Will The OpTic Dallas Roster Achieve Success?

The Call of Duty community was left stunned after a report revealed that longtime rivals OpTic Gaming and Team Envy would be joining forces for the 2022 Call of Duty League (CDL) season. Having battled it out for several years, the days of the "eClasico" have come to an end as the Green Wall and the Boys in Blue join forces in perhaps one of the most unlikely of alliances.

Thanks to Envy applying for trademarks for the new franchise, OpTic Dallas will now take the place of the Dallas Empire, 2020 CDL champions while the OpTic brand will relocate for the third time in its storied history. With two players left from the former Empire and OpTic rosters, the likelihood of them merging together to create a North American powerhouse is extremely high. Despite the immense amount of talent on show, will the newly-formed OpTic Dallas roster manage to achieve championship success in Vanguard?

iLLeY And Shotzzy: A Formidable Force

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Since bursting onto the scene during the Modern Warfare season, Anthony "Shotzzy" Cuevas-Castro and Indervir "iLLeY" Dhaliwal have cemented themselves as two of the very best players to emerge from a wave of new talent breaking into the highest tier of competitive Call of Duty. Having made the move from Halo after securing a world championship victory, Shotzzy quickly proved that he was no one-trick pony, displaying an incredible understanding of Modern Warfare’s mechanics to quickly gain the advantage over his and the Empire’s opposition.

While Black Ops Cold War may not have yielded the same levels of success, the 2020 world champion still showcased ingenious movements of bamboozling brilliance on several occasions in order to swing the course of a match into the favour of his team.

While iLLeY may not possess the same level of mechanical skill as Shotzzy, his immense versatility combined with unrelenting slaying power makes him a force to be reckoned with regardless of his role. As the main assault rifle, iLLeY can control specific areas of the map with ease, and with a submachine gun in hand, he’s more than capable of topping the kill column with only a handful of competitors able to keep up.

With two years of CDL competition under their belts, the immense potential of Shotzzy and iLLeY is slowly being fulfilled and with another season of tutelage and guidance under two veterans on the horizon, this formidable force is going to strengthen even further than many imagined.

Dashy And Scump: The Last Dance?

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The Black Ops Cold War season wasn’t exactly the most fruitful of seasons for OpTic Chicago, much to the surprise of the Green Wall considering the wealth of talent and experience on the team. With Seth "Scump" Abner” and Brandon "Dashy" Otell joining forces with Shotzzy and iLLeY for the Vanguard season, there’s a high chance that this particular pairing can spark a resurgence for OpTic in 2022.

Scump was arguably the best player for the team during 2021 amid rumours of a possible retirement but it looks like that the king of Call of Duty esports will be taking another bite of the cherry in a bid for a second world championship ring. As the most experienced player on OpTic Dallas, Scump’s leadership is going to be invaluable to this roster, something which has lacked over the past season. It’s certainly going to be interesting to see how Scump lead a new iteration of OpTic into a season that could well be his last if results don’t go the way of the team.

The pressure isn’t just on Scump. Dashy was placed in numerous roles during 2021 before eventually settling on a flex position that did provide some improvements to an OpTic Chicago roster that often found itself on the receiving end of losses that probably shouldn’t have happened. The prospect of Dashy and iLLeY providing a secondary line of attacking prowess is a scary one while Scump and Shotzzy lead the charge as the main slaying partnership so it will be interesting to see if Dashy will be the main assault rifle player for the team.

The decision may be determined by the coaching staff, which is another interesting area to look at with Ray "Rambo" Lussier and Troy "Sender" Michaels expected to lead OpTic Dallas back to the top of the competitive Call of Duty mountain.

Rambo And Sender: The Complete Coaching Package

In the short history of the CDL, coaching has become an increasingly important area for teams to invest in. From reviewing the videos of other teams to discovering innovative sightlines on multiplayer maps, the role of the coach plays an integral part in determining the success of a team. With Rambo and Sender at the disposal of OpTic Dallas, the franchise has access to a wealth of knowledge that can catapult the newest iteration of the Green Wall back into championship contention.

Will OpTic Dallas Succeed?

With all of the ingredients put into place, there is every chance that OpTic Dallas will be battling at the top of the league table throughout the 2022 season. While the roster and coaching staff looks good on paper, there’s always a possibility of a repeat of 2021 where internal issues seemed to hinder the progress of the team significantly but I think this fresh start for the Green Wall will bring plenty of success to the OpTic name once again.