Call of Duty pro player James Clayton Eubanks, who is better known as Clayster revealed that Dallas Empire’s Huke was planning to quit CoD for Valorant.
Revealing how the professional CoD League esports team Dallas Empire made changes to their roster for the Call of Duty League season, Clayster said the team’s Cuyler “Huke” Garland almost quit Activision’s first-person shooter video game to pursue Valorant. Huke wanted to make sure that the rest of the team stayed together.
CDL 2021 switched from 5v5 to 4v4 in the change to Black Ops Cold War, forcing a difficult decision on every single team in the Call of Duty League. This was particularly hard for the Empire, whose starting five were compatible enough to be in control of CDL Champs 2020.
Faced with two equally undesirable choices, fans and peers expected the Dallas decision to settle on James ‘Clayster’ Eubanks or Ian ‘Crimsix’ Porter. With Indervir ‘iLLeY’ Dhaliwal, Anthony ‘Shotzzy’ Cuevas, and Cuyler ‘Huke’ Garland forming a lethal main young trio known as “Xeo,” a majority of people believed that the Empire would need to choose one of the veterans to move forward.
In response to fans on Reddit making baseless speculations, Clayster explained that the process was complicated. At one point, Xeo was at risk of scattering as Huke apparently decided to quit CoD and pursue Valorant in a bid to make sure that his teammates remained together, Dexerto reported.
According to Clayster, team owner Mike ‘Hastr0’ Rufail wanted to put the decision in the hands of his players. The organization attempted to move quickly to ensure whoever was dropped gets as much time as possible to pick up a new team of their choice.
When Rufail allowed the players to chose their roster for the next season, Clay shared a surprising story about Huke – an early MVP candidate in 2021. “Huke tried to quit and play Valorant or some s**t to let us four stays together.”
No one let the standout SMG do so. “Obviously, nobody would let him do that (nor would I ever let him quit CoD to let me have a spot).”
Fans are disappointed that the team had to split up, but it is worth noting that decision was due to external factors. Moreover, it appears to have worked out in favor of all sides, for the time being.
Empire and Clayster’s New York Subliners are currently placed at a comfortable 2-1 in the 2021 standings. They are slated to meet in-game on Friday for the first time since CDL Champs. Watch this space for the latest esports news.
