The newly-minted OpTic Gaming won a place in the inaugural season of ELEAGUE earlier today in Turner Broadcasting’s Counter-Strike debut.
In a showcase event at CES, OpTic defeated European qualifiers Lounge Gaming 2-0 to win $35,000 and a coveted spot in Turner’s $1.2 million league.
OpTic showed themselves to be a clear step ahead of their European opponents in the one-sided match. On Train, the team claimed a 16-13 victory before closing out the match with a 16-3 stomp on Cobblestone. Shahzeb “ShahZaM” Khan and Keith “Nar-Fly” Markovic netted themselves 46 frags a piece.
The team formerly known as Conquest only signed on with OpTic three days ago, and is OpTic’s first foray outside of Call of Duty and Halo.
While still known as Conquest, the team made it through a stacked North American qualifier, though they managed to dodge top sides like Cloud9 and Liquid. Lounge had to come through the open qualifiers in Europe, finally defeating Team Dignitas to win their ticket to Vegas.
OpTic Gaming will join Cloud9, Counter Logic Gaming, and Renegades in ELEAGUE—but fans are waiting with baited breath to see if top European teams like Fnatic, EnVyUs, and Na`Vi will take part.
Image via Saira Mueller | Remix by Jacob Wolf
Published: Jan 7, 2016 05:01 pm