Call of Duty: OpTic Gaming stars react to their CWL Las Vegas win – Scump, Crimsix, Dashy and more

Ross Deason

CWL Las Vegas, the first Call of Duty event of the Black Ops 4 season, saw OpTic Gaming return to the top after a year of disappointments and poor results.

[ad name=”article1″]

The team that had ruled the roost in competitive CoD for so long never found their footing in WWII and some community members and pundits believed that they would never find their 2017 World Championship winning form again.

However, the return of Damon ‘Karma’ Barlow and the addition of youngsters Brandon ‘Dashy’ Otell and Thomas ‘TJHaLy’ Haly upon the release of Black Ops 4 seemed to breathe new life into the team, and their online form was impressive from day one.

[ad name=”article2″]

The CWL Las Vegas Grand Final victory over eUnited clearly meant a huge amount to the OpTic players, their organization and their loyal fanbase. Once the dust had settled, each member of the squad took to Twitter to share their thoughts.

Seth ‘Scump’ Abner, the team’s captain and longest serving member, had the worst year of his career in WWII. To celebrate the end of his championship drought, he simply posted one of his classic trophy shots:

[ad name=”article3″]

Ian ‘Crimsix’ Porter, the Call of Duty with the most championships to his name, said that he was immensely proud of his team.

He followed that up by Tweeting Halo legend Tom ‘OGRE2’ Ryan to say that he has his sights set on the former Final Boss star’s record of 40 major event wins and that it would be an honor to match it.

Three-time world champion Karma Barlow was dropped from OpTic’s WWII roster in May as they desperately sought for a solution to their slump. Both Scump and Crimsix have talked about regretting that decision, and they were desperate to get him back for Black Ops 4.

Despite not playing Call of Duty since being dropped, Karma quickly found his feet again when he rejoined in October. His post-Vegas Tweet focused on how grateful he is to have a chance to rebuild the OpTic dynasty:

Dashy was many people’s pick for MVP of the tournament. The 19-year-old was in incredible form throughout the weekend and his first major event win was thoroughly deserved.

After lifting the trophy he was clearly lost for words:

TJ had by far the most success of anyone on the roster in WWII, winning three CWL Open events over the course of the season with Rise Nation.

The 19-year-old, who is known for his Search and Destroy prowess, summed up his feelings with the classic saying of OpTic’s owner, Hector ‘H3CZ’ Rodriguez, reminding the Green Wall to trust the process:

The team’s coach, Tyler ‘TeePee’ Polchow, is a former world champion in his own right and regularly looked frustrated with OpTic’s underperformance in WWII.

The veteran player made it clear that the squad had worked incredibly hard for the win before pointing out that CWL Las Vegas was also his first title as a coach:

After living up to the hype by winning the first event of the season, OpTic’s goal for the rest of the year is a clear one: win everything.

While they didn’t drop a single series all weekend, they were pushed to the limit by Splyce and had close games against eUnited. All of their competitors will now be focused on finding a way to be first team of the year to knock down the Green Wall.

About The Author

Ross is a former Dexerto writer and editor. Ross joined Dexerto in 2017 as a CSGO and Call of Duty writer after completing his History degree. He later became the Acting Head of Editorial at Dexerto but failed in his mission to become a Counter-Strike pro. Maybe it's time to retire and give Valorant a try.