In the first round of the Call of Duty League Championship, Atlanta FaZe was dealt a devastating loss at the hands of OpTic Texas. It was a historic match-up that had the fanbase split with expectations, and it was the first time the two teams had clashed at Champs since 2017.
It ended on a sour note for FaZe, beaten 0 – 3 by OpTic Texas and forced into the lower bracket. When I caught up with Atlanta FaZe’s Tyler ‘aBeZy’ Pharris after the team’s win over the Royal Ravens, I got the inside scoop on his thought process.
‘Being Aggressive’
Few people really expected FaZe to be beaten on so hard by OpTic Texas in the opening round of COD Champs, which is playing out now in Canada. That’s what happened, though – and it’s now on Atlanta FaZe to weather the lower bracket and potentially meet OpTic Texas once again.
This time, it’ll be for an elimination series.
I caught up with Tyler ‘aBeZy’ Pharris after a win that saw FaZe kick the Carolina Royal Ravens out of the tournament, and he told me what went wrong with the first-round loss against OpTic:
We watched the match back after we lost and we just weren’t being as aggressive in situations that we could have. It was the biggest thing that we looked back at and I feel like toda,y we were doing that and I feel like we were just on a takeover mode.
I then asked what would be different if Atlanta FaZe meets OpTic Texas again:
I feel like just doing the same thing that I just talked about – just being aggressive and being all over them. I just feel like we’re the better team, and I feel like we do that. We play how we know how to play.
Earlier in the tournament, the LA Thieves suffered immeasurably at the hands of Vancouver Surge, being the first team to leave COD Champs without winning a single series. Will Atlanta and OpTic meet again in the lower bracket or the grand final? It’s possible.
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