OpTic Gaming defeat G1 to claim HCS 2022 NA Super

OpTic Gaming swept Gamers First to claim the Halo Championship Series 2022 North America Regional Super. Losing only one map throughout the tournament weekend, OpTic ended G1’s incredible lower bracket run with a 4-0 scoreline. 

With this victory, the team consisting of Bradley “aPG” Laws, Tommy “Lucid” Wilson, Joey “TriPPPeY” Taylor, Matthew “FormaL” Piper, and coach Jason “Lunchbox” Brown, secured themselves the $40,000 main prize along with 60,000 HCS points and a ticket to Orlando Major.

Grand Final recap

In the very first game, OpTic players demonstrated their finesse and willpower. The finals started with Oddball on Recharge and would end up with OpTic’s domination. While Trippy, Lucid and FormaL all finished with 20+ kills each, support player aPG contributed with 14 assists and remarkable 6,300 damage dealt, which highlighted his crucial role in OpTic’s takedown of G1.

OpTic’s victories in the following games weren’t as convincing, because G1 seemed to have found their rhythm and weren’t going to give up so easily, as they had already previously shown in their lower bracket matches against eUnited, Cloud9, and Sentinels. In game two, Slayer on Live Fire, G1’s attempted collapse with OpTic ahead 47-44 could have been devastating had it succeeded.

Game three of Catalyst Capture the Flag too saw a couple of pivotal moments in its final stages as the teams tied 2-2. The timing of Jesse “bubu dubu” Moeller’s flag run wasn’t right, and he ended up sacrificing an Overshield in favor of FormaL, which resulted in a triple kill for the OpTic player and a wipe for G1. Then, FormaL could easily bring home the decisive flag.

A perfect ending

In the fourth, King of the Hill match, the two teams tied at 2-2 again just before the time was about to run out. The fight for the spawn of the fifth hill in the middle of the map was chaotic, leading to a barrage of grenades and a pile of bodies but not a full capture.

Despite suffering a crushing loss against OpTic, G1 pulled off a run that puts them in a promising position ahead of the Major in Orlando. In an interview after the Grand Final series, Lucid admitted that the team worked hard to achieve their current form, following the disappointing third-place finish at the Kansas City Major back in May:

“We’ve been incrementally building on ourselves, and I think we were already a force of course, but I think the aggression wasn’t necessarily enough and that’s the discipline we’ve been installing in our gameplay.

“I think today was a good example of how we aren’t really just pure scrapping. We’re here to win and we’re winning because it just makes sense. We have an objective we are striving for every moment in the game and there’s always something to go for, even if it’s something as simple as staying alive.”

After their performance this weekend, OpTic Gaming is the clear favorite of the upcoming HCS Major, set to take place from September 23-25 offline in Orlando, Florida, United States.

Header: OpTic Gaming