OpTic Texas came roaring back from a 2-1 deficit at the first round of the winner’s bracket at the Call of Duty League Boston Major, winning two straight matches against the Los Angeles Thieves to inch closer to a Major championship.
This match was the first on LAN for OpTic with their current roster after Scump’s retirement last month but the team looked like they’ve been playing together for years. It’s no surprise how quickly they’ve come together considering the trio of Huke, Shotzzy, and iLLeY were teammates on the 2020 Dallas Empire squad that claimed the championship.
But the star of the show for the Green Wall was none other than Dashy, who has been unstoppable since his return to the starting lineup. He posted a 1.36 K/D over the series’ five maps while dealing more than 12,400 worth of damage against Los Angeles. The superstar, who finished second in MVP voting in the 2022 CDL season, has emphatically shown why his team decided to bring him back into the lineup.
Texas started off a bit slower in the series, dropping a 250-179 decision on Mercado Hardpoint. The Thieves were just a step ahead in the rotations throughout this map, behind 1.20 and 1.37 K/D performances from Drazah and Octane.
While the Hardpoint hasn’t been as clean for the side of OpTic since the roster shuffle, the team’s chemistry shines through in Search and Destroy. Texas has been one of the best SnD teams in the league since bringing Huke and Dashy into the lineup and that trend continued in their match vs. Los Angeles.
Each member of OpTic posted positive K/Ds in the 6-1 victory on the Mercado Search and Destroy en route to a dominant 6-1 performance. Shotzzy and Dashy came up with clutch performances in both SnDs, combining for a total of 15 kills to only six deaths in the series’ second map to knot the series at one map apiece.
After L.A. took the Hotel Control by a count of 3-2 and Texas clutched up on the Hydro Hardpoint, it was only right this classic matchup was decided by a decisive game five. With each team trading rounds, OpTic found themselves down 3-2 in a two-vs-two retake situation. Dashy found a kill onto Kenny to give Texas a two-on-one advantage. Unfortunately for OpTic, iLLeY had a sniper out which gave Octane one of the easiest kills of his career, leaving Octane and Dashy in a massive one-vs-one.
Octane found himself on a powerful head-glitch on the bomb site, but Dashy was able to land the shots needed to keep the round and match alive, bringing the round count to a dead even 4-4. OpTic notched three of the next four rounds to clinch the map and close the series out 3-2, advancing to Saturday at the event.
Dashy posted an absurd 13-4 record in the SnD in a performance that had fans chanting “MVP!” at the young superstar.
L.A. will take on the Florida Mutineers in a win-or-go-home scenario tomorrow at 3.30pm CST while OpTic will have a day off. Texas will face the Minnesota ROKKR on Saturday at 3.30pm CST with a spot in the Winner’s Bracket Finals on the line.
