Less than 24 hours after suffering a 3-0 loss, OpTic Texas bounced back in a big way with a 3-1 victory over Atlanta FaZe in their final Call of Duty League qualifying match of the season’s third stage.
With the win over Atlanta, OpTic clinched their spot in the winner’s bracket at their home Major next weekend, which will serve as the third championship of the 2023 CDL season. While Texas did get swept by the New York Subliners on Saturday, each map in the series was decided by the smallest of margins, and it appears the Green Wall tightened up in those moments.
In this series’ first map, Hotel Hardpoint, OpTic jumped out to a big lead and held it through the majority of the map.
But FaZe continued to battle back, and as the rotation turned to P1 for a third time, it was an all-out brawl with FaZe leading 244-240. Both teams flew at the point, trading kills and time on the hill, desperate to win the trades and clinch the last remaining seconds.
The last two standing members of Atlanta attempted to break in through the connector spot on the map, but Huke grabbed the first kill and put damage into the second before Dashy cleaned it up, giving OpTic a win in one of the most chaotic hardpoints of the season.
As the series switched gears to Search and Destroy, Atlanta leaned on its Tiny Terror duo, consisting of two of the best submachine gun players of all time in Simp and aBeZy. The pair led FaZe with a combined 16 kills, helping FaZe to a 6-3 lead to get back into the series.
While Atlanta had the momentum from their Search win, Texas did not let that deter them, even when they started the Hotel Control on the less-preferred offensive side. In fact, OpTic was near flawless on the map; they won both offenses en route to a 3-0 sweep, bringing a win and a spot in the winner’s bracket one map closer.
In the Mercado Hardpoint, Texas once again roared out to a commanding lead, chaining together the first two hills with perfect execution, giving themselves a 70+ point lead in the early goings. But just as they did in the first map, FaZe battled back. Every time it looked like Texas was about to blow the map open, Simp or aBeZy would pick up a massive two-piece to keep their team within striking distance.
But ultimately, OpTic’s lead was too much for Atlanta to overcome. Texas had won the rotation to the fourth hill, giving themselves the advantage in trades, which would end up as the difference. OpTic closed the map out by a count of 250-207 to clinch the series and avoid a start in the elimination bracket at the upcoming major.
The OpTic Texas Major starts on Thursday, March 8 and a new CDL Major champion will be crowned four days later, on Sunday, March 12.
