H3CZ & Hastr0 on OpTic Texas merger: \u201cA match made in heaven\u201d OpTic TexasAfter much speculation, OpTic Gaming and Envy \u2014 two of the biggest esports organizations in North America \u2014 have officially merged operations and rebranded their Call of Duty League franchise to OpTic Texas. The merger between two of the most storied teams in Call of Duty esports seemed as if it would materialize as OpTic Dallas, as per trademarks submitted by Envy Gaming, but Dallas Empire will indeed be rebranded as OpTic Texas instead as they\u2019ve acquired the territorial rights to more of the state. The OpTic Chicago franchise will soon no longer exist, with Envy Gaming acquiring the slot in hopes of selling it off. This means that NRG Esports are no longer involved in the Call of Duty League. Up until recently it appeared as if the owners of Overwatch franchise Washington Justice would acquire the slot, though the deal fell through at the last minute. A new buyer has to be found before the league commences with its third season, which will kick off in early 2022. Hector \u2018H3CZ\u2019 Rodriguez is now a shareholder in Envy Gaming \u2014 the parent company of OpTic Texas, OpTic Gaming, Team Envy, and Dallas Fuel \u2014 and will also serve as the president of OpTic Gaming. He\u2019ll continue to spearhead the brand\u2019s operations in content and competition. The making of OpTic Texas To give more insight into the new arrangement between OpTic Gaming and Envy and the future of the OpTic Texas franchise, Dexerto spoke with both H3CZ and Mike \u2018Hastr0\u2019 Rufail. \u201cWe both took separate approaches getting to where we are today,\u201d H3CZ told Dexerto. \u201cInfrastructure and the investor group have a lot to do with this merger personally. I\u2019ve known Mike a long time and we tried to make it work in 2013 with EON Interactive and we attempted to make it happen two years ago when we tried to bid together to buy OpTic back from Infinite. \u201cHe\u2019s really good at what he does, I\u2019m really good at what I do, so I think it\u2019s a match made in heaven.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s a plug-and-play, we both have something that works together,\u201d added Hastr0. \u201cThey\u2019ve been juggernauts in content, we haven\u2019t, and we\u2019ve both been juggernauts in competition \u2014 but we\u2019ve built this infrastructure at Envy to set us up to run a great business in the future so plugging OpTic into that is like plugging in a massive, bright lightbulb. We want to create an amazing experience for the fans.\u201d It seemed as if the merged franchise was destined to be named OpTic Dallas, and there were even the trademarks to back it up. As the duo went on to explain, these submissions were partly to play it safe and partly playing fans and the media alike \u2014 generating even more attention for a team that was yet to even be confirmed. \u201cWe knew the number one way for brands to leak is for journalists to check trademarks,\u201d H3CZ said. \u201cAnticipating that, we decided to register OpTic Dallas, which might have been the name, while we tried to get something that we really wanted. We put something out there, hoped for the best, and it went exactly as we planned.\u201d \u201cWe don\u2019t own the whole Texas market,\u201d Hastr0 revealed. \u201cRight now, because there\u2019s no other CDL team in Texas, we can market all over the state. We did get Austin, though, so we own Dallas, Austin, and Oklahoma City. We\u2019re OpTic Texas because we think incorporating Austin in that way makes a ton of sense \u2014 we were both born here in Texas \u2014 and OpTic is bigger than Dallas so let\u2019s spread our footprint as wide as we can.\u201d While H3CZ will retain control over the OpTic Gaming brand, it\u2019s now part of a larger entity that it can now class its sister teams. The Envy brand is still alive and kicking, and they will still represent Dallas in the Overwatch League with the Dallas Fuel franchise. This merger can also be seen as a partnership between H3CZ and Hastr0 as they\u2019ll both work together to get the most out of each of the brands under the ownership of Envy Gaming. \u201cMore often than not, I used to hit Hastr0 up on his thoughts regarding OpTic Gaming before this just as I do all of my people, like Nadeshot and Fwiz,\u201d H3CZ revealed. \u201cI\u2019m going to try and help as much as I can across all of the teams and Hastr0 will too.\u201d \u201cWe\u2019re doing this together,\u201d his partner Hastr0 added. \u201cHector owns part of everything we\u2019re doing here, as do I, so I\u2019m now on the Greenwall\u2019s side and I\u2019m going to help them win championships.\u201d It\u2019s not exaggerating to claim that both OpTic and Envy are among the small handful of teams that have truly helped to get Call of Duty esports to where it is today. Along with the likes of FaZe Clan, they\u2019ve been pillars of competitive CoD for well over a decade and have collectively housed most of the best players to touch the game. Fans, owners, and everyone in between have every right to wonder how their union may affect the Call of Duty League going forward. An apt analogy may be the uncertainty, loss of legacy, and conflicted feelings if Manchester City and Manchester United, two powerhouses in the English Premier League, were to come together as one. \u201cThere\u2019s plenty of opportunity now for other teams in the league to build fan bases,\u201d Hastr0 told Dexerto. \u201cIt\u2019s a good thing. There aren\u2019t two juggernaut teams in the league now, there\u2019s one. There\u2019s one less brand in Call of Duty for them to compete against now but we\u2019re going to soak up every fan we can.\u201d \u201cEnvy will be missed, absolutely,\u201d admitted H3CZ. \u201cEven through Dallas Empire winning how they did, this is an organization that has history and has been pivotal in building what Call of Duty is today. If this was 100 years into the history of the sport then this deal would be harder to swallow but this is the first 5% of what esports will be in the future so we jumped at the opportunity.\u201d With the amalgamation of the two, the Call of Duty League is left with an uncertain slot available. As of publication, Envy Gaming need to find a buyer that is willing to become the proud owner of the 12th franchise slot. Early reports and rumors pointed towards Washington Esports Ventures, but now it\u2019s confirmed that was not meant to be. \u201cI\u2019m not sure it\u2019ll happen by next season but we\u2019re working hard on finding a new ownership group that can enter the league as quickly as possible,\u201d revealed Hastr0. \u201cThose discussions are going really well. I\u2019m optimistic but we\u2019re pretty tight against the deadline so we\u2019ll see \u2014 it\u2019s up to how fast things can come together. We have some interesting groups, that\u2019s for sure. But even if we have 11 teams the league will still be great.\u201d OpTic\u2019s fan base, the Greenwall, are undoubtedly among one of the more tribal, loyal collection of supporters in esports. They\u2019ve gone through a lot over the past few years though, with the OpTic brand changing hands and locations several times to limited success. Both H3CZ and Hastr0 are aware how yet another change may make them feel but they\u2019re confident it\u2019ll all come together sooner rather than later. \u201cAt first it\u2019s going to feel a little weird,\u201d admitted H3CZ. \u201cThis is going to be a blip in the history of esports, everything we\u2019ve built so far in the history of esports is just one brick in the actual foundation of the industry. In 50 years this will just be something that happened. The good thing about Hastr0 is he\u2019s always looking 10, 20 years down the line. We know that we have the ability to shape this into whatever we want it to look like with the help of everybody else in the industry. \u201cIt will be weird at first but it\u2019s on us to integrate and show the fans why we\u2019ve made this decision,\u201d Hastr0 said. \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to showing the OpTic fans why this is a good decision for them, the brand, and the players. I\u2019ve done it for Envy and I can do it for them too. \u201cFor fans questioning why we didn\u2019t announce the merger earlier, the reality is a lot of CoD fans don\u2019t know business. We absolutely would have announced it the second we agreed to do it but there are massive amounts of paperwork to get done, legal work that needed doing. To get all of these things in line, they were lots of hurdles we had to jump over. We had to go through the entire process to get here and hopefully the fans understand we did it as fast as we could.\u201d While OpTic Texas is finally out in the open and an official franchise, and OpTic Gaming as a whole has found a new home under Envy Gaming, it\u2019s yet to be seen just how the Greenwall and Envy fans will react to their favorite franchises coming together. While competitive success in the CDL will no doubt help, transparency and storytelling \u2014 two aspects of brand-building that are second nature to H3CZ \u2014 may be the key to winning everybody over.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
H3CZ & Hastr0 on OpTic Texas merger: \u201cA match made in heaven\u201d OpTic TexasAfter much speculation, OpTic Gaming and Envy \u2014 two of the biggest esports organizations in North America \u2014 have officially merged operations and rebranded their Call of Duty League franchise to OpTic Texas. The merger between two of the most storied teams […]<\/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-26779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26779","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=26779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26779\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}