
More: A look back at the Call of Duty League's inaugural season
Why vote for him, in his own words: "I think people should vote for me because of how consistent of a player I've been this year. I also think I've had some flashy plays with the sniper here and there. But overall I think the consistency I've had."
McArthur "Cellium" Jovel (Atlanta FaZe)
Kill/Death Ratio (raw and adjusted): 1.12 (raw), 1.13 (adjusted)
Slayer Rating: 89.72
Average Hill Time and Team Placement (Hardpoint): 55.4 (third overall on Atlanta FaZe)
Kills Per Round (Search and Destroy): 0.73
Other Standout Statistics: 18 kills on an S&D map (a CDL record)
On a team as young and as loud as the Atlanta FaZe, Cellium is known as the quiet one. He didn't put up the insane K/D numbers of teammate and fellow MVP candidate Simp throughout the season, but was a constant for Atlanta, even when the team struggled - "struggled" is loosely used here, since they were still consistently making semifinals - Cellium was one of the reasons why they never fell lower than a semifinals finish.
Cellium's case for MVP is found not only in his flexibility and consistency in all game modes, but his incredible clutch performances, especially on Search and Destroy. He currently holds the CDL S&D kill record, and has won round after round for Atlanta
Why vote for him, in his own words: "I dunno. *laughs good-naturedly* Just go watch the MVP clips and tell me if you want to vote for me or not."
Cesar "Skyz" Bueno (Florida Mutineers)
Kill/Death Ratio (raw and adjusted): 1.24 (raw), 1.17 (adjusted)
Slayer Rating: 88.45
Average Hill Time and Team Placement (Hardpoint): 57.4 (third overall on the Florida Mutineers)
Kills Per Round (Search and Destroy): 0.77
Other Standout Statistics: lowest deaths per 10 minutes on Hardpoint in the CDL at 19.46
Skyz is the rare main AR player to not only break into the scene fairly recently but stay at the top of his role. Regardless of how well or poorly the Florida Mutineers performed from event to event, Skyz was consistently good, giving the team a strong in-game backbone. The additions of Maurice "Fero" Henriquez and Owakening are credited for taking the team to three title wins this year, but Skyz was quietly the team's superstar, especially when you look at his K/D statistics. Not only was Skyz racking up more kills than his teammates - 2397 on the year - but he was generally dying less for a league-high 1.24 K/D, tied with the London Royal Ravens' Bradley "wuskin" Marshall and the Seattle Surge's Sam "Octane" Larew.
Why vote for him, in his own words: "C'mon. It's 'cause I'm frying."
Anthony "Shotzzy" Cuevas-Castro
Kill/Death Ratio (raw and adjusted): 1.06 (raw), 1.04 (adjusted)
Slayer Rating: 88.57
Average Hill Time and Team Placement (Hardpoint): 68.2 (highest on Dallas Empire)
Kills Per Round (Search and Destroy): 0.71
Other Standout Statistics: 6.79 average caps on Domination (second in the league)
Following the Dallas Empire's lackluster start to the season in Minnesota, Shotzzy was an odd narrative casualty. Even when Dallas' play had visibly improved by the London Royal Ravens Home Series, where they made finals but lost to the Chicago Huntsmen, Shotzzy and fellow Empire rookie Indervir "iLLeY" Dhaliwal were regarded as weak links on the team due to their individual performances. The narrative around Dallas was suddenly whether they would be able to win a title with these two on the team, not when. Only their teammates on the Empire believed it was when, and proved it by winning their next event, the Los Angeles Home Series. Shotzzy had the highest overall K/D of his team.
Since then, Shotzzy has emerged as both a strong Rookie of the Year and MVP candidate. His consistent performances following the LA Home Series victory proved exactly why Dallas believed in him, even when the prevailing narrative did not.
Why vote for him, in his own words: "From the start of the year to now obviously there's a really big difference, and the reason being is because my desire to compete and the motivation after the launch weekend. It was such a bad launch weekend. I put in the hours. I did so many things to get up to this level, and I think that I deserve the vote. "