After nearly two months, it seems OpTic Texas is officially getting their in-game leader back. Indervir “iLLeY” Dhaliwal has been sidelined since the CDL Pro-Am Classic with a nagging thumb injury; his recovery has also had multiple setbacks, leading iLLeY to postpone his return to the starting roster. In his place, Byron “Prolute” Vera has been filling in since Major III began. While Prolute initially made a significant impact with OpTic, the team has faltered as of late. It appeared as though iLLeY was ready to come back before the Major IV qualifiers began last weekend, but he felt too much hand stiffness as a result of a cortisone shot to fully return. This led to Texas playing with Prolute once again; the team went 0-2 in their first two matches of the qualifiers.
With every match mattering for the eventual CDL Champs bracket, iLLeY now feels strong enough to return. Teammate Anthony “Shotzzy” Cuevas-Castro recently said on stream that iLLeY returned to scrimmages earlier this week. However, it was still unknown whether or not iLLeY would return for this upcoming weekend. OpTic Texas plays the red-hot New York Subliners on Sunday.
While the team hasn’t officially announced anything as of yet, former fill-in Prolute recently announced his return to the Challengers scene; all but confirming iLLeY’s return for OpTic’s next match against New York.
Prolute will be joining Iron Blood Gaming, which has seen its fair share of roster turnover in the past 24 hours. After Toronto Academy NA won the Stage 4 Elite last night, they exchanged Mohak “MohaK” Kumar for former world champion Adam “Assault” Garcia, who was previously on Iron Blood Gaming’s roster. Mohak took Assault’s spot on the roster while Prolute took Florida Mutineers’ player David “Davpadie” Maslowski’s spot. Davpadie will now look to join another roster before the Boston Breach Challengers Open next weekend.
For the final piece of the puzzle.
We want to give a HUGE welcome to @MohaKK_
Mohak is a huge asset to the team and completes our call of duty roster!
🔴 @MohaKK_
⚫️ @ExceedLbX
🔴 @ProluteB (@OpTicTexas)
⚫️ @Capsidal_ (@BostonBreach) pic.twitter.com/fZ5h8QM0Ld— Iron Blood Gaming (@IronBloodGaming) June 30, 2022
iLLeY and OpTic Texas take on NYSL at 6 PM EST on Sunday night; NYSL is currently 2-0 in Major IV while OpTic is 0-2. New York needs every match win possible in order to make a push for the top eight in the standings and make it to Champs. Texas is looking to shore up the second seed — or possibly take over the first seed if they have a strong finish — to Major IV.
