OpTic Gaming: The Second Dynasty?
Throughout the storied history of Call of Duty esports, a “dynasty” roster have come few and far between. Impact dominated the early stages of Black Ops 2, were dethroned by the Complexity/EG team which swept aside the opposition throughout 2014 and to an extent, the OpTic roster from the 2017 season are right up there with some of the best teams to play Call of Duty.
As the CWL circus roles into Fort Worth for the second event of the 2018/19 season, the current iteration of the OpTic Gaming roster have an opportunity to create a team that is capable of emulating the likes of Impact and Complexity.
Las Vegas: A Return To Form
After a turbulent ending to the World War 2 season, a near total overhaul of the roster was made in order to see a return to glory for the Black Ops 4 season. Like many top North American teams, OpTic opted for some young blood in the forms of Thomas “TJHaly” Haly and Brandon “Dashy” Otell.
The move definitely paid off for the Green Walll. Pool play at Las Vegas was a real return to form, dropping only one map on their way to the top of Pool D. The combination of ruthless aggression from Seth “Scump” Abner, Dashy and TJHaly and the wealth of experience from three time world champion, Damon “Karma” Barlow and two-time champ Ian “Crimsix” Porter showed that OpTic were back with a bang.
Moving into bracket play and OpTic were not slowing down. A swift 3–0 dispatch of rivals Luminosity and a 3–1 win over eventual runners-up, eUnited, saw the Green Wall take on Splyce in their toughest match of the tournament.
A five-game thriller eventually went in favour of OpTic, with Dashy once again showing his capabilities despite being relatively inexperienced on the main stage. One more series laid in the way of OpTic and their redeeming championship win after failing to make it to the Nationwide Arena at the 2018 world championships.
Eunited would be their opponents in the Grand Finals. An unbelievable comeback in the opening Hardpoint all but extinguished the eUnited fire before it even got going. OpTic went on to another convincing victory with Dashy being crowned tournament MVP with a phenomenal 2.44 kill to death ratio.
Black Ops 4: Cementing a Dynasty
Although the season is still in its relative infancy, OpTic are still the team to beat despite playing the first half of the CWL Pro League with Thomas “Zooma” Paparatto in place of Dashy.
Heading into the rest of the season as the top dogs in what has been one of the most competitive Call of Duty titles to date, the Green Wall will come under fire from teams that are yet to reach their skill ceiling but with the amount of talent that is on this roster, it is going to be a very tough task to take down this team at a CWL event this season. This is their chance to cement their place in the annals of Call of Duty history.
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