OpTic Gaming Los Angeles


OpTic Gaming Los Angeles, better known as simply OpTic Gaming, is an American professional Call of Duty League esports team based in Los Angeles, California. Previously an esports organization with teams in multiple esports titles, OpTic Gaming formerly competed in , and League of Legends. The team is currently owned by Immortals Gaming Club.

History

OpTic Gaming was established in 2006 by OpTic "Kr3w" and Ryan "J" Musselman as a Call of Duty sniping team. In 2007, Musselman stepped down to hand over the team to Hector "H3CZ" Rodriguez. The team made its beginnings in the competitive scene starting in 2010 with on the Xbox 360.
In 2016, the team, along with e-sports commentator Ryan "Fwiz" Wyatt, released the book OpTic Gaming: The Making of eSports Champions, which details the players' individual Call of Duty eSports careers and their contributions to the team's success. The book became a New York Times best-seller, and film and television rights were acquired by producers John Sacchi and Matt Groesch.
In 2017, Texas Rangers co-owner Neil Leibman and co-investor Chris Chaney were sold a majority interest in the organization. They created Infinite Esports & Entertainment, a holding company that includes OpTic Gaming and Houston Outlaws as well as other esports verticals operating out of a new Dallas headquarters. OpTic Gaming is currently the third most followed esports team by social media following.
On June 12, 2019, Immortals Gaming Club announced the acquisition of Infinite Esports & Entertainment, the parent organization of OpTic Gaming.
On September 15, 2019, it was announced by Immortals Gaming Club and Hector “H3CZ” Rodriguez, that Hector would be leaving from OpTic as its CEO for new and independent opportunities. Shortly after it was announced that Hector Rodriguez had joined NRG Esports as co-CEO.

''Call of Duty''

''Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2'' (2009–10 season)

OpTic took 8th in the Online ' National Championships before placing 4th at the MLG National Championships 2010 and picking up $500 before the start of the next ' season.

''Call of Duty: Black Ops'' (2010–11 season)

was dropped from the team for the Call of Duty: Black Ops 2011 season which was the first season of Call of Duty on the Major League Gaming since Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. He briefly returned to the OpTic Competitive team, replacing a player who felt ill, at MLG Dallas where OpTic Gaming finished 3rd with virtually no practice as a squad. Subsequently, after mentioning the possibility of replacing the teammate that had fallen sick he did not get picked up. Haag played on several different teams in the professional scene and created his own OpTic Nation competitive team and started making videos and streaming footage. For the next two events he played for Team EnVyUs finishing 8th at MLG Anaheim and then 3rd at MLG Raleigh before playing on Surreal Legacy for the final two events of the year placing 7th at MLG Orlando and then finishing in 15th at the MLG Providence national championships to finish off the Major League Gaming season.

''Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3'' (2011–12 season)

With looming, Call of Duty announced Call of Duty XP where Activision hosted a $1 million tournament to showcase the newest edition of the franchise. With two members of the OpTic Gaming team not being available to play, Haag was picked up again. They made it to the Grand Final. They took the series 3–1 and the team won $400,000 and the trophy. Again, Matt 'NaDeSHoT' Haag was not picked up for the main OpTic Gaming team and instead created his own OpTic team under the OpTic Nation brand, which did not go on to win any events. MW3 did not make the MLG 2012 season, reportedly due to the absence of a LAN function in the game. Because of this, only a few tournaments were held in North America. However, at Blackpool's EGL 8 Haag placed 7/8th playing under Leverage with notable players TeePee, ACHES and John.

''Call of Duty: Black Ops 2'' (2012–13 season)

On November 12th, 2012, Treyarch released , the second title in the Black Ops series for Call of Duty.. The game was a success competitively and attracted a bigger audience through the season. With Frag Cup 4, an annual online tournament at the start of a new Call of Duty title, coming up a member of the OpTic Gaming competitive team was unable to play due to gambling restrictions in his province, and after impressing early on in the game, OpTic Gaming picked up NaDeSHoT, who rejoined the OpTic Gaming competitive team on a permanent basis. They finished in the 7th/8th position in Frag Cup 4 before going to the first LAN event which was UMG Chicago. OpTic Gaming started the tournament strong, making their way to the finals without losing. The team then lost the first series in the final. However, because they were the winners of the 'winners final' the match went into a final and decisive series, in which they were able to win 3–2 and become the first champions.
The next tournament was MLG Dallas. Here, the top 8 teams qualified to compete at that year's Call of Duty Championships, which was an annual $1,000,000 event. OpTic Gaming went onto finish in the 5th/6th position.
At the Call of Duty Championships, OpTic Gaming finished in third place losing to the eventual winners of the tournament. They then played in Gfinity 1 in London, United Kingdom and MLG Anaheim in Anaheim, California where they were placed in third respectively at both events. The next event OpTic attended was Gfinity in London. However, their new roster finished 9th–12th. Their performance at the MLG Fullsail Invitational, where the four highest ranked Black Ops II teams competed, was much improved, finishing in second place.

''Call of Duty: Ghosts'' (2013–14 season)

The next title of the Call of Duty franchise was ' which MLG announced that it would be their featured FPS title for the upcoming season again. OpTic Gaming disappointed at both of their first two events which were to be MLG Columbus and UMG Philadelphia before a roster change occurred with one player retiring, two leaving and one later rejoining. During this time Haag teamed with Christopher Duarte, who goes by the name of 'Parasite'. At this time, the team consisted of 'NaDeSHoT', 'Clayster', 'Ricky' and 'Parasite'. However, after only a handful of days, 'Parasite' and 'Ricky' left OpTic to join Curse Las Vegas. OpTic then picked up 'Saints' and 'MBoZe', before 'Scumpii' rejoined OpTic to replace the departing 'Saints', who returned to Strictly Business. After the retirement of 'BigTymer' following UMG Philadelphia, NaDeSHoT became the captain of OpTic Gaming.
OpTic qualified for the ' national qualifiers for the annual Call of Duty Championship $1,000,000 tournaments after qualifying via MLG's online qualifying tournament. At the US Championship Finals OpTic Gaming finished in 7th place to qualify for the Call of Duty World Championship, after eliminating Curse New York in an elimination game in a best of 5 series. This allowed the team to qualify for the annual $1 million tournament. The OpTic Gaming squad played in the MLG Pro Circuit Season 1 online league where after a promising start they suffered problems online and were not able to qualify for the MLG PAX East Championship; eventually, OpTic Gaming finished bottom of the league in 10th place. OpTic Gaming later announced they were hosting the winners of the US Regional finals, Strictly Business Gaming for a pre-LAN event for the World Championships.
At the Call of Duty World Championships, OpTic were placed in a group with Epsilon eSports, NSP, and SSOF. Controversy was caused when 'SSOF' were disqualified and OpTic only had two teams in their group. OpTic first played 'NSP' and beat them 3-0 leading to a group decider against Epsilon where OpTiC Gaming lost 3–0. However, they advanced as the second seed and faced tK in the first round of the winners bracket. OpTic had a 3-0 victory against a team considered to be a top-three team by many. In the second round OpTic was to come up against Strictly Business Gaming who they had hosted in a pre-LAN event, however, they won 3–2 and played Australian team Trident T1 Dotters for a guaranteed top-three finish. OpTic Gaming won the series 3–1 and guaranteed themselves 3rd and $120,000. OpTic were then to face CompLexity who were undefeated on ' and came up short in the winners bracket finals losing 3-2. OpTic then lost to Team EnVyUs in the losers bracket finals, finishing with a top three finish and winning $30,000.
On April 15, 2014, OpTic Gaming announced that Marcus 'MBoZe' Blanks would be leaving the team in order for Jordan 'ProoFy' Cannon to join the team. The OpTic Gaming roster for UGC Niagara and for the 2014 season ' season was Seth "Scump" Abner, James 'Clayster' Eubanks and Jordan 'ProoFy' Cannon.
At the new roster's first tournament together, a disappointing first day led to them having to play the world's best team, and eventual winners of UGC Niagara, CompLexity Gaming, who proved too strong for the OpTic team. They narrowly won every map to take a 3–0 series win and knock Haag and his OpTic Gaming team out of the tournament. Before and after UGC Niagara OpTic competed at the MLG Pro Circuit Season 2 in order to qualify for MLG Anaheim's pro team tournament to contest for a $70,000 prize pool. OpTic qualified, being second place in the league.
OpTic Gaming team were invited to the MLG X Games on the Xbox One after finishing in the top 3 at the Call of Duty World Championships. They went into the event as underdogs after a disappointing tournament at UGC Niagara, however Haag and his team were able to win their group after beating Team EnVyus and FaZe Red 3–1 to set up a semi-final match against Evil Geniuses,. Evil Geniuses were favorites to win the event after a dominant year at LAN events, but OpTic were able to beat them 3–1 to face Team Kaliber in the Grand Finals. They managed to beat Team Kaliber in a match that came down to a Game 5, Round 10 in Search & Destroy, and Haag was able to win a Gold Medal and his first MLG Championship at the X Games in Austin, Texas.
NaDeSHoT was voted by fans as The Game Awards 2014 eSports Player of the Year. He went to Las Vegas with some of his teammates and sponsors to accept this award.

''Call Of Duty: Advanced Warfare'' (2014–15 season)

Advanced Warfare was the next installment in the Call Of Duty Franchise for the e-sports circuit. The season began in November 2014. On October 28, 2014 OpTic Gaming, participated in an exclusive ' streaming event at the so-called 'OpTic House' which they competed vs other teams in Chicago, in order to promote the new edition in the franchise for its creators, Sledgehammer Games.
In season opening competition, MLG Columbus on November 28–30, OpTic achieved second place, losing out to FaZe in the Grand Final. They hadn't dropped a map all day until the grand finals. Faze narrowly took the victory, going all the way to a second best of five series.
The second tournament of the year was UMG Orlando on January 1–2. OpTic achieved first place this time around. They went 0–2 in the first day of competition but his team managed to bounce back and with their other two games in pool play on the second day of competition. On Championship Sunday OpTic beat a young team called Stunner Gaming 3–1 in the grand finals.
OpTic was one of twelve teams to qualify for Pro League Season 1, the others being Prophecy, FaZe, Justus, Aware, Automatic Reload, EnVyUs, Denial, eLevate, Rise Nation, Team KaLiBeR and OpTic Nation. The Pro League ran from December 8 through February 28. OpTic Gaming went 38–6 in the MLG Season 1 ' and qualified with the number one seed for the playoffs which they completed at with a $75,000 prize pool. OpTic Gaming went into the event led by NaDeSHoT and hoped to become the first team to win a LAN tournament without dropping a map. After defeating Rise Nation 3-0, they faced off against a team of younger players in Aware Gaming, who they defeated losing only one map. However, this ruined the team's goal of being the first team to win a LAN tournament with a perfect map-win record. Following a narrow 3-2 victory over Team Kaliber in the winners bracket final, OpTic defeated Denial eSports 3-0 to win their second event in a row. This was OpTic's first win of an MLG event since winning previously at X Games during the season.
At the Call of Duty Championships on March 27–29, OpTic officially announced their long-awaited sponsorship with Red Bull, following members Matt "NaDeSHoT" Haag and Michael "FlameSword" Chavez who had been individually sponsored. OpTic placed disappointingly at the event in the 7th-8th position following losses to Denial eSports in the winners bracket and FaZe Clan in the losers bracket, the former of which went on to win the event.
On April 4, 2015, NaDeSHoT announced that he was stepping down as captain and member of the OpTic Gaming pro-team, partially due to disappointment from OpTic's CoD Championships placement. He said that he would become a full-time content creator as well as co-owner of the OpTic organization. He was replaced on the lineup by Damon "Karma" Barlow. However, Karma missed ESWC 2015 and the Gfinity Spring Masters competitions because of a pending United States citizenship application. He was replaced by Ian "Enable" Wyatt.

Franchised league

In February 2019, Activision confirmed that they would be launching a city-based franchise league for Call of Duty. On July 1, 2019, Activision confirmed that Immortals Gaming Club would operate the Los Angeles spot in the newly formed league, with the spot being presented by OpTic Gaming. Additionally, the current OpTic Gaming roster will have the opportunity to sign Call of Duty League contracts adhering to the new regulations of the league.
In September 2019 Ian “Crimsix” Porter decided to leave OpTic and become a free agent to any team participating in the 2020 Call of Duty League.
On September 23, 2019 OpTic Gaming's Twitter page announced the signing of Eric “Muddawg” Sanders as the first GM of OpTic Gaming Los Angeles for the inaugural season of Call of Duty League in 2020.
On January 8, 2020 they announced the signing of Jonathan “Pacman” Tucker as the new head coach via their Twitter and YouTube channel.

Current roster

Notable achievements

First roster (January 2016 – August 2017)

Optic Gaming started its CS:GO roster by picking up the North American roster of Conquest ahead of ELEAGUE Road to Vegas, consisting of Damian "daps" Steele, William "RUSH" Wierzba, Keith "NAF" Markovic, Shazeeb "ShahZaM" Khan and Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz. The team would not disappoint winning and having the first shot at an international tournament ELEAGUE Season 1 later in the year. After the team lost to Splyce in Columbus Minor and then failed to beat Winterfox in last Chance Minor a roster move was inevitable. OpTic brought in Oscar "mixwell" Cañellas from gBots eSports Club. The Spanish FPL star replaced ShahZaM. The team's first ESL Pro League season under the OpTic banner was a success, making the Season 3 Finals and narrowly missing out on making the Playoffs losing narrowly to the eventual champions, Luminosity Gaming. Finally, OpTic's group at ELEAGUE Season 1 would materialise. The team won only a third of that which they played being knocked out in 15th-16th. The team's disappointing ELEAGUE event was not to be a norm for the roster. With the Cologne Major looming and OpTic attending the minor, a loss here could be catastrophic. Luckily OpTic won the American Minor making their way to the offline qualifier for the German-held major.
The Americans and their lone Spaniard managed to make the major by beating FLuffy Gangsters, FlipSid3 Tactics and HellRaisers during their run at The Cologne Offline qualifier. Their major run was short with the team coming dead last managing only 4 rounds against NiP. A series of poor results where the team struggled against even their American rivals. Fractures began to emerge, stanislaw was the first to be released but was quickly brought back in replace of daps. Tarik "tarik" Celik was brought in for their replacement from Counter Logic Gaming. The team made Season 4 Finals but managed a 5th-6th losing again to the eventual champions, Cloud9. The result seemed to light a spark in the OpTic boys as their next event Northern Arena Montreal was a success. The team came second in their group making the playoffs and were tasked with taking on the Danish roster of Heroic. They beat them in a hard-fought series taking it 2-1. In the final they were faced G2. Another long battle would break out with G2 taking the first. OpTic would fight back and win Northern Arena Montreal. The team's next tournament would be Dreamhack Winter where they would lose to their American counterparts Cloud9 and finish in last place. ELEAGUE Season 2 which they qualified for a few months earlier was the next international tournament. After the dismal performance in Sweden the team needed to bounce back on home soil down in Atlanta and rectify their results. A group with Swedish powerhouse Fnatic and EnVyUs seemed like a tough task for the boys in Green. This would not be the case as they managed to get out of their group with Dignitas. Their playoff's run was smooth beating Nikola "NiKo" Kovač's mousesports 2-0 and then defeating FaZe Clan decisively. The final was against Astralis whose recent resurgence was frightening, this was for all teams except OpTic. In a hard-fought slog OpTic managed to beat the Danes in 3 including on their home map Overpass. With $400,000 in the bank and a huge tournament win in the bag the team laid eyes on ECS Season 2 Finals. Again OpTic managed to come out of a remarkably hard group along with Astralis who were the only team to beat OpTic. Their semifinal against the Boys in Blue was quick with a succinct 2-0 victory. A grand final rematch was to be had at ECS Season 2 Finals as OpTic were to be taking on the team they beat only a week ago at ELEAGUE. Astralis dominated the Americans in two maps showing who really is the boss of Overpass taking it 16-6. OpTic made the ELEAGUE 2017 Major but again lost in the groups. stanislaw left for Team Liquid soon after. OpTic saw constant replacements from here on out with Spencer "Hiko" Martin, Ryan "fREAKAZOiD" Abadir, Jason "jasonR" Ruchelski and James "hazed" Cobb all doing their part for the roster. Luis "peacemaker" Tadeu and hazed both tried out as coaches for the team though neither of them stayed in the team or in the role long term. It was to no avail as the team only managed to win the online tournament of CyberPowerPC Extreme Gaming Series in Spring 2017. In July 2017, Chet "ImAPet" Singh joined as a coach but in August 2017, RUSH and tarik left for Cloud9, hazed was then released leaving only NAF and mixwell. The North American line up had run its course and a new line up needed to be curated.

Second roster (August 2017 – February 2018)

With NAF being placed on the transfer list, where he would later join Renegades, H3CZ decided to create a European line-up. Headlining this would be mixwell and former NiP veteran, Adam “friberg” Friberg acting as in-game leader. The roster brought in ex-FaZe AWPer Aleksi "allu" Jalli, ex-North rifler Emil "Magisk" Reif and PENTA Sports young up and comer Kevin "HS" Tarn. At the online event CyberPowerPC Extreme Gaming Series Fall 2017 they managed only a 3rd-4th place. Their online league results were promising but did not lead to LAN success. The European Boston Minor was their first LAN Event but they failed to make it to the, coming 3rd in the Minor. The team managed to win the North American Qualifier for IEM Oakland but came 5th- 6th in the main event, losing 2-0 to SK Gaming. Due to impressive online results, they showed up to Pro league Finals coming 5th-6th the same result at ECS Season 4 finals. These unsuccessful results lead to the dropping of the roster.

Third roster (February 2018 – October 2019)

On February 7, 2018 OpTic announced a new Danish/North American roster that saw the return of ShahZaM and stanislaw, joined by former North duo Kristian "k0nfig" Wienecke and René "cajunb" Borg. Rounding out the roster was Nicklas "gade" Gade, on loan from North Academy. ImAPet remained as the team's coach. The team failed to make any LAN appearances and had average online results leading to the roster going full Danish some two months after the roster was formed. ShahZaM, stanislaw and ImAPet were released from their contracts. OpTic acquired Marco "Snappi" Pfeiffer and Jakob "JUGi" Hansen from Heroic and picked up ex-North coach Casper "ruggah" Due. For the first time, OpTic would have a single nationality lineup all consisting of Danes. In the following months the team struggled achieving no notable placings other than a second place at Dreamhack Summer where they lost to EspiranTo and The Imperial in the final. When the Faceit Minor came along, OpTic were favorites to make the. After a quick 2-0 in groups knocking over 3DMAX and ENCE respectively the team made it to the play-offs. Their first match-up was against Ninjas in Pyjamas who they bowled over in 3 maps including a 16-3 Victory on Inferno. They played ENCE in the next round where again they beat with a quick 2-1 Victory making the final of the minor qualifier and making the New challenger stage at the Major. The minor was not done as the Danish boys faced off against the Swedes again. They could not replicate their previous match as the Ninja's took them down 2-0. A successful run led them to the major but the elusive first LAN win again did not become reality. On October 11, 2019, k0nfig announced the disbanding of the team, marking an apparent end to OpTic CS:GO.

Former roster

Notable achievements

Majors are tournaments sponsored by Valve and involve a prize pool of at least US$1,000,000.
From the 2020 LCS season, the OpTic Gaming League of Legends roster will be transferred to Immortals.

Former roster

Controversies

Bahawaka

During a PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds tournament in March 2018, OpTic Bahawaka was found guilty of exploiting a glitch in the game that allowed him to see through walls. Because of the ruling, OpTic had to retroactively forfeit the match where the glitch was exploited. The forfeit moved OpTic from 2nd place down to 5th meaning they had to forfeit 12,000 in winnings.

eXTREMESLAND ZOWIE Asia 2018

Mid-game during eXTREMESLAND ZOWIE Asia 2018, Nikhil "Forsaken" Kumawat of OpTic Gaming's OpTic India team was caught using an aimbot to lock-on to enemies. When caught, Kumawat was recorded trying to hide the cheats while the referee investigated. OpTic India later responded on their Twitter, stating:
"We stand strongly against any form of cheating as it not only tarnishes the local roster, but potentially harms competitive integrity of the region. We have terminated Nikhil 'Forsaken' Kumawat's contract for his actions. At this time we are also releasing the remaining roster to pursue new opportunities with other competitive options."

Books

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