The OpTic Gaming Roster OpTs Out: Where Has OpTics Talent Gone?
It’s been a rough few years for OpTic fans. Since their acquisition under Infinite Entertainment in 2017, the team has been slowly leaking funds, fans, and talent as poor management began to breakdown everything that made the OpTic Gaming roster OpTic.
Instead of following the trend and just bashing on Infinite, Immortals, and Jay, we thought we’d take a look today at all talent from players to creators the org’s lost along the way, and where a few of them have ended up.
OpTic Gaming Roster In 2017
Going all the way back Neil Liebman’s entrance into OpTic with Infinite Entertainment in 2017, we saw the first major departure from the OpTic Gaming roster come in the form of Pamaj.
One of the biggest creators to ever work with the org, Pamaj was a huge source of Call of Duty highlight reels, and his departure from the team was a huge shock to the fanbase. Many were surprised that such a big creative talent would lead one of the industries biggest content producers and questioned what was going on behind the scenes.
In a statement upon his departure, Pamaj stated he was leaving due to a misalignment between his future goals and OpTic’s plans, suggesting the changes in management and ownership were starting to have a negative impact on the org.
2018
While 2017 did see the departure of Pamaj, the year was overall very successful for the org, with a major boom in team acquisition and expansion outside of the shooter genre.
2018, however, would see that all quickly come crashing down as teams began to drop like flys. Many players for recently created Fortnite division would come and go throughout the year, with few able to really make a lasting impact with the org.
The year also saw the team drop a PUBG lineup and a DotA 2 lineup led by Peter Pandam that played for 10 months before disbanding.
The biggest drop, though, would go to the release of the famous Halo squad from the OpTic Gaming roster in early March. The news was a shock to fans, as the team was arguably the strongest team in the world at the time, and had only the year before won the Halo World Championships and had placed in the top four at every event since October of 2016.
The team would find a new home under their own brand, TOX Gaming, and continued to dominate the Halo scene since then.
2019
With the departure of the Halo team, the “body count” for 2018 ended with over 30 players leaving the org of their own will or being let go, leaving a much smaller OpTic than had started the year out.
That’s not to say that the team was all losses, however, as the end of the year saw two major announcements. First, the team had acquired a franchise spot in the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS), and secondly they’d acquired the Houston franchise spot in the Overwatch League (OWL), branding the team the Houston Outlaws.
As the two largest esports league in the world, the moves were seen as a huge boost for the team, and many began to see a bright future for the org outside of the shooter genre.
The team also managed to grow it’s CS:GO roster into a rather decent team, while their Gears of War team continued to dominate the scene. The CoD team, while not bringing home much silverware, was still a force to be reckoned with as well, and would soon start a tournament-winning run towards the end of 2018.
All of that would quickly evaporate, however, as Infinite quickly began to run out of money to manage all the teams.
Looking for an answer to their monetary troubles, the company surprised everyone by announcing in mid-June that the team would be acquired by Immortals Gaming, the org founded by Noah Winston.
The move was part of Immortal’s plan to acquire a franchise spot in the Los Angeles Call of Duty League, a move they planned to utilize the OpTic brand to represent.
Unfortunately, using the OpTic name in the league would require a huge change to the team: the OpTic name couldn’t be used in any game outside of Call of Duty.
As a result of this clause in the franchise contract, Immortals would begin shedding off all the non-CoD components of OpTic.
The League of Legends team is getting rebranded to Immortals, the name the org used to use in the LCS, while the Houston Outlaws are getting sold, as Immortals can’t own two OWL teams and they already own the LA Valiant. The Gears of War team agreed to leave the organization, and the CS roster is being sold since Immortals already owns MIBR.
Beyond teams, the org has lost much of its talented crew. Social media coordinator Blackbeard moved on to do the same work over at 100 Thieves, while Typo from the design team jumped ship to Luminosity with Xpect from the animation team.
The org also let go of one of esports best photographers, Chris, and lost OpTic Create after he got fed up with decisions by management.
Even OpTic Hitch, the orgs fantastic videographer, looks to be leaving the organization, announcing on Twitter that his group Team SummerTime (TST) may be looking for a new home.
This all doesn’t include the OpTic CoD players, who are rumored to possibly be getting removed from the lineup after the CoD World Championships this year.
While OpTic has guaranteed their survival in the Call of Duty World League (CWL) next year and found new life under Immortals Gaming, the losses along the way have been enormous. Regardless of the team’s future, it’s clear that the org has taken on drastic changes in the last two years, and will likely never again be the same “Green Wall” we all fell in love with back in the day.
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