The popularity of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive continues to increase as evidenced by the latest wave of top tier Call of Duty organisations now looking to recruit CS:GO teams.
While the communities of both these first-person shooters have traditionally been rivals, CoD fans seem to have warmed to Counter-Strike, encouraging some of their elite level brands to want to cater to their fanbase by sponsoring teams who enter these tournaments. EnvyUs started the ball rolling by picking up the French team formerly with LDLC, who went on to win the most recent major tournament in Cluj Napoca, Romania. Following in their footsteps came FaZe Clan and OpTic Gaming, both of whom have made overtures towards CS:GO teams recently.
OpTic’s recruitment process had been something of a saga. Having held talks with the Danish team from Team Solo Mid, objectively regarded as one of the top four teams in the world, the deal looked like it would go ahead, only for an eleventh hour change of heart from the Danish players. While they still haven’t announced their new home as of yet, sporting a question mark in place of a sponsor that has led some to believe they will be joining the Dota 2 organisation Team Secret, OpTic have had to move on or risk losing out on Counter-Strike talent in a critical growth period.
As such, they have turned their attention to the North American team formerly with Conquest, who parted ways with that organisation on the 23rd Dec. The team, made up of Canadian and American players, had also been approached by TSM but rejected their offer, enabling them to become OpTic’s representation in CS:GO.
Sources close to the players and to the OpTic organisation have informed Breitbart that move is definitely going ahead and that an announcement will be made a later today.
However, as leaks go, this one might be quite anti-climactic. While Conquest had seemed an obvious choice for one of the CoD organisations vying for a team, the cat was very much out the bag as of Jan 3rd. In the 7th episode OpTic’s Youtube documentary series, “Vision,” the very last scene has a player knock at the door of the OpTic gaming house and state “heard you’re looking for a CS:GO team.” If OpTic were hoping to keep a lid on it, then perhaps the person doing the knocking should have been someone other than the distinctive figure of Conquest player Shahzeb “ShahZaM” Khan.
We contacted OpTic who declined to comment on the story at this time.