In one of the biggest Call of Duty World League tournaments of the year, big names are dropping like flies. Today, the newly minted squad from Gen.G eliminated historic OpTic Gaming team from contention at CWL Fort Worth 2019.
There is a lot of buzz around Call of Duty Esports right now. With reports coming out regarding team induction prices for the soon-to-be-reformed Call of Duty World League, to the large LAN event in Fort Worth happening right now, it’s a blazing hot time to be a fan. So you could imagine that the streaming audience and live attendees would be vibrating with anticipation when they saw that Call of Duty royalty, OpTic Gaming, would face off against Gen.G on Saturday evening.
Unfortunately, life's not fair, and while the game was one of the most entertaining matchups in recent Call of Duty Esports, it did not end well for OG's nation of fans.
Green Wall Crumbles
One of the most talented, and infamous teams in Call of Duty Esports since their inception in 2006, there is never an OpTic Gaming presence at a competition without the general expectation for success. This could be thought of as unfair, especially if you consider the ever-revolving roster doors, as Scrump and Crimsix arguably haven’t seen reliable or consistent teammates for awhile now. The two have been with OG for the better part of the last eight years, and have seen dozens of substitute, and permanent teammate changes.
After winning CWL Las Vegas in December of last year, fans had extremely high hopes for the folks atop the great green wall. However, the Fort Worth, Texas faithful were treated to some uncharacteristically horrid play from OG to kick off the tournament. Eventually, on Saturday, OpTic Gaming ran into the freshly gathered veterans of Gen.G, helmed by seasoned Call of Duty pro, turned coach, in Michael “SpaceLy” Schmale.
The head-to-head matchup between Gen.G and Optic Gaming went the distance, but after five maps, the skills of Havok and Co. were too much for OG.
CWL Fort Worth is quickly turning into fertile ground for new names and fresh squad competition, seeing a lot of old favorites being knocked from finals contention well before Sunday’s championship bracket.
Playing major spoiler, Gen.G happened to eliminate Optic Gaming from the CWL Fort Worth 2019 tournament in the same match that saw the highly-anticipated return of OG Dashy, who was kept out of competition due to some vague travel issues with his Canadian passport.
Welcome back to the big league @OpTicGaming's @DashySZN, we missed you! #CWLFortWorth pic.twitter.com/WE6ZrVQ5oH
— Gfinity Esports (@Gfinity) March 16, 2019
Heading into tomorrow, the winners and losers brackets are filling up nicely, and it looks to be a major tournament that is completely up in the air come championship Sunday. Other exciting matches from Saturday's bracket play included a sizzling 100 Thieves flawless victory over Team Heretics, and the Open Losers Finals where it was CycloneGG versus the Australian squad in Mindfreak.
CWL Fort Worth aside, Gen.G currently leads the Division A in the Call of Duty World League, while ex-Optic Gaming star Nadeshot’s team 100 Thieves are tied with eUnited for the lead in Division B. Regular season matches resume on March 25th, after plenty of folks lick their wounds.
Check back right here tomorrow for a run-down of the Grand Finals from the CWL Fort Worth 2019.
[Featured Image by MLG]
