For OpTic Texas, Major IV was just \u201cpractice\u201d for CDL Champs David Doran\/ESPATAfter a season derailed by injury, a healthy OpTic Texas head to CDL Champs as the second seed. Finishing fourth at Major IV wasn\u2019t ideal, but for the \u2018Green Wall\u2019, it was a chance to pick up form before the Call of Duty League postseason. Formed for the CDL\u2019s 2022 season, OpTic Texas rose from the ashes of the disbanded-then-merged OpTic and Envy franchises: OpTic Chicago and the Dallas Empire. Combining the 2020 champion Empire\u2019s Anthony \u2018Shotzzy\u2019 Cuevas-Castro and Indervir \u2018iLLeY\u2019 Dhaliwal with OpTic\u2019s iconic Brandon \u2018Dashy\u2019 Otell and Seth \u2018Scump\u2019 Abner, the team surged into the year with a championship at Major I. But those lofty expectations soon gave way to concern as OpTic placed 5th-6th at Major II before iLLeY \u2013 known by many as \u2018The Undertaker\u2019 \u2013 left the lineup for two months due to injury. During his absence, the team failed to improve on their previous placing at Major III. Major IV marked iLLeY\u2019s return to the lineup and, with him, a quasi-return to form. While fans may have been disappointed by a fourth-place finish, the team simply described the tournament as \u201cpractice for Champs.\u201d \u2018The Undertaker\u2019 returns While Scump needs no introduction, Shotzzy is a 2020 MVP, and Dashy is living up to his \u2018Bruce Wayne\u2019 moniker with a heroic MVP campaign of his own, iLLeY presents a more nebulous figure to the average viewer. But during the return of \u2018The Undertaker\u2019 return at Major IV, Dashy was quick to address misconceptions: \u201cIt\u2019s no secret that Inder is the heart and soul of our team. He leads us in-game, he keeps us all motivated, he keeps us on the right track, on the right mental state. It\u2019s not something you can just replace. \u201cA lot of people were thinking, \u2018Oh, a one-player swap \u2026 we still got Ant, we still got Seth,\u2019 but at the end of the day, if you miss your in-game leader and pretty much the core of how your team is running, it\u2019s going to affect all of us. It affected me for a little bit.\u201d That sentiment was corroborated by Shotzzy, who simply contended that \u201cwithout Inder there is no team.\u201d Returned from a thumb injury, iLLeY\u2019s presence near-instantly helped OpTic finish fourth at Major IV \u2013 their highest placement since Major I. Asked about his health, he explained that he is at \u201c100%,\u201d but his principal focus is \u201cgetting the team on the same page and just doing what we do, getting better every day and becoming a unit again.\u201d Dashy, conversely, was less humble about his teammate\u2019s form: \u201cHe\u2019s back now and he\u2019s taking over and I\u2019m super glad that my duo is back in form. He\u2019s disgusting.\u201d Dashy becoming \u201cunstoppable\u201d While Dashy heaped praise on iLLeY, it\u2019s impossible to discuss OpTic\u2019s march to the second seed without taking a moment to appreciate Big Bruce\u2019s season. This year, Dashy has posted the league\u2019s second-highest overall K\/D (1.20) as OpTic\u2019s premier gunner. That output may not surprise some, as the AR has always been known for some of the purest mechanics in CoD history. The difference, though, has come in his coordination with the team. Asked about Dashy\u2019s presence, in light of the mindset questions that have consistently plagued his career, iLLeY returned the praise: \u201cHe\u2019s always just mechanically gifted in honestly everything he does and this year, mechanics isn\u2019t a problem, we\u2019re basically just trying to be a unit with the intangibles that make a team win. And Brandon, from the start of the year until now, it\u2019s just crazy progress in those intangibles and he\u2019s literally going to be unstoppable\u2026 We\u2019re going to be unstoppable.\u201d All eyes on Champs OpTic\u2019s AR duo is in fine form and their SMG duo can\u2019t be discounted, either. Shotzzy, known as \u2018The best POV in CoD\u2019, has averaged a 1.06 K\/D this season, and Scump, known simply as \u2018The King\u2019, a 1.02. At 27 years old, Scump\u2019s form has been particularly fascinating this season. As Dashy explained, \u201cit\u2019s kind of insane to me how he gets better every year.\u201d Putting it more simply, iLLeY elaborated that \u2018The King\u2019 is \u201caging like fine wine.\u201d Although the individuals are noteworthy, OpTic\u2019s attention has remained on the collective and their coalescence for CDL Champs. At Major IV, OpTic went 3-1 with two games going the distance to a Map 5. At Champs, they\u2019ll hope to bounce back as the No. 2 seed against the Toronto Ultra in Winners Round 1. For those inclined to worry about the close calls and disappointing finish at Major IV, iLLeY was sure to dismiss concerns: \u201cIt was honestly just good \u2026 just getting the reps for Champs, which is what we\u2019re trying to win. That\u2019s what we\u2019re practicing for.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For OpTic Texas, Major IV was just \u201cpractice\u201d for CDL Champs David Doran\/ESPATAfter a season derailed by injury, a healthy OpTic Texas head to CDL Champs as the second seed. Finishing fourth at Major IV wasn\u2019t ideal, but for the \u2018Green Wall\u2019, it was a chance to pick up form before the Call of Duty […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26476\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}