Last weekend, the Call of Duty League Championship took place in Texas, and in an epic fashion, OpTic stormed into the grand final and dominated the New York Subliners to secure the trophy. It was a monumental event that pulled in hundreds of thousands of viewers, but with it being hosted by OpTic Texas, the branding, special events, and crowd weighed heavily in the favour of the Green Wall.
Now, several pro players from the past and present have taken to social media to condemn this, stressing that OpTic Texas had a serious home advantage. Others have stressed that if the team had lost, this wouldn’t be a discussion whatsoever. Ultimately, many are calling for COD Champs to be a neutral event going forward.
It All Comes Out
On social media, users were quick to highlight that when the LA Thieves won COD Champs during the Vanguard season, it was on home turf and the event featured 100 Thieves-themed activations, but nobody has been complaining about that. For one thing, OpTic is the team that many fans love to hate, and that’s seen during every Call of Duty event – except the ones that are played at home in Texas.
Most of this discourse was kicked off by ACHES, a former Call of Duty world champion now working on XDefiant – but still neck-deep in the world of competitive COD. His opinion that Activision should host a neutral Champs event every year went down fairly well, with some pro players coming out to support him:
Of course, he also suggested that OpTic ‘bought the win’, which didn’t sit well with fans.
Others pointed out that OpTic fans were nothing short of toxic at the event and effectively went unpunished – even those in the VIP areas heavily dominated by OpTic Texas fans. In one post, the Subliners’ Sib mentioned that racial slurs were being thrown around and security was doing nothing about it. Of course, that’s not necessarily a failing of OpTic Texas specifically, but more the venue’s choice of security contractors.
Even prominent OpTic members agree that COD Champs should be neutral – while insisting that the location didn’t ‘help OpTic win’ Champs:
This feedback will undoubtedly cause something of a shift going into the next season, which will unfold using Black Ops 6 as a competitive platform. Will we be heading to a neutral COD Champs in twelve months?
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