Minnesota RØKKR Sign Call of Duty Challengers Team

The Call of Duty League (CDL) franchise, Minnesota RØKKR, has announced one of the best CoD Challengers teams on Monday, February 14. Hailing from Europe, the Spanish roster, Young Galacticos, will now compete under the RØKKR banner, as RØKKR Academy.

Minnesota RØKKR announced on Monday, the acquisition of four Spanish CoD players in Alejandro “Lucky” López, Juan “JurNii” Antonio González Muñoz, Adrian “MettalZ” Serrano, and José “ReeaL” Manuel Fernández, who will form a new RØKKR Academy roster.

Lucky, MettalZ, and JurNii, are already known names in the CoD esports scene, as former members of Team Heretics, a team they competed for during the Black Ops 4 season. All three were also contracted to a CDL team for the inaugural season in 2020.

JurNii was a member of Atlanta FaZe, while MettalZ and Lucky played together at Toronto Ultra. Even though neither achieved any remarkable success during their short tenure in their respective CDL teams, the trio made some serious noise in the CDL Challengers league.

The Spanish squad formed an independent roster, Young Galacticos, at the end of 2021 and quickly made a name for themselves. Since the start of the CoD: Vanguard season, they have attended seven tournaments and won all but one.

That includes four CDL Challengers 2022 Cup events, Esports Hub League Season 1 Elite Playoffs, and Challengers Elite Stage 1, which they won at the start of this month. The only event they did not win was the Challengers Cup #4, where they placed second.

The newly formed RØKKR Academy will feature some of the best CoD Challengers players, three of which have experience competing in the CDL. Although all three have had minimal exposure to the top league.

MettalZ debuted in the CDL in January 2020, when he represented Toronto Ultra at the Launch Weekend before he got benched. He got brought back into the starting roster in April but was removed from the team a couple of months later.

Likewise, Lucky has been a member of Ultra in 2020, but he has not started in a single CDL match. JurNii, meanwhile, has spent the entire 2020 season as a substitute for the Atlanta FaZe, and while he has not competed in the CDL, he spent the whole season playing for Atlanta FaZe Academy.

The 18-year-old ReeaL is the least experienced player on the roster. He started his CoD esports career in 2018 but has not appeared in CoD Challengers until this year.

However, that was hardly due to his lack of talent but rather because he had to wait until December 2021 to be eligible to attend Activision-sponsored events.

Last year, he competed in and dominated the Spanish National Gaming League Masters Division with Mav3ricks Gaming Club, leading the team to six gold and three silver medals across ten events. Most notably, ReeaL won the season-culminating event, the NGL Masters Division 2021 Finals.

The Spanish team were undeniably the most dominant Challengers team in Europe and are now given a chance to prove their worth under a new banner. The Spanish squad will make their debut on Tuesday, February 15, in the CoD Challengers Elite Playoffs.

The tournament will run on February 15-16 and feature four CDL Challengers teams who will compete for the lion’s share of the $41,000 prize pool and Challengers points.

The tournament winner will collect $20,000 in tournament winnings and 15,000 Challengers points. Joining RØKKR Academy en route to the $20,000 paycheck are Sukry’s Bakery, Revenge Tour, and The Originals.

These four teams placed top-four in the Challengers Elite Stage 1, which Young Galacticos won with a 6-1 record. Sukry’s Bakery finished second with a 5-2 record, while Revenge Tour and The Originals placed third-fourth with 5-2 and 4-3, respectively.