There’s no “I” in team, but there is in “individuals.”

That’s what Fury Gaming and their upcoming opponents are dealing with as they head into WorldGaming’s Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare Canadian Championship on Mar. 26.

Due to the event’s regulations that require all competitors to be Canadian, the roster of Shawn “SaugaMyth-” Manbodh, Brandon “BTL_MoTi” Lockwood, Steven “DmG_Stevey” Moclair and Mike “SwarleyMC” Carter are taking a break from their everyday squads to battle for a national championship.

The group of four individuals are vaguely familiar with each other, but it’s their individual abilities that carried them to an unbeaten run through the online playoffs to earn a place in the final eight.

“If your personality is already there, I feel like it makes in-game chemistry easier to mesh. It shows in-game,” Manbodh told TSN.ca. “Qualifiers were pretty easy. Almost every match was a blowout, to be honest.”

Manbodh and his teammates are one of the rosters to watch this weekend. Along with SetToDestroyX and GIRG, both teams composed of professional players, Fury Gaming expects to be competing late into the day on Sunday and potentially in the grand finals.

“If we weren’t to come top three I would honestly be surprised,” Manbodh added. “I’m not trying to be cocky either, that’s just the way it goes.”

When competing with a regular squad, players are used to the tendencies of their teammates and the overall team strategy. However, in a tournament like the Call of Duty Canadian Championships, players are forced out of their strategic comfort zones and have to rely on instinct and individual skill.

Manbodh says a busy schedule with amateur and professional teams often restricts practice time, but if skilled players get on the same page without many speed bumps then success isn’t all that hard to find. 

“You only get better as a team if you’re playing with your team, but at the end of the day it all comes down to everyone’s individual knowledge of the game and what needs to be done,” he said. “As long as everyone knows what needs to be done when we play, I think we should be fine.”

The meta of Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare isn’t a complex one either. Respawn game modes Hardpoint and Uplink revolve around rotations and map control while Search and Destroy is about winning gun fights.

Every professional player knows the meta, so it all comes down to execution.

“At this level, especially with our intelligence of the game, it’s going to come down to winning gun fights on LAN,” Manbodh said. “It’s just a matter of if we do or not because the plays, we already know what has to be done.”

The teams competing for a piece of the $65,000 prize pool at WorldGaming’s Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare Canadian Championship are:

GIRG
SetToDestroyX
Fury Gaming
1Hype
Team Impulse
Earthroot Gaming
Rezist Esports
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