OpTic Texas are the 2025 CDL World Champions

(Gray News) - The Call of Duty League (CDL) wrapped up its 2025 season on Sunday in Kitchener, Ontario. The final tournament was none other than the CDL World Championship, which serves as the bookend to every CDL season. Only eight out of the twelve total teams in the league qualify for Champs each year, and only one can walk away with the highly touted title of CDL World Champion.

This year’s victor wasn’t who you’d expect if you went purely off their regular season performance compared to the majority of the other contenders at Champs. But in truly dominant fashion, OpTic Texas flipped the script and met their full potential head-on. Their win on Sunday made them back-to-back CDL World Champions.

OpTic came into this year’s Champs as the 7th seed. Their best results during the regular season were a tie for 3rd at Minor I and a 4th place finish at Major IV, the last Major before Champs. In the rest of the majors this season, OpTic were eliminated in the second round of the elimination bracket. OpTic seemed to be searching for something this season, which is evident through their various roster changes throughout the regular season. Cuyler ‘Huke’ Garland joined the team twice. Amer ‘Pred’ Zulbeari and Kenneth ‘Kenny’ Williams, members of the 2024 OpTic World Championship team, left. Cesar ‘Skyz’ Bueno joined in March and then became the substitute player in May when Mason ‘Mercules’ Ramsey joined. The final roster for OpTic going into Champs consisted of Brandon ‘Dashy’ Otell, Anthony ‘Shotzzy’ Cuevas-Castro, Huke, Mercules, and finally Skyz as a substitute.

It’s not extraordinary for a CDL team to make multiple roster changes during a season. Still, compared to OpTic’s 2024 season, where the roster remained untouched, it seemed like they couldn’t find a cohesive bond when the match timer started for most of 2025. That all changed this weekend, though, when they didn’t lose a map until Grand Finals and finished the tournament with Shotzzy and Dashy leading the tournament’s Kill/Death (K/D) ratio statistic.

OpTic’s journey through Champs started last Thursday with a series against Atlanta FaZe. The two teams are long-time rivals and draw some of the largest viewership numbers when they play each other, thanks to their massive fan bases. FaZe, unsurprisingly, have been dominant for most of the year, winning two Majors and a Minor, which led them to finish second in the regular season standings. It was a tough task on paper for OpTic to overcome, but they came right out of the gate swinging. OpTic swept FaZe 3-0 in the series with a 250-204 in Hardpoint on Hacienda, a 6-3 Search & Destroy (SnD) on Protocol, and a 3-1 Control on Hacienda. Huke was relentlessly in the Hardpoint, putting up a 1.3 K/D, while Mercules went off in the SnD with a 1.6 K/D and followed that up with a 1.79 K/D in the Control. The Control showed off OpTic’s switch in team cohesion as they all went positive in K/D, while not a single player on FaZe managed to go positive.

It was clear to OpTic’s fans, admiringly referred to as the Green Wall, that the team they adored was back in action. And the Green Wall was in for a treat when it came to the winner’s round two on Friday. OpTic’s opponent was Toronto Ultra. The Ultra finished 4th in the regular season standings and finished 3rd at Majors II and III. They were a stout opponent, but OpTic steamrolled right over them. OpTic once again swept the series. The maps finished with a 250-87 in Hardpoint on Skyline, a 6-1 SnD on Rewind, and a 3-0 Control on Protocol. OpTic didn’t allow a singular player on Ultra to earn a positive K/D in the entire series. Notably, three of the four players on Ultra didn’t receive a K/D higher than .30 on the SnD. Dashy fried on the Hardpoint, finishing with a 2.25 K/D, and he and Mercules only died once in the SnD. Shotzzy took the lead on the Control, finishing with a 1.44 K/D. Delving into the series stats isn’t meant to slander Ultra’s talent, as they are all incredibly talented players in their own right, but rather to showcase the utter train of dominance OpTic had begun to conduct at Champs.

OpTic had earned their spot in the Winners Final, and their opponent was Boston Breach. Unpredictably, the 7th and 8th seeds had found their way into the Winners Final. The Breach was the team that managed to fill the last invitation to Champs and didn’t have the same pedigree in 2025 as OpTic’s previous two opponents. With the form OpTic was displaying, this series seemed all but decided. OpTic took the Hardpoint on Vault 250-73, and followed it up with another dominant 6-1 in SnD, this time on Protocol. Shotzzy, Dashy and Mercules were all in an unmatchable flow state on the Hardpoint, with Shotzzy’s 2.54 K/D and Dashy’s 2.0 K/D being particularly notable. Mercules looked unbeatable on the SnD with a 4.5 K/D, and Dashy wasn’t far behind with a 2.67 K/D. Hacienda was the stage for the last map played in the series. OpTic took the Control 3-2 to sweep the Breach, but the Breach did put up a valiant effort, getting it to at least a round five. But, once again, OpTic had kept every player on the opposing side from reaching a positive K/D in the series.

It may seem grating to note numerous K/D statistics, but OpTic was in rarified air that was so polar opposite to what fans had seen from them during the rest of the season. The only thing left was for OpTic to face the Vancouver Surge in the Grand Finals.

The Surge managed to reach three other Grand Finals during the 2025 season. They placed second in Minor II, Major II, and Major III. They now had their fourth Grand Finals appearance, and it was on the biggest stage you can reach as a professional Call of Duty player. But OpTic had turned itself into a behemoth at the gates of history.

The Grand Finals started with a Hardpoint on Hacienda. OpTic took the first map win 250-151, with Shotzzy putting down a 2.08 K/D. Map two was a SnD on Dealership, and the Surge showed that they had come to play. The Surge swept the map 6-0 and kept every player on OpTic below a .5 K/D. Jordan ‘Abuzah’ Fançois on the Surge had a deathless 7.0 K/D on the map. OpTic rallied back on the map three Control on Protocol, winning the map 3-2 with Mercules leading OpTic with a 1.23 K/D. OpTic followed that up with a 250-230 map win in Hardpoint on Vault. Dashy took the reins on that map with a 1.79 K/D. With OpTic needing only two more map wins to take home the trophy, they looked in control, but the Surge weren’t going to roll over. Surge won the map five SnD 6-5 and the map six Control 3-2. Strong play from Abuzah and Travis ‘Neptune’ McCloud ensured these wins.

The Grand Finals were tied 3-3 going into map seven, and OpTic needed to dig deep and prove that the level of play they had displayed over the past couple of days wasn’t a flash in the pan. A 6-2 win in SnD on Hacienda and a 2.5 K/D from Shotzzy put that fleeting assertion to rest. They were one map away from claiming the title two years in a row.

OpTic closed the door with a 250-215 win in Hardpoint on Rewind, and as they rose from their desks and formed a huddle, Huke, Dashy and Shotzzy welcomed in the fledgling phenom Mercules to the rank of World Champion. Mercules was also awarded the World Championship MVP Trophy. OpTic Texas were the 2024 World Champions and are now your reigning 2025 World Champions.

Gray Television is an investor in OpTic Gaming.