OpTic Owner H3CZ Reacts to Difficult CWL Season, Poor Champs Placing, and Rumors of Scump Retiring

Albert Petrosyan

It has been a week since OpTic Gaming were eliminated of the 2018 CWL Championships, and yet the wounds feel as fresh as ever for the org’s players, members, and vast fan-base.

After failing to get out of the group stages at Champs, OpTic finished a competitive season without a major tournament win for the first time in recent memory.

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In the first episode of ‘Vision’ since that calamity in Columbus, owner and CEO Hector ‘H3CZ’ Rodriguez opened up about the disappointing event and season, admitting that he had totally different expectations coming into WWII.

“There is a lot of pressure for you to come back and be the first team to do back to back wins, and I thought we had that. We were going back to boots-on-the-ground. Seth was a monster, Crimsix, Karma, Formal, all literal gods on boots-on-the-ground. Ghosts, you know, they were the team. For me, this year is one of those years where you literally just have to put it behind you. Because if you dwell on it, I’m not saying don’t learn from it, but if you dwell on it, you might get infected with the ‘loserness’ of that year.”

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However, despite the results being far from ideal, H3CZ was willing to accept them and admit that even the best and strongest organizations have some years of difficulty and hardship.

“I gave myself and the team the benefit of  ‘you know what, we’ve had an incredible, incredible career.’ We’ve been the most dominating team for a very, very long time. We have the dynasty team that was solidified by winning Call of Duty Champs. Not only that, but we help the Call of Duty scene grow to what it is today. So it was bound to happen at some point or another for us to have a bad year. It happens to everyone!”

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H3CZ also discussed the rumors that were flying around about longtime OpTic pro player Seth ‘Scump’ Abner possibly retiring after the WWII season.

Scump finished the season without a trophy for the first time in his competitive career, even admitting that his poor play at times cost the team a chance at winning.

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Although it was only recently that Scump confirmed that he will be returning for the Black Ops 4 season, H3CZ claims to have never been worried about it, and instead looked ahead to the upcoming season as one of bounce-back and resurgence for his captain and team.

“I’m hopeful for the future. I knew that Scumpy wasn’t going to retire. I knew that for a fact. I wouldn’t let him. He can retire when he wins another championship or another ring, okay? That’s when he can retire. Until then, you think I was going to let him retire as a loser? Fuck that! Pardon my French! Forget that! No way, there was no way I was going to let him do that. Black Op 4 though…”

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About The Author

Albert is a former esports and gaming writer, focused particularly on Call of Duty and content creators. Spending over three years at Dexerto, Albert eventually now works with streamer NICKMERCS and the MFAM group. You can find Albert @AlbertoRavioli on Twitter.