OpTic Gaming Los Angeles began the season as a presumed championship contender. But after three months of competition, they sat in last place in the Call of Duty League.
Desperate to earn some much-needed wins and improve their spot in the standings, OpTic turned to one of their two substitutes, Chino. Before the online Florida Home Series in May, he replaced two-time world champion JKap in OGLA’s starting roster.
Some believed Chino would be a short-term starter and that OpTic would soon replace him with another CDL player via trade or an up-and-coming Challengers player. In their first event together, though, OGLA finished second, marking the first time they had even got past the group stage of any tournament this season.
During the Florida Home Series, OpTic defeated the Paris Legion, London Royal Ravens, and Toronto Ultra, which more than doubled the team’s season win total. In addition to the wins, the team’s chemistry grew stronger, according to Chino.
“After the first homestand, we really started to improve and it started to feel more like a team than it did before,” Chino told Dot Esports. “Getting that confidence in each other and also ourselves, it really helped us all as a team to keep wanting to improve and get better.”
Even with a second-place finish in his first tournament on OpTic’s starting roster, Chino remained at the center of rumors and speculation that he’d be replaced. CoD esports personality Landon “LandO” Sanders, for example, said on May 19 that OGLA replacing Chino was a “very real possibility.” Gunless, who the Chicago Huntsmen officially benched the same day Chino was promoted to starter status, was and continues to be a commonly rumored replacement by LandO.
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Rumors kept swirling even after OpTic’s second consecutive championship bracket appearance in the Seattle Home Series. Esports commentator IHOLDSHIFT said he had been tipped off by an anonymous source that Gunless would be joining OGLA. Chino said the rumors don’t really bother him, though.
“All throughout my whole career, I’ve had people say like, ‘Oh, we love Chino but he’s not as good as other people,'” Chino said. “I feel like I’ve always dealt with stuff like that and it doesn’t really affect me because I know that as long as I try my best and continue to perform and do things the way I’ve been doing, I’ll be fine.”
Chino said he thinks the constant rumors are common when you’re “teaming with such talented players,” and that his predecessor, JKap, dealt with much of the same criticism and whispers as he does now. He also said fans and analysts can’t always predict what makes a good team.
“People don’t see everything that comes within a team or how a team operates,” Chino said. “They always seem to think like if they can get the least ‘skilled’ guy out of the team, the team will be just perfect. I guess that’s one of the reasons why me or JKap or someone like that would be singled out. But at the end of the day, we bring a lot to a team and people don’t see that all the time.”
OGLA, who now occupy seventh place, won’t compete in the next event, the Minnesota Home Series. The team will have nearly a month to prepare for the Paris Home Series, which begins on June 19. In that time, OGLA can try to continue to build on the success they found in May.
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Chino said he’s noticed renewed confidence and camaraderie within the team, and that will keep them pushing forward.
“Since we’ve actually been playing really well, we have this new sense of, ‘We can actually do this, we can win, we can be the best, we can go really far,'” Chino said. “That’s where you want to be as a team—that feeling of confidence in you and your teammates.”
