The era of OpTic Gaming dominance in Call of Duty eSports has come to an end after the departure of Matthew “Formal” Piper and Damon “Karma” Barlow from their roster after over 3 years of teaming together.

The 4 man roster that surpassed previous dynasty’s like the Complexity/Evil Geniuses roster, went on to win a total of 18 championships with the core 3 of Seth “Scump” Abner, Ian “Crimsix” Porter and FormaL, 13 of which came with the addition of the then two time World Champion, Karma.

Early Success

The core 3 won 3 of the first 5 events in Call of Duty: Advance Warfare making them the clear favourites going into the biggest annual tournament of the year, the Call of Duty World Championship, but after a disappointing 7^th place finish their then captain Matthew “Nadeshot” Haag now 100 Thieves owner retired from competing which allowed for Karma to join the roster.

After further success in the back end of Advance Warfare winning 3 of the final 6 events including MLG World finals 2015 held in New Orleans.

In Black Ops 3, OG pulled off the infamous ‘3peat’ achieving victories in back to back to back events spanning across 3 continents.

OP7IC

After a 7-8^th placing at the CWL S2 playoffs, OG bounced back winning MLG Orlando. Optic Gaming were the clear favourites coming into the Call of Duty World Championship 2016.

For the second year in a row, OG achieved a 7/8^th placing at the two million dollar world championships, falling to none other than Patrick “Aches” Price, who knocked OG out the previous year.

Heading into Infinite warfare, Scump revealed in a YouTube video that he would prefer Modern Warfare Remastered to be the competitive title for the year. The first event of the year reflected their frustrations with a 5/6^th finish at MLG Las Vegas.

The Kill that Changed it all

At the CWL Atlanta Open, OG faced off against PNDA Gaming in losers round 5, a team that came from the open bracket. It was a hard fought series that went all the way to map 5 round 11, Karma found himself in a 1v1 verses FA5TBALLA to decide who was to be eliminated from the tournament. This victory set the tone not only for Optic to mount an historic losers bracket run which saw them finish 2^nd at Atlanta but also for the rest of the year.

Watch the reaction to the game winning kill below. Video Via YouTube

Success continued in Paris, as OG won their 3^rd successive ESWC events and Crimsix individually winning 5 in a row. Dallas saw EUnited take this roster to a second best of five series in the grand finals until veteran plays from Karma saw him take over to secure another championship.

3rd Times a Charm

Towards the end of the year, it became unquestionable that Optic Gaming were the best team in the game after beating Team Envyus in 2 best of 5s in the Grand finals of s2 playoffs of the CWL Pro League

It was the third and potentially final chance for this roster to win the one event that has eluded them, the Call of Duty World Championship.

Optic Gaming lived up to the expectations in the biggest moments at the biggest tournament, again beating Team Envyus in 2 best of 5 series to bring back the world championship for the Greenwall and pocket the $600,00 1^st place prize. This achievement gave Scump and FormaL their first rings, it also meant that Karma was the first player to win 3 World Championships.

FormaL also won the MVP of the event dropping a staggering 1.36 kill/death ratio.

Watch the in depth journey through the Call of Duty World Championship as part of the Vision series. Video via YouTube

Since this historic victory, going into Call of Duty WWII, Optic did not reach a grand finals until pro league stage 1 playoffs, the 5th event. Optic faced off against rival FaZe Clan as overwhelming favourites

The Nail in the Coffin

They fell to FaZe over 2 best of 5 series in agonising fashion, 3-2 in both series. Whereby Optic completely imploded during the first series.

After S1 Playoffs it went from bad to worse for the greatest roster of all time as they looked a shadow of their former selves as they placed top 16, their worst finish as a roster. Crimsix and Karma took to twitter to show their frustrations.

The Annoucement

On May 6^th 2018, it was announced on Vision, that Formal was to be traded with Luminosity Gaming for Samuel “Octane” Larew and that Karma was going to be stepping away from competing and is being replaced by Anthony “Methodz” Zinni.

 

And there is was, the end of a 3 year long dynasty but now Optic Gaming must look to the future with this new roster and attempt to replicate the success they and the Greenwall have experienced.