The CEO of OpTic Gaming Denies Reports of Roster Changes
The CEO of one of the biggest esports brands, OpTic Gaming, has refuted a report claiming that their Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team will undergo further changes in the near future.
Hector “HECZ” Rodriguez, the CEO of OpTic Gaming, dismissed the report by Slingshot, which suggested that Team Liquid was interested in acquiring Óscar “mixwell” Cañellas and Will “RUSH” Wierzba. Rodriguez stated that the report was based on assumption and held a 50/50 chance of happening. If the deal were to go through, it would mean that current Team Liquid players Josh “jdm64” Marzano and Jacob “Pimp” Winneche would be replaced.
Jarek “DeKay” Lewis, the CS:GO reporter for Slingshot who has previously broken multiple stories in the competitive CS:GO circuit, responded to the OpTic CEO in a Reddit thread. DeKay pointed out that other organizations had also denied his reports in the past, only for them to turn out to be true.
However, even if mixwell and RUSH stay with OpTic, it is evident that the team has not been performing well since the departure of stanislaw, their former in-game leader. The team has struggled to achieve significant results, finishing last in two consecutive LAN events in February. Furthermore, DeKay has also reported that the team’s current replacement for stanislaw, former Team Liquid veteran Spencer “Hiko” Martin, will not continue with the team. This lends credibility to SlingShot’s recent report.
Regardless of the situation, OpTic’s CS:GO team is currently not performing at the same level as they did in the latter half of 2016. During that time, the team was considered one of the strongest in the world, winning the ELEAGUE Season 2 grand finals and finishing second in the Esports Championship Series, both against Valve Major champions Astralis.
Although 2016 was a highly successful year for OpTic Gaming, it seems that they have a challenging year ahead of them.