OpTic Gaming


OpTic Gaming is an American professional esports and entertainment organization headquartered in Frisco, Texas. The organization currently operates two Call of Duty teams, OpTic Texas of the Call of Duty League, and an amateur team OpTic Huntsmen. They previously competed in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Gears of War 4, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, Fortnite Battle Royale, Dota 2, League of Legends, Valorant, Apex Legends, Overwatch, and Rocket League. The organization is currently owned by Hector "H3CZ" Rodriguez.

History

OpTic Gaming was established in 2006 by OpTic "KR3W" and OpTic Enigma as a Call of Duty 2 competitive team that specialized mainly in Search and Destroy and Team Deathmatch. In 2008, the group of friends would eventually grow older and the team began to dissipate. With OpTic Enigma then long gone, OpTic KR3W stepped down to hand over the team to long-time member Hector "H3CZ" Rodriguez. The team made its new beginnings under OpTic H3CZ on the MLG scene starting in 2010 with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on the Xbox 360. In 2016, the team, along with e-sports commentator Ryan "Fwiz" Wyatt, released the book OpTic Gaming: The Making of eSports Champions, which details the players' individual Call of Duty esports careers and their contributions to the team's success. The book became a New York Times best-seller, and film and television rights were acquired by producers John Sacchi and Matt Groesch. In 2017, Texas Rangers co-owner Neil Leibman and co-investor Chris Chaney were sold a majority interest in the organization. They created Infinite Esports & Entertainment, a holding company that includes OpTic Gaming and Houston Outlaws as well as other esports verticals operating out of a new Dallas headquarters. OpTic Gaming is currently the third most followed esports team by social media following.
On June 12, 2019, Immortals Gaming Club announced the acquisition of Infinite Esports & Entertainment, the parent organization of OpTic Gaming. On September 15, 2019, it was announced by Immortals Gaming Club and Hector “H3CZ” Rodriguez, that Hector would be leaving from OpTic as its CEO for new and independent opportunities. Shortly after it was announced that Hector Rodriguez had joined NRG Esports as co-CEO.
On November 6, 2020, it was announced that 100 Thieves, an organization created by former OpTic Gaming player Matthew "Nadeshot" Haag, had acquired Immortals Gaming Club's LA CDL slot and would rebrand the team in the 2021 season as the "Los Angeles Thieves". Shortly after, on November 11, 2020, it was announced by Immortals Gaming Club and Hector Rodriguez that the latter had fully reacquired the rights to the OpTic Gaming name, thus regaining full ownership of the organization while also relinquishing his minority ownership of Immortals' League of Legends roster in the deal; that same day, it was announced that the Chicago Huntsmen, the Call of Duty League Chicago slot owned by NRG Esports, would be rebranded to OpTic Chicago, thus signifying the return of the "real OpTic" to the Call of Duty esports scene.
In November 2021, it was announced that Envy Gaming would acquire the OpTic Gaming brand as part of a merger. OpTic Gaming leader Hector “HECZ” Rodriguez joined the combined companies’ ownership group and was to serve as President of OpTic Gaming. This also brought the OpTic Texas roster for Activision Blizzard's Call of Duty League into the Envy family.
On April 28, 2022, they announced they signed Knoqd, SkittleCakez, and Dooplex to a competitive Apex Legends roster.
On June 27, 2022, it was announced Envy Gaming would retire the Envy brand, and fully become OpTic Gaming. The Envy Foundation, a grant program helping North Texas middle schools and high schools, is now the OpTic Foundation. Envy's Rocket League team has also become OpTic's Rocket League team. The Dallas Fuel team in the Overwatch League will remain as is, going into its sixth season in the Overwatch League.

Current divisions

''Call of Duty''

History

''Modern Warfare 2'' (2009–10 season)
OpTic took 8th in the Online Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 National Championships before placing 4th at the MLG National Championships 2010 and picking up $5000 before the start of the next Call of Duty: Black Ops season.
''Black Ops'' (2010–11 season)
was dropped from the team for the Call of Duty: Black Ops 2011 season which was the first season of Call of Duty on the Major League Gaming since Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. He briefly returned to the OpTic Competitive team, replacing a player who felt ill, at MLG Dallas where OpTic Gaming finished 3rd with virtually no practice as a squad. Subsequently, after mentioning the possibility of replacing the teammate that had fallen sick he did not get picked up. Haag played on several different teams in the professional scene and created his own OpTic Nation competitive team and started making videos and streaming footage. For the next two events he played for Team EnVyUs finishing 8th at MLG Anaheim and then 3rd at MLG Raleigh before playing on Surreal Legacy for the final two events of the year placing 7th at MLG Orlando and then finishing in 15th at the MLG Providence national championships to finish off the Call of Duty: Black Ops Major League Gaming season.
''Modern Warfare 3'' (2011–12 season)
With Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 looming, Call of Duty announced Call of Duty XP where Activision hosted a $1 million tournament to showcase the newest edition of the franchise. With two members of the OpTic Gaming team not being available to play, Haag was picked up again. They made it to the Grand Final. They took the series 3–1 and the team won $400,000 and the trophy. Again, Matt 'NaDeSHoT' Haag was not picked up for the main OpTic Gaming team and instead created his own OpTic team under the OpTic Nation brand, which did not go on to win any events. MW3 did not make the MLG 2012 season, reportedly due to the absence of a LAN function in the game. Because of this, only a few tournaments were held in North America. However, at Blackpool's EGL 8 Haag placed 7/8th playing under Leverage with notable players TeePee, ACHES and John.
''Black Ops 2'' (2012–13 season)
On November 12, 2012, Treyarch released Call of Duty: Black Ops II, the second title in the Black Ops series for Call of Duty.. The game was a success competitively and attracted a bigger audience through the season. With Frag Cup 4, an annual online tournament at the start of a new Call of Duty title, coming up a member of the OpTic Gaming competitive team was unable to play due to gambling restrictions in his province, and after impressing early on in the game, OpTic Gaming picked up NaDeSHoT, who rejoined the OpTic Gaming competitive team on a permanent basis. They finished in the 7th/8th position in Frag Cup 4 before going to the first LAN event which was UMG Chicago. OpTic Gaming started the tournament strong, making their way to the finals without losing. The team then lost the first series in the final. However, because they were the winners of the 'winners final' the match went into a final and decisive series, in which they were able to win 3–2 and become the first Call of Duty: Black Ops II champions.
The next tournament was MLG Dallas. Here, the top 8 teams qualified to compete at that year's Call of Duty Championships, which was an annual $1,000,000 event. OpTic Gaming went onto finish in the 5th/6th position.
At the Call of Duty Championships, OpTic Gaming finished in third place losing to the eventual winners of the tournament. They then played in Gfinity 1 in London, United Kingdom and MLG Anaheim in Anaheim, California where they were placed in third respectively at both events. The next event OpTic attended was Gfinity in London. However, their new roster finished 9th–12th. Their performance at the MLG Fullsail Invitational, where the four highest ranked Black Ops II teams competed, was much improved, finishing in second place.
''Ghosts'' (2013–14 season)
The next title of the Call of Duty franchise was Call of Duty: Ghosts which MLG announced that it would be their featured FPS title for the upcoming season again. OpTic Gaming disappointed at both of their first two events which were to be MLG Columbus and UMG Philadelphia before a roster change occurred with one player retiring, two leaving and one later rejoining. During this time Haag teamed with Christopher Duarte, who goes by the name of 'Parasite'. At this time, the team consisted of 'NaDeSHoT', 'Clayster', 'Ricky' and 'Parasite'. However, after only a handful of days, 'Parasite' and 'Ricky' left OpTic to join Curse Las Vegas. OpTic then picked up 'Saints' and 'MBoZe', before 'Scumpii' rejoined OpTic to replace the departing 'Saints', who returned to Strictly Business. After the retirement of 'BigTymer' following UMG Philadelphia, NaDeSHoT became the captain of OpTic Gaming.
OpTic qualified for the Call of Duty: Ghosts national qualifiers for the annual Call of Duty Championship $1,000,000 tournaments after qualifying via MLG's online qualifying tournament. At the US Championship Finals OpTic Gaming finished in 7th place to qualify for the Call of Duty World Championship, after eliminating Curse New York in an elimination game in a best of 5 series. This allowed the team to qualify for the annual $1 million tournament. The OpTic Gaming squad played in the MLG Pro Circuit Season 1 online league where after a promising start they suffered problems online and were not able to qualify for the MLG PAX East Championship; eventually, OpTic Gaming finished bottom of the league in 10th place. OpTic Gaming later announced they were hosting the winners of the US Regional finals, Strictly Business Gaming for a pre-LAN event for the World Championships.
At the Call of Duty World Championships, OpTic were placed in a group with Epsilon eSports, NSP, and SSOF. Controversy was caused when 'SSOF' were disqualified and OpTic only had two teams in their group. OpTic first played 'NSP' and beat them 3-0 leading to a group decider against Epsilon where OpTiC Gaming lost 3–0. However, they advanced as the second seed and faced tK in the first round of the winners bracket. OpTic had a 3–0 victory against a team considered to be a top-three team by many. In the second round OpTic was to come up against Strictly Business Gaming who they had hosted in a pre-LAN event, however, they won 3–2 and played Australian team Trident T1 Dotters for a guaranteed top-three finish. OpTic Gaming won the series 3–1 and guaranteed themselves 3rd and $120,000. OpTic were then to face CompLexity who were undefeated on Call of Duty: Ghosts and came up short in the winners bracket finals losing 3–2. OpTic then lost to Team EnVyUs in the losers bracket finals, finishing with a top three finish and winning $30,000.
On April 15, 2014, OpTic Gaming announced that Marcus 'MBoZe' Blanks would be leaving the team in order for Jordan 'ProoFy' Cannon to join the team. The OpTic Gaming roster for UGC Niagara and for the 2014 season Call of Duty: Ghosts season was Seth "Scump" Abner, James 'Clayster' Eubanks and Jordan 'ProoFy' Cannon.
At the new roster's first tournament together, a disappointing first day led to them having to play the world's best team, and eventual winners of UGC Niagara, CompLexity Gaming, who proved too strong for the OpTic team. They narrowly won every map to take a 3–0 series win and knock Haag and his OpTic Gaming team out of the tournament. Before and after UGC Niagara OpTic competed at the MLG Pro Circuit Season 2 in order to qualify for MLG Anaheim's pro team tournament to contest for a $70,000 prize pool. OpTic qualified, being second place in the league.
OpTic Gaming team were invited to the MLG X Games on the Xbox One after finishing in the top 3 at the Call of Duty World Championships. They went into the event as underdogs after a disappointing tournament at UGC Niagara, however Haag and his team were able to win their group after beating Team EnVyus and FaZe Red 3–1 to set up a semi-final match against Evil Geniuses,. Evil Geniuses were favorites to win the event after a dominant year at LAN events, but OpTic were able to beat them 3–1 to face Team Kaliber in the Grand Finals. They managed to beat Team Kaliber in a match that came down to a Game 5, Round 10 in Search & Destroy, and Haag was able to win a gold medal and his first MLG Championship at the X Games in Austin, Texas.
NaDeSHoT was voted by fans as The Game Awards 2014 eSports Player of the Year. He went to Las Vegas with some of his teammates and sponsors to accept this award.