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esports
OpTic's rollercoaster ride at the IEM PUBG Invitational
OpTic Gaming almost took home the trophy at IEM. Here, 'hypoc' gives us the insight into their run and the tactics that almost won them the top prize.
Editor’s note 12/03/18: It has recently come to light that OpTic Gaming were disqualified from Game 8 of the PUBG Invitational due to the usage of a bug, dropping their final position down to fifth. Our original, unedited article is below.
OpTic Gaming may be a big name in certain parts of the esports world, thanks to years of history and top level teams. But in the world of PUBG, they’re still pretty new, and their roster’s somewhat unknown to the more casual fans, who might only watch the main LAN events.
As a result, only the hardcore PUBG esports fans and top level analysts had them down as potential contenders for the Player Unknown's Battlegrounds Invitational at this year’s Intel Extreme Masters Katowice, and even then, most of them had them down as outsiders for the top spot, with the big names expected to do pretty well.
But then OpTic showed up in Katowice and surprised pretty much everyone. They came out of the gates swinging, despite some horrible luck with the random elements of PUBG. After some clever tactical decisions to avoid areas they knew would be busy, they managed to play the final stages pretty well to come out with the first win of the competition and take first place.
“We went into game one with quite a passive game plan and the first circle didn't really favour us too much, so it then pretty much descended into trying to salvage what we could,” OpTic Gaming’s Michael ‘hypoc’ Robbins tells us. “So we definitely weren’t going into the first game expecting to do as well as we did. But that gave us a massive confidence boost for the other three games that followed.”
That confidence boost certainly helped them a lot, but games two and three weren’t quite as good for OpTic. Game two ended quickly, as they dropped out in 10th place, while game three saw them take a respectable, but not amazing, sixth place. Their early win and a solid number of kills throughout kept them towards the top end of the table, but the pack was still quite close.
Then game four, the last game of day one, rolled around and OpTic played it incredibly well. They found themselves in the last three teams, who were in a standoff in Mylta Power, as the very last circle started to close in. OpTic had to move to the open ground early, so therefore the pressure was on them to hit the shots. Somehow they managed to do just that, with some unbelievable aim, and took their second win of the day. This cemented them in first place overnight.
“We had a look at the top eight and basically there's about 300 points that separate us and the top three, and then beyond that, all the teams we’re grouped with are within about 100 points, so it's still very much anybody's game,” Robbins told us, right before day two got underway. “I think if we get a win today and we can place top 10 in the rest, I think mathematically it's impossible for anyone to pass us on points, so that's kind of the game plan today. We're going to pick the right game, go for the win in that and then play it quite safe and just try and secure the win.”
OpTic had a decent enough lead heading into day two, and certainly looked like the favourites. But CIS team AVANGAR had shown that they were capable of having high scoring games. A win in game two, combined with a massive 17 kills netted them a huge 570 points for that game alone, 90 more than OpTic’s highest scoring win of the two. Another win like that and they would be jumping above OpTic in the rankings.
OpTic took home map one despite a bad circle
© ESL | Stephanie Lindgren
“One of the biggest threats coming into today is AVANGAR, they are very close to us in points,” said Robbins. “Obviously at the minute, I would say the team that places better out of the two of us is the one that's going to be pushing for first. So we're expecting to have AVANGAR to get slightly more aggressive towards us, and if the situation warrants it, we're going to be pushing to wipe them out early as well.”
With 16 teams in each game – which is far from the maximum 25 you’ll find in public games, but still a lot of players – you might think that going aggressive towards a specific team to make sure they come in last place is near impossible. You’ll have to figure out where they are, make sure that when you do find a team it’s the right one, and then still have to worry about other factors, such as the circle and anyone else who might come and join the fight.
“With the way these games pan out, everybody knows where every other team drops,” said Robbins. “So if somebody wanted to target you it’s fairly easy, and there's not an awful lot you can do if somebody does want to set something up like that.”
OpTic like to drop in North Georgopol if the plane allows for it. The area is high in loot, has a lot of cover and more than enough vehicle spawns to make sure they can take a trip down to the military base if the circle requires it. This means that rivals such as AVANGAR could easily drop in the same location and look to take them out early.
By the time the final game rolled around OpTic needed a miracle to win, after AVANGAR had added more big scoring rounds to their totals. The only way OpTic could win would be if AVANGAR came last and OpTic either won, or placed top three with a large amount of kills. Things looked bleak, and both teams ended up dropping in North Georgopol, which many thought would bring about a swift end for one of them. But somehow they coexisted in the city for a while.
Eventually OpTic got some massive luck when AVANGAR were eliminated in last place. This meant OpTic had a chance, but to make sure of the win, they needed to rack up a lot of kills. They did just that, picking up 12 en route to the final three teams. OpTic just needed to take out two of the remaining five players and make sure that one of them was Ghost Gaming’s Magno ‘Pr0phie’ Ramos to secure the win.
“It's an interesting dynamic for the second day because some teams, especially if they're bottom of the pack, they need to make something happen, they need to have big games,” said Robbins long before he knew his team would be in a similar situation, but at the other end of the table. “A similar thing happened at IEM Oakland with the way the series panned out and there were a couple of teams that, not necessarily pushed other teams, but definitely played more aggressive than they would do usually.”
Unfortunately their aggression wasn’t quite enough. An unlucky circle gifted the map win to FaZe Clan, with OpTic going out in third, leaving them just 75 points behind AVANGAR who took home the trophy. It wasn’t the end that the Green Wall were looking for, but this epic tale of ups and downs did prove just how good competitive PUBG can be. Everyone watching that final game was glued to the screen, and while the complicated point scoring does bring somewhat of an anticlimax while the winners are figured out, it was a fitting end to a great event.
