Prolute leaves Challengers team to fill in for iLLeY again on OpTic Texas

Ryan Lemay

Indervir ‘iLLeY’ Dhaliwal has been dealing with a lingering thumb injury since Major Two in Minnesota and after another setback — a temporary roster change is being made before Major 4. 

Rostermania is in full swing for Call of Duty Vanguard and in another unsuspecting twist, Prolute is stepping back up for OpTic Texas as iLLey returns to the bench with a lingering thumb issue.

iLLeY first missed the CDL Pro-Am Classic on May 5, and Jordon ‘General’ General filled in as an AR player.

When the news came that Dhaliwal would be out indefinitely, the team made a bold move and brought in Challengers phenom Prolute.

iLLeY returned to practice on June 16, but another setback has caused Prolute to rejoin the roster for Major 4 qualifiers that start on Friday.

illey dallas empire cdl
iLLeY has been hindered by a thumb injury in the latter half of the 2022 CDL season.

Prolute starts again for OpTic Texas

CDL Intel first reported that there is a “very high chance Illey is being moved back to the bench and Prolute will start again.”

Reddit user MisterMath was one of the first on the scene and they stated, “just looked up departures for American Airlines out of this airport and there is a flight that left around the time he posted this to Dallas.”

These reports were soon verified as iLLeY himself provided a brief update on the OpTic Texas YouTube channel.

“At the moment, I don’t have too much pain,” he reassured fans. Rather, the issue boils down to a limited “range of motion” in his thumb.

Having followed through with a new cortisone shot, doctors have informed him recovery time is often one month long. Given it’s only been a week at the time of announcing, this means iLLeY is yet unable to compete.

“In the meantime, the boy [Prolute] is gonna be filling in,” he confirmed. “He’s gonna be holding it down until I get back to 100%.”

Prolute left OpTic after Major 3 and joined a Challengers roster with Brack, FeLo, and Clayster. With his new Challengers team, Prolute made it to the Grand Finals of NA Challenger Cup number 12, but fell to the newly-benched Capsidal and his squad of former pros.

The first set of qualifying matches for Major 4 begin on Friday June 24 and OpTic Texas plays Boston Breach at 4:30 p.m.

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About The Author

Ryan is a former games writer for Dexerto. Ryan graduated from Ithaca College in 2021 with a sports media degree and a journalism minor. He gained experience as a writer for the Morning Times newspaper before joining Dexerto as a games writer. He mainly writes about first-person shooters, including Call of Duty and Battlefield, but he is also a big FIFA fan.