Call of Duty League fans will have to wait a little while longer for matches to resume.
The CDL announced today the schedule for Stage Five group play, which begins on Thursday, July 8, one week later than the league initially announced in January. When the 2021 season schedule was released, the Seattle Home Series was set to kick off Stage Five on July 1, but now, the Seattle-hosted event will conclude the regular season from July 22 to July 25.
The change is likely to avoid playing matches on the Fourth of July, a national holiday in the United States. The league did not play on the day last season either. Because of the delay, the Stage Five Major will also be pushed back one week, with the event presumably starting on July 29, although the league has not announced an official date.
The postponement will also give teams another week of preparation ahead of the fifth and final group stage. Three spots in the end-of-season CDL Championship remain, with no team officially being eliminated from contention. It will be tough for any of the bottom four teams—Los Angeles Guerrillas, Paris Legion, London Royal Ravens, and Seattle Surge—to qualify for the event, however.
Related: Here are the groups for Stage 5 of the 2021 Call of Duty League season
Each team will play five round-robin matches in the group stage before advancing to the final $500,000 Major of the season. A perfect group stage and Major championship would net a team 125 CDL Points, although that feat has only been done by the Atlanta FaZe twice this season.
Stage Five will kick off at 2pm CT on July 8 with the first-place FaZe taking on the Royal Ravens, who are tied for last place in the 12-team league.
