In what could soon become a statement of intent, OpTic’s first series on the mainstage in bracket play at the Halo World Championship was a flawless deconstruction of Gamers First. With every member of the OpTic roster firing on all cylinders, it wasn’t long before the team took a decisive 3-0 series sweep against a squad that had previously contested them in the finals of the NA Super just two months ago.
FormaL came in hot at the beginning of the series, finding a clutch triple kill in the early minutes of game one that kept OpTic in possession of the Oddball against a G1 onslaught. It was objective control that OpTic rarely gave back to their opponents, forcing a slow pace of play on Recharge that played right into their strengths as a unit. By the time the curtains fell on a 2-0 victory for OpTic, FormaL had converted his early plays into a 35-21 performance that put him six kills above even his closest teammate, Lucid, in the stats screen.
The baton was then handed to aPG for game two, a Slayer match on Streets that OpTic quickly began to run away with following regular control of power weapons like the Rocket Launcher and Stalker Rifle. It was aPG’s positioning shone most brightly throughout the match, always in the right place at the right time to clean up opponents that had already taken damage from teammates positioned in conjunction with him. A double kill at the end shut down one of the few sets of rockets that G1 had managed to acquire, netted OpTic a 50-32 win, and aPG a final kill tally of 18.
Game one and two may have had their outliers in terms of performance, but Capture The Flag on Bazaar for game three felt like the full symphony of OpTic Halo in action. G1’s impressive objective efficiency reared its head to keep the game close until the very final second, but the combined efforts of Lucid, Trippy, and FormaL to outslay their opponents was enough for OpTic to maintain a healthy lead. Lucid topped the stats with 25 kills of his own, while Trippy and FormaL narrowly trailed him with 23 kills each. A desperate last-minute flag pull threatened to tie up the game and offer G1 a chance at extending the series, but a clean teamfight win and flag reset from OpTic kept their 2-1 lead intact and secured their set sweep.
The notoriously efficient team shot of OpTic was palpable in the final series stats, where both FormaL and Lucid edged close to 19,000 damage each despite how swiftly the best-of-five had been closed out in their favor. FormaL’s spotlight shone even brighter in the performance department with a leaderboard topping 1.47 K/D ratio, a strong start to the day he’ll be hoping to carry forward into the remainder of their games today.
They next face Sentinels in the championship bracket later today, a rematch from April’s Kansas City Major that saw Sentinels take victory and eventually lift the trophy at that event. “I’m honestly excited for the rematch,” Trippy said after the win against G1. Its clear OpTic has grown stronger since then, and they’ll be hoping to prove it.
