Empire coach Rambo hits back at criticism for dropping Huke: "It's not a friendship league"

Dallas Empire’s Call of Duty League coach Ray ‘Rambo’ Lussier has spoken out about the team’s controversial decision to drop Cuyler ‘Huke’ Garland back in April, saying that the backlash hurt but it was a necessary step to win championships.

The Empire received huge backlash when the move was first announced, especially since he was by far their best player throughout Stage 1.

Since then, Huke joined LA Thieves and has been in and out of the starting line-up, confirming some critics’ suspicions that maybe he actually wasn’t the standout, game-changing talent some thought he might have been.

It’s been a tough season for all parties involved, but Rambo has explained that there was simply no other option.

Appearing on stream for a Q&A session with viewers, Rambo was asked about the Huke situation and spoke about it in-depth.

“This sounds crazy, but I think I’ve worked my reputation enough to really showcase that we’re not just going to do something out of spite or for the wrong reasons,” Rambo explained. “We’re going to do something because our team isn’t successful, we need a change.”

He added: “ It’s not a friendship league. You’re getting paid to win tournaments and you want to win tournaments… If a teammate doesn’t allow you to do that, that’s going to hurt whatever relationship you have with the player.”

Rambo added that, as far as he knows, there is no bad blood between Huke and the rest of the team, though he does have “a little bit” of a problem with the player “from the conversations we had after the fact.”

Dallas looked very good at their last outing, coming second at the Stage 4 Major and pushing Atlanta FaZe to a game 9 in the grand final, with each player firing on all cylinders and looking like championship winners again.

Time is running out for Dallas to win a championship this season, with just the Stage 5 Major and the as-yet-unannounced Call of Duty Championship event left. Can they get the better of Atlanta FaZe by the end of the season?

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