SlasheR & Priestahh: Leading Boston into the Breach

Boston Breach is a team defined by reinvention. The franchise immediately carved out a unique identity in the CDL through their captain Anthony “Methodz” Zinni, but his shock retirement back at MW2 Major 2 left the team without a clear identity. Still, the organization ruthlessly pursued improvement, fielding four different rosters across the final months of the season. Their efforts netted a Top 6 Champs placing, but that wasn’t quite enough to warrant sticking together. So, for the 5th time in as many months, Breach is rebuilding, and this time, they have a winning combination. Literally.

At the helm of this new effort, former World Champions Austin “SlasheR” Liddicoat and Preston “Priestahh” Greiner headline a dangerous squad. The duo teamed together in 2019 and what was three years feels like a lifetime ago. They headlined the 100 Thieves’ Black Ops 4 roster and narrowly missed out on the World Championship ring. Now, aligned with rising talent Eric “Snoopy” Pérez, and veteran SMG Obaid “Asim” Asim, they have a shot to do what no player has done: Bring a Major victory to Boston.

Both men know what it takes to get there, both have seen the peak of the mountain. SlasheR is a premier sharpshooter and arguably Call of Duty’s best IGL. His resume is impeccable. Priestahh, however, has the more recent success, having won last year’s Champs and two Majors. Despite his victories on the New York Subliners, Priestahh was dropped only 20 days after raising Modern Warfare II’s final trophy.

“After winning Champs, I didn’t think I’d have to go through this process,” Priestahh admitted, “But as soon as I realized I had to get on a different roster, I looked toward [SlasheR] as the number one person I wanted to team with. I know what we did in the past, and I know what he’s capable of.”

While Priestahh dominated the league through all of MWII, SlasheR was still very close to the top. His Atlanta FaZe squad never placed outside of the Top 3 on LAN, and while the team only made it over the hump at Major 2, it always felt like they were only inches away from putting the pieces together and winning another event.

LAN performance is only one piece of the puzzle though, and SlasheR’s online performance has never quite matched up to his offline potential. It’s a crucial gap to close when three superstar players no longer surround you. He’s aware it could cause problems for his young squad, but his confidence is unmarred by it.

“I think the CDL era has been tricked into [thinking] online Call of Duty being real,” SlasheR said. “They’ve forgotten how different LAN is, and how different it’s been for me my whole career. I’ve never been nearly as good online … The game is way different. The gunfights, the way it plays out. It’s all different. We do have to play for CDL points online, so you have to do well enough there. But on LAN? I had a 1.20 KD at the [ 2023 Stage 5 Major and 2023 Championship]."

The spectacular stats weren’t enough to push FaZe past third place at Champs, ending their record of three consecutive Champs Grand Finals. What could have been a lasting position in a new dynasty turned into a one-year stint that left SlasheR teamless during a historical “Rostermania” period. He knew the risks going in, though.

“With the FaZe thing, I just knew from the get-go if we didn’t win Champs it was going to be my fault no matter what happened,” he said. “I think that’s how it’s going to be for anyone in that situation. That group of three guys is never going to break up. Whoever their fourth is, if they don’t win, they’re just going to get recycled.”

SlasheR’s boldness is a piece of his superpower and is partly why he’s viewed as CoD’s Thanos. Just when you think the odds are against him, he flips the game on its head and finds a way to win. That’s what this team was built for. Priestahh comes fresh off of winning the biggest trophy in CoD. SlasheR previously broke a Major drought for the LA Guerillas. Winning big together would mean cementing their place as truly elite players in the league.

It’s not all about the two legends, though. After all, they’re only half of the plan for the 2024 Boston Breach. Snoopy and Asim are formidable in their own right. Explosive, tricky, and full of potential, Snoopy got his start in Challengers before making it to the big leagues. On the other hand, Asim is a CDL mainstay, having played for the Subliners, Rokkr, and Guerrillas before joining Breach. He fills the gap left behind by Kenyen “Capsidal” Sutton, who was released after the team’s disappointing Top 12 finish at Major 1.

It’s early days after the change, but the new SMG line is a bit more proven, and certainly capable of making big-time plays. Snoopy is renowned for jaw-dropping highlights, and the eye test tells you Asim has adapted to MW3’s brand of chaos faster than most. With a new title being played every year, learning on your feet is a required skill. It’s an ever-changing league, and SlasheR says players who never experienced what he calls “normal Call of Duty”, could have an upper hand.

“What we’re playing nowadays?” he asked. “There’s not a single player who can 100% read the spawns. That’s what I prided myself in for years. There was no getting caught off guard. If I misread something, it was a human error. Not, something that randomly happened.

“A lot of the tendencies we [older pros] have built in aren’t exactly good [anymore]. Me and Preston [Priestahhh] talk about it. You have to be ready for anything. Back in the day, there was no [feeling that you had to be] ‘ready for anything’. I knew exactly the play I needed to make. There was no guessing. Now the spawn systems are kind of wack … you have to be cracked.”

Priestahh also knows the pressure of being the fresh-faced, high-octane player. That was his role before Call of Duty’s franchise era, so mutual respect shapes his leadership style. Esports generally celebrates big egos, but that doesn’t always equate to winning, and he's not letting his get in the way.

“I told [Snoopy] the other day, I remember when I was coming up, and I was getting good at Infinite Warfare. I felt like I couldn’t say what plays I wanted to make,” he explained. “People wouldn’t really listen. They didn’t respect me enough yet … If you think you’re going to make the right play, just tell us. We’ll take it into consideration.”

There’s not much time for the old and new visions of the squad to come together, though. It’s a short season, and early speedbumps have already been costly. After a pair of heartbreaking losses to open the season, SlasheR pointed to their Search & Destroy performances as the next turning point for the squad. “In practice, it’s usually pretty good, but in matches, we’ve lost a lot of close games. If our [Search and Destroy] was a little bit better, we probably would be undefeated [after the first two weeks.]”

Since those losses, the team flipped the script on a promising Toronto Ultra team a week after our chat. A quick 3-0 put the Breach on the board and on the rise. However, the aforementioned early Major 1 exit and swift roster change give this squad even more to prove than they already had. As the veterans, SlasheR and Priestahh will both need to draw deep from their well of experience, and the SMGs will have to keep cool heads under pressure.

Still, the job is far from done for any team in the CDL, and it would be silly to write off a squad this legendary, this early in the year. The road may not be pretty, and as Major 1 proved, success will take time, but the talent is there, as well as the hunger. Not only does the franchise have something to prove, but so do all four players on its starting lineup. This is their chance to set the tone, put the past behind them, and turn a reinvention into a revitalization.