OpTic’s Bane: Aches and OpTic Gaming at the CWL Championships
MLGOpTic Gaming is out of the CWL Championship with their worst placing ever, and Patrick ‘Aches’ Price is responsible.
The rivalry between Aches and OpTic Gaming is one of the oldest and most epic tales in Call of Duty esports, and one of its central plot points has played out time and time again on the biggest stage the game has to offer.
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At the CWL Championships, no player has inflicted as much damage upon OpTic Gaming as Aches has. This is now the third time that Aches has eliminated them from the event, each more unlikely than the last.
Their history at the world championship actually began with a win for OpTic. In 2013, at the very first edition of the Call of Duty Championships, OpTic met Aches’ compLexity in the lower bracket semi-finals.
It was an epic five-game series that ended with what remains one of Call of Duty’s most memorable moments, a three-piece for Seth ‘Scump’ Abner to eliminate compLexity from the tournament. For that defeat, Aches would make OpTic pay dearly.
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compLexity would later become the dynastic squad that everyone remembers, and the following year Aches and co met OpTic in the winner bracket final of CoD Champs. compLexity won the series and ultimately the trophy, while OpTic subsequently went out in third place.
In 2015, the tables were supposed to have turned. This was the beginning of a new OpTic era, a dynasty whose crowning moment was supposed to be a CoD Champs victory. After OpTic slipped up in the winner bracket, however, they met Aches – now playing for FaZe Red – in the lower bracket, and Aches eliminated them directly for the first time.
OpTic’s failure at the Call of Duty Championships in 2015 precipitated a roster change, and Damon ‘Karma’ Barlow was brought in. Thus began the OpTic era proper.
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To really cement themselves as the greatest of all time, however, OpTic would need a world championship to their name. In 2016, the Black Ops 3 CWL Championship looked like their opportunity to right the wrong of the previous year.
Unfortunately for OpTic, history would repeat itself. An early mistake sent them to the lower bracket, where they would meet Aches once more, now under Cloud9. By all rights the championship-winning OpTic should have walked over a squad like C9, but it wasn’t to be. Aches eliminated OpTic Gaming for a second time.
OpTic finally secured their world championship in Infinite Warfare, long overdue, but that would ultimately be the final triumph of the legendary team. WWII saw the squad separate after three years together.
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The new OpTic line-up has so far failed to fill the enormous shoes of its predecessor, but a victory – or even a good run – at this year’s CWL Championship would have gone a long way towards validating the change.
Once again, however, they have been denied by Aches, and this might be the most painful of the lot. After winning their opening two matches, OpTic needed only a single map win against Aches’ Evil Geniuses to advance. Somehow, Aches and his team pulled out a 3-0 sweep, eliminating OpTic in the group stage, their worst placing at the event ever.
OpTic Gaming is the most successful organization in Call of Duty history. Theirs is a story very much defined by their victories, but when you look to their greatest defeats, you will often find Aches holding the knife.
