Call of Duty pro Anthony ‘Shotzzy’ Cuevas-Castro appeared to accidentally leak the long-rumored merger of OpTic Chicago and Dallas Empire during a November 6 Twitch broadcast.
The Call of Duty League off-season has come to mean a few things. The first is Rostermania, seeing sides reorganize their line-ups based on the successes and shortcomings of their previous campaigns.
Another, though, is the reshuffling of organizations, with owners and investors always looking at ways to improve their chances of victory. The major story in this regard in 2021 has been the rumored merger of OpTic Chicago with Dallas Empire, freeing up a slot initially thought to be going to Washington Esports Ventures.
However, the acquisition and addition of a Washington CDL team appear to have fallen through. The merger between Dallas and Chicago is thought to be still on track and looks set for an imminent announcement following a slip-up by the Empire’s Shotzzy.
During a November 6 Twitch stream, Empire SMG Shotzzy was flicking between screens on his desktop, only to pull up a full image of the rumored OpTic Dallas logo.
He quickly said “I didn’t realize” and lamented himself, but his watching viewers had already got all the information they needed.
It surely confirms the merger as successful and means we can expect an imminent announcement from the Envy brand, which is believed to have purchased the OpTic brand to make the new org happen.
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Assuming the merger goes through as planned – which seems like a matter of time given Shotzzy’s slip-up – fans can look forward to two of the CDL’s juggernauts conflating for the Vanguard season.
The expected lineup for OpTic Dallas is as follows:
- Seth ‘Scump’ Abner
- Brandon ‘Dashy’ Otell
- Anthony ‘Shotzzy’ Cuevas-Castro
- Indervir ‘iLLeY’ Dhaliwal
What is more interesting now are the question marks that hang over the 12th CDL franchise.
If the Washington acquisition has fallen through as is believed, we could well head into the new CDL season with 11 teams.