OpTic vs. Envy is a rivalry as old as Call of Duty esports itself, and the Call of Duty League was blessed with another high stakes “eClasico” matchup this afternoon.
OpTic Chicago and the Envy-owned Dallas Empire faced off in the second round of the upper bracket for the 2021 season’s first Major today. As usual, the heavyweight bout was worth the hype, with Dallas outlasting Chicago in an epic five-map series.
Related: Results for 2021 Call of Duty League Stage One Major
As the teams kicked off their match, the Empire took an early series lead on Garrison Hardpoint with a 250-149 win. Dallas’s iLLeY imposed his will with a 26-16 scoreline and 52 seconds of objective time, while Chicago’s Envoy and Scump struggled to maintain pace.
To the delight of the Green Wall, OpTic flipped the script with a well-balanced 6-2 win in Search and Destroy on Moscow. The non-respawn mode has been Chicago’s only weak spot thus far this year, but it appears the team has been putting in the work to fix whatever has been plaguing them. Envoy’s 11 kills and final-round ace was also a big help.
Raid Control was the destination for game three, where both teams were previously undefeated. OpTic kept its win streak going with a hotly-contested 3-2 win, forcing Dallas into a must-win game four. It was a tense, back-and-forth match with both teams clutching up at various times, although the lobby crashed after the fourth round, forcing the game to restart for the decisive round five.
Equal to the task at hand, Dallas was strong again on Moscow Hardpoint, winning 250-157 and tying up the series to force game five. Envoy’s Herculean effort with 32 kills was not enough to match Dallas’s foursome.
With viewership rising over 100,000 for the first time in the day, the final destination of the latest “eClasico” was Search and Destroy on Checkmate. The evenly-matched teams traded early rounds up until Dallas was able to clutch up three rounds in a row, only to have OpTic win the next two and force round 11. Dallas finally finished off the marathon series with a big-time win on defense, ending the series 3-2.
With the important win, the Empire join Atlanta FaZe in the winners bracket finals, setting up another rivalry match this weekend featuring some of the biggest names in CoD.
Atlanta made fast work of the Los Angeles Guerrillas in Friday’s first match, relegating them to the lower bracket in three straight games—250-220 on Checkmate Hardpoint, 6-3 on Moscow S&D, and 3-1 on Garrison Control. Arcitys flexed his slaying skills with 11 kills in SnD and a 1.20 match K/D.
With the $500,000 Major prize pool still on the line, Dallas and FaZe will face off on Sunday at 2pm CT, while OpTic awaits the winner of the Los Angeles Thieves vs. Toronto Ultra in the lower bracket.
