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Having forfeited their first match of the 2023 Call of Duty League season, OpTic Texas secured their first victory in the league with a 3-0 sweep of the Florida Mutineers on Sunday.
The franchise has seemingly bounced back from a controversial start to the campaign. A few days earlier, the team refused to replay a map due to a kill-streak glitch and was forced to forfeit the game, thereby conceding defeat to the Minnesota ROKKR.
Anthony “Shotzzy” Cuevas-Castro and Brandon “Dashy” Otell led the OpTic Texas charge in the first map of Sunday’s series. Mercado Las Almas (Hardpoint) saw the duo register a combined total of 50 frags while only sustaining 34 deaths.
Seth “Scump” Abner — who had earlier revealed that the 2023 CDL season will be his last — was good for 21 kills and 17 deaths. Texas won the map by a score of 250–202 to commence what became a dominant performance.
While Shotzzy and Dashy reigned supreme in the first map, Indervir “iLLeY” Dhaliwal and Scump were the heroes of the second map. On Embassy (Search & Destroy), iLLeY post some excellent plays using his signature sniper rifle.
Despite suffering a 3-2 round deficit, OpTic were fortunate to have a 3v2 advantage over the Mutineers. ILLeY certainly did not need the advantage as he dealt Carson “Brack” Newberry a headshot and went on to take down Javier “Vikul” Milagro, bringing the round to a 3-3 score. Scump led the team with 11 kills and six deaths as OpTic won the round 6-3 and claimed the second map.
On Hotel (Control), OpTic were excellent on defence and very sharp on offense. With clutch play after clutch play, they soon racked up a two-round advantage.
Although the Mutineers were expected to clinch the B point and were close to doing so, Texas took over the point and prevented their opponents from progressing. This gave them room to run down the clock as they sealed the series without losing a map.
In a post-game interview, Scump described the game as the most “fugaze” he has ever witnessed.
“Friday was the most fugaze that I’ve ever seen in my career,” Scump said.
“It’s hard to lose a match when you don’t even lose the match.”
With momentum on their side, OpTic Texas will take on the Los Angeles Thieves, who are the defending champions of the league, on December 11. Florida, who were the underdogs in the match against OpTic, will play against the Minnesota ROKKR in their next outing on December 9.
