OpTic Texas started their run at the 2022 Call of Duty League Championship today with an exhilarating 3-2 victory over the Toronto Ultra, needing a game five round 11 win to knock off last year’s runner-up.
OpTic made massive plays in the Berlin Search and Destroy to avoid being reverse swept by the Ultra for the second time in their last three matchups. With the crowd heavily leaning toward OpTic, as usual, the Green Wall’s patented chant of “Let’s go OpTic” filled the Galen Center in Los Angeles.
After Dashy was eliminated by a perfect grenade toss from Toronto’s CleanX, Texas had to make massive plays to avoid dropping to the elimination bracket. ILLeY found a pick onto Bance to bring it to a three-vs-three before Shotzzy bull-rushed Insight at the A bomb site to give his team a man advantage. After iLLeY found another pick onto CleanX, it left Cammy in a one-vs-three before each remaining member of OpTic collapsed onto the Ultra’s flex player, clinching the round, map, and series in one swift go.
“We lost 3-2 Gav, you know, we lost the defense. Kind of just fell short there,” Shotzzy said after the match. “That game five, we know they like playing slow for the most part, so we kind of just played at our own pace. That last round was insane.”
It was nearly another brutal collapse for OpTic, who had dropped multiple series in the season’s final stage in reverse sweep fashion. Texas were dominant in the first two maps of the match, taking the Bocage Hardpoint 205-162 and putting on an impressive display on Bocage Search and Destroy in their 6-3 victory.
It appeared OpTic were well on their way to an easy victory heading to Gavutu Control, but with the map tied at two rounds apiece, Toronto dominated the map’s fifth round en route to an unlikely offensive victory. There were moments where Texas had a chance to take control of the Tuscan Hardpoint but for whatever reason, they were never able to grab hold of the map like Toronto did. The Ultra played it perfectly to send it to that map five.
But OpTic flipped the script. They didn’t fall into the same trap they have this season. Their extremely gutsy performance in the Berlin SnD bodes well for the team moving forward. There were moments where Texas could have let their past performances affect their current performance but they never did. OpTic had control of the series’ fifth map and held a 4-2 lead before Toronto grabbed two rounds back-to-back to tie it. Their ability to have a short memory and perform in the face of adversity should be an asset in the biggest tournament of the season.
OpTic will play the Los Angeles Thieves in the second round of the winners bracket after the Thieves had to win their own round 11 earlier in the day against the Boston Breach. Los Angeles are coming off a championship in the season’s last Major after they knocked off the New York Subliners last month. OpTic and the Thieves will play tomorrow at 6:30pm CT.
Toronto fall to the elimination bracket at CoD Champs 2022 and will face Boston in a win-or-go-home scenario. That match will take place tomorrow at 3:30pm CT.
