Carolina Royal Ravens vs Vancouver Surge Tips & Odds – CDL 2025 Stage 2 Major

By Tit Krajnik

19 Mar 2025

Tit Krajnik 19 Mar 2025

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Carolina Royal Ravens vs Vancouver Surge Call of Duty betting preview for Thursday, March 20, 2025, in the opening round of CDL 2025 Stage 2 Major (13:30 CDT)
Both teams enter the Major in good form and with a point to prove
Expect a very competitive game, which can easily extend to five maps

Neptune CoD (Getty Images)

Carolina Royal Ravens vs Vancouver Surge Predictions

Carolina Royal Ravens and Vancouver Surge will face off on Thursday, March 20, in the first round of the Call of Duty League (CDL) 2025 Stage 2 Major. This promises to be one of the most exciting fixtures of the first round.

Carolina Royal Ravens vs Vancouver Surge Predictions
Head to Head
Carolina Royal Ravens Form
Carolina Royal Ravens Squad & Team News
Vancouver Surge Form
Vancouver Surge Squad & Team News

Both teams have looked good this split and finished the qualifiers tied at 5-2, proving that they're up there with the top squads in the CDL. They've also improved on some of their weaknesses in Stage 2, ensuring an exciting affair.

While it is fair to have a favourite, I do not see a significant difference between the two teams, or at least not big enough to have one priced as a favourite over the other.

In fact, the Royal Ravens' improvement lately should make them slight favourites over the Surge, whose Hardpoint has not looked too sharp – and yet the betting odds have it reversed.

At outsider odds, I much prefer the Carolina Royal Ravens, although I do expect this to be a game-five.

Both teams are in great form
Expect a competitive game
A game five is likely on the cards

Head to Head

Carolina Royal Ravens met with Vancouver Surge once before this season, when they lost on map five.

Vancouver Surge 3-2 Carolina Royal Ravens – January 24, 2025

Carolina Royal Ravens Form

Carolina Royal Ravens finished the qualifiers with a 5-2 record, which was enough for no.4 seed for the Major. Even more impressive is that the Royal Ravens started the qualifiers 0-2 with losses to LA Thieves (0-3) and Toronto Ultra (1-3) but bounced back with five straight wins against Minnesota RØKKR, OpTic Texas, Cloud9 New York, Miami Heretics, and Vegas Falcons.

The Royal Ravens have been very competitive since the start of the season, but they have long had a major issue – Hardpoint. This no longer seems to be the case to some degree, as the Royal Ravens have won their last five HP maps.

Admittedly, they are still a bit up-and-down on the game mode, but the Royal Ravens look much more confident on respawns, which, combined with their solid Search & Destroy record, makes them a team to watch out for this Major.

Carolina Royal Ravens Squad & Team News

No changes for the Royal Ravens.

Isaiah "Gwinn" Gwinn
Austin "SlasheR" Liddicoat
Thomas "TJHaLy" Haly
Reece "Vivid" Drost

Vancouver Surge Form

Vancouver Surge, like the Royal Ravens, ended Major 2 qualifiers with a 5-2 record, and they also made CDL 2025 Stage 2 Minor finals, which is nothing to sneeze at.

On the other side, the Surge have not looked very good lately, especially on respawns and as it seems they have cooled down quite a bit before the start of the Major.

Another concern with the Surge is that their last LAN run was not very impressive (0-2), granted they've since added Travis "Neptune" McCloud and started playing better. It remains to be seen whether that will translate to offline games.

Vancouver Surge Squad & Team News

Vancouver Surge have not made any roster changes.

Jovan "04" Rodriguez
Jordan "Abuzah" François
Travis "Neptune" McCloud
Byron "Nastie" Plumridge

Verdict

Carolina Royal Ravens v Vancouver Surge

Vancouver Surge have improved since the addition of Neptune to their roster, but we have yet to see this new-look roster perform on LAN – so it remains to be seen whether they will look as bad as during Major 1 or find more success with Neptune leading the charge.

Carolina Royal Ravens placed fourth in CDL 2025 Stage 1 Major, so we know this roster can perform on LAN, especially Thomas "TJHaLy" Haly, who seems to find new gear when not playing online.

Besides the big question of how the Surge will do on LAN, there's also the fact that the Carolina Royal Ravens have looked much stabler in the latter stages of Major 2 qualifiers. While I would not hold it against anyone who believes this will be a close and competitive game, I am leaning more towards the Royal Ravens to close it out on map five.

Royal Ravens To Win

Moneyline

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