Call of Duty League Championship 2025 team preview: Carolina Royal Ravens

The 2024/25 Call of Duty League (CDL) season is preparing for its season-ending Championship Weekend event that will determine the champion of the Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 cycle.

Following a turbulent season, the Carolina Royal Ravens head into the event looking to rekindle some of the magic that saw the franchise begin the season contending at the top of the league table.

Before the first shot is fired on the virtual battlefield, Esports Insider checks out the Carolina Royal Ravens as it aims to end a turbulent season on a high note.

The players representing the Carolina Royal Ravens at Championship Weekend are as follows:

After the Royal Ravens relocated to Carolina from London in 2023, Gwinn joined the team in November and has become the longest-standing member of the franchise. Gwinn caught the attention of the CDL in June 2023, winning the Challengers Finals under the OMiT banner before joining the Royal Ravens for the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 season.

SlasheR is one of the most experienced Call of Duty esports players competing in the CDL. The 2016 world champion has continued to compete at the highest level and possesses a wealth of knowledge that the younger members of the team can benefit from. 

More experience comes in the form of TJHaLy, a player who has represented the likes of OpTic Gaming, Boston Breach and Las Vegas Legion over the past eight years. 2025 marks the first time TJHaLy has appeared at Champs since 2022, which is the perfect opportunity to lead the Royal Ravens to a strong end to the season. 

The most recent arrival to the Royal Ravens starting lineup is Wrecks, another talented player who has made his way through Challengers to reach the pinnacle of Call of Duty esports. With experience in scoring victories in the highly competitive North American region, the future is bright for this hot prospect.

Since the relocation, Carolina has struggled to compete against the likes of OpTic Texas and Atlanta FaZe despite showing glimpses of brilliance over the past two years. At the opening Major of Black Ops 6, the Royal Ravens turned a corner, securing fourth seed and scoring a top-four finish, the franchise’s highest placement since the 2020 CDL Championship.

Momentum continued heading into Major 2, scoring the fourth seed in online qualification once more. Looking to build on its fourth-place finish from the previous Major, the Royal Ravens were swept aside by Vancouver Surge and the Los Angeles Thieves, dumping the franchise out of the tournament with a disappointing top-eight finish. 

The early signs of Carolina Royal Ravens cementing its place in the highly competitive midfield battle were quickly diminished in the third and fourth Majors, scoring back-to-back top-12 placements to round off a season that began with plenty of promise. Despite the poor end to the regular season, the Royal Ravens had managed to do enough to lock in the sixth seed ahead of Champs. 

The opening two Majors of the season were a taste of what the Carolina Royal Ravens can achieve. Heading into Championship Weekend with a roster packed full of potential and experience, the franchise can spring a few surprises in Kitchener, Canada. 

Carolina begins its Champs campaign with a tricky round-one clash against Toronto Ultra. If it can overcome the first hurdle, a second-round match against either Atlanta or OpTic awaits. Despite being drawn on the harder side of the double-elimination bracket, the Royal Ravens could fly high once again with a strong showing before attention turns to the launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7.

For a closer look at the other Call of Duty League franchises competing at the big event, check out Esports Insider’s other previews:

The Carolina Royal Ravens is owned by North American esports infrastructure company ReKTGlobal. In 2022, the company was acquired by a Metaverse-focused firm, Infinite Reality, for $470 million.

Carolina Royal Ravens exclusively competes in the Call of Duty League. It’s unclear if the franchise will expand into other esports titles in the future.

Carolina Royal Ravens is yet to win a championship in the Call of Duty League. The best result for the franchise came at the 2020 CDL Championship, where the London Royal Ravens finished fourth.