After crashing out with only a top 12 finish, OpTic Gaming‘s Call of Duty roster are wasting no time in making adjustments to their gameplan, with an immediate role switch already in the works.
Having won CWL Las Vegas, the first event of the Black Ops 4 season, in rather convincing fashion, OpTic were among the favorites in Fort Worth, even after being placed in the so-called ‘pool of death’.
And so it was to be for the roster, as losses to both Reciprocity and Team Envy meant they would start bracket play in the losers side, and couldn’t afford another slip-up.
They got past a frankly underperforming Evil Geniuses side in their first round match, but were put to the sword by Gen.G in losers round 2, losing a game five Search and Destroy, consigning them to top 12.
For a roster of their caliber it wasn’t the expected outcome at all, but on the basis of their performance, it was likely deserved, and the players themselves admitted the teamwork just wasn’t where it needed to be.
On Championship Sunday, as the final between Luminosity and Splyce took place, three-time world champion Damon ‘Karma‘ Barlow revealed that he would be switching to the Battery specialist, and using the War Machine, giving up Ruin and his grapple/grav slam.
No way in hell im running an SMG so it might be time pic.twitter.com/cPDVeGb37D
— Damon B (@OpTic_DKarma) March 17, 2019
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The reason for the change is fairly straightforward. While most Ruin players use an SMG, Karma typically runs a Maddox assault rifle, which is not best suited to the grapple’s strengths.
It means that Thomas ‘TJHaLy‘ Haly will now be taking the Ruin specialist in his place, better pairing it with an SMG, while Karma continues to use the Maddox, but with the Battery specialist instead.
lmao no he just gets some wings
— Damon B (@OpTic_DKarma) March 17, 2019
Fans will likely see this change in effect for the cross-division portion of the CWL Pro League, with OpTic’s first matchup against Enigma6 on April 1.
Whether the change is enough to get the team back on track remains to be seen, but at least they have plenty of time to practice before the next open event, CWL London, which kicks off on May 3.