It took nearly the entire year, but OpTic Texas was finally able to defeat the Minnesota ROKKR. Heading into this Major IV loser’s bracket match, OpTic had not defeated Minnesota in the entire 2022 season (0-3). Luckily for the Greenwall, Texas was able to clutch up when it matters. Unfortunately for the ROKKR, this win against OpTic would have been the biggest of them all. With this loss, Minnesota has been eliminated from CDL Champs, as they cannot gain enough points to qualify for the bracket. Despite the heroic efforts of Dillon “Attach” Price, the ROKKR will turn their eyes to next season as an organization.
As for OpTic, this win was arguably the most important of the entire year excluding their run at Major I. They’ve looked inconsistent for the past two stages, which culminated in them going 1-4 during the Major IV qualifiers and ending up in the loser’s bracket. However, everything is different on LAN and with the home crowd behind them, Texas was able to get back on track with a key win over Minnesota.
ROKKR has their season ended by OpTic Texas
Like all but one other match in Major IV so far, this series went the distance to map five. The two squads went back and forth, with no team winning consecutive maps the entire series. It began with Minnesota dominating Bocage Hardpoint, something that OpTic fans have become all too familiar with. Luckily, Texas was able to bring things back on Tuscan Search and Destroy, their best S&D map. Indervir “iLLeY” Dhaliwal celebrated his return to LAN during this series, finishing with nine kills.
Easy reads by @iLLeYYY 😎#BrickByBrick | #CDL2022 pic.twitter.com/TPLUQKCAgb
— Call of Duty League (@CODLeague) July 15, 2022
The celebration was short-lived, though, as Minnesota bounced back on Tuscan Control. OpTic’s Control woes have followed them on LAN, and it’s something they need to fix quickly if they want to beat the CDL’s top teams. Fortunately, Texas was playing Gavutu Hardpoint next, which they don’t lose all too often. Despite some early struggles, the work of Brandon “Dashy” Otell and Seth “Scump” Abner allowed OpTic to run away with the map after the second set of rotations.
With all of that out of the way, Minnesota’ season came down to a Bocage S&D. ROKKR was heavily favored against OpTic on this map, as they beat them on it earlier in these qualifiers. It looked like Minnesota was going to run away with the map, especially after they went up 2-0 and Colt “Havok” McLendon had six kills in two rounds. Unbeknownst to the ROKKR faithful, those two rounds would be the last they would win in the 2022 season.
Texas went on a six-round win streak, mainly thanks to Anthony “Shotzzy” Cuevas-Castro making incredible plays on the map round after round. He had an ace and a couple of other clutches en route to OpTic winning the map. Dashy was also instrumental in the map win; the main AR finished with a team-high 1.22 KD in the series.
GAME FIVE 🧊 #BrickByBrick pic.twitter.com/lPoP7B1Q5A
— OpTic Gamingâ„¢ (@OpTic) July 16, 2022
This loss is crushing for the ROKKR, who had a lot of hope entering this event; fans will have to wait until 2023 to see them back in action. OpTic Texas moves on in the loser’s bracket and will face off against the Boston Breach tomorrow.
Published: Jul 15, 2022 09:35 pm