OpTic H3CZ on Call of Duty Roster Change – “I Thought Winning Champs Would Bring Them Back Together”
The owner of OpTic Gaming, Hector “H3CZ” Rodriguez has opened up about the recent roster change with his Call of Duty team, explaining why they didn’t make a change earlier.
It has now become clear to fans that the team many thought was made up of four long time friends was not friendly behind the scenes, but that winning tournaments had kept them together.
The team of course took their greatest victory at the 2017 Call of Duty World Championship in 2017, but it turns out that the personal problems were around for long before that.
Now, with no tournament win in the CoD: WWII season and the benefit of hindsight, H3CZ has revealed that it would have been “more strategic” to make a roster change immediately after CoD Champs.
During the Dexerto Talk Show podcast, H3CZ explained that he has no regrets however, and that mistakes are made in order to be learned from.
When asked if he regrets not making a team change immediately after the team won the 2017 World Championship, he explains the thought process.
“As a self-employed individual, I have learned that regret is one of the biggest enemies. Learning from those mistakes is priority number one.
I thought that winning champs was going to bring them finally back together.
After a year of people clashing, but still winning champs, I though that was going to be the catalyst that emerged and we would start all over. But it didn’t.”
He goes on to explain that fundamentally, every team change is down to the players and they will decide when and who comes and goes.
“In esports right now, that’s the way it goes. There are no general managers that are respected enough to make that sort of decision. The decision is always left to the players because they are the ones on the front lines.
They’ll pitch potential candidates for replacement, and my job is to make sure that everything is done the right way and that we stay within the legal parameters of law.
The sole decision is always going to be up to the players, because in a mental game as it is, any esport or any sport for that matter, relationships matter.”
You can watch the full episode from the Dexerto talk show with H3CZ below, with discussion of the team change beginning around the 16:40 minute mark.
