It looked like it was going to be the perfect Championship Sunday for OpTic Gaming, awaiting their opponents in the Halo grand finals after taking down both of their main competitors, FaZe Clan and Spacestation Gaming, earlier in the winner’s bracket already.
Visions of becoming back-to-back world champions were dashed, however, when a resurgent FaZe Clan arrived in the grand finals from the elimination bracket with a point to prove. OpTic was able to steal away the first two maps, but FaZe proceeded to take eight games in a row to reset the bracket and sweep OpTic in dominant fashion to become Halo Infinite’s 2023 world champions.
FaZe had already seen off Spacestation in the elimination bracket finals with a 3-0 sweep, but it looked like OpTic might have had enough in the tank to hold their ground. A brutal Oddball game was followed by an even more brutal 48-46 Slayer that went down to time, but both maps ultimately fell into the hands of OpTic. It was on Capture the Flag on Aquarius that FaZe found their feet and started to orchestrate their comeback, thanks in no small part to a heroic goal line stands from Royal2 and SnakeBite, as well as a lobby-topping 26-16 performance from Renegade.
One game on the board was all that was needed to shift momentum in FaZe’s favor. Dominant performances on the subsequent Live Fire Strongholds, Recharge Slayer, and Solitude King of the Hill games left OpTic scrambling for a solution and FaZe firmly in the driver’s seat. A bracket reset was inevitable, and FaZe would only need to win one more best-of-seven to take the title from the reigning world champions.
Handling a bracket reset wasn’t anything new for OpTic—at the Fort Worth Major only a month prior, Spacestation was able to reset the bracket before OpTic eventually beat them to the win. However, FaZe set a very different tone for this tournament with a near-flawless performance in game one on Solitude Strongholds. Smelling blood in the water, they secured a dominant 250-22 win to kick things off to an electric response from the crowd.
The Slayer that followed was the final nail in the coffin for OpTic’s confidence. Locked in a tense 49-49 stalemate with the game time rapidly dwindling down, a desperate final push from both teams ended with Lucid getting picked off and FaZe stealing away a win OpTic needed to swing the series momentum back in their favor.
After that, the next two objective-based game modes were all FaZe, capping off an impressive run of form with a 4-0 sweep of the grand finals reset.
FaZe’s impressive championship Sunday performance was reflected in the K/D leaderboards for the event as well. By the time the curtains fell, Royal 2 topped the charts with an impressive 1.33 overall K/D, comfortably standing atop Sentinels’ Falcated in second place at a 1.21. FaZe was the only team to have two players in the top five, Renegade coming in third place with a 1.19 K/D ratio of his own at the event.
It’s heartbreak for OpTic and FormaL, whose fairytale end to the 2023 season fell apart right at the finish line. But for FaZe’s players, it’s a return to the top that’s been years in the making. Frosty, Royal2, and SnakeBite are already two-time world champions. They lifted the trophy in both 2016 and 2017 and were part of what was considered one of the most dominant dynasties in Halo esports history once upon a time. Renegade too won a Halo world championship back in 2018 with Splyce, dethroning that dynasty in Halo 5: Guardians’ final major tournament.
Even five years later, the pedigree of these players was able to shine. Heading into 2024 and year three of Halo Infinite esports, they look like the team to beat once again. OpTic will undeniably be looking for revenge, and the major shift coming to competitive with new maps and Bandit EVO starts means it could be anyone’s game next time around.
