A month after joining NRG and shortly after OpTic Gaming Los Angeles announced their Call of Duty roster, Hector "H3CZ" Rodriguez revealed the roster of NRG's Chicago Call of Duty team.
The announcement came in a video titled "The Final Goodbye" posted to social media that spanned H3CZ's Call of Duty career, from building the "Green Wall" into arguably the best team in the history of Call of Duty to debuting NRG's first roster at the team's Chicago headquarters Thursday.
To no one's surprise, the roster includes former OpTic captain Seth "Scump" Abner, who closed the video with a parody of former teammate Ian "Crimsix" Porter's reveal last week that he has joined the Dallas franchise.
Joining Scump will be Matthew "FormaL" Piper, reuniting one of the most famous duos in the Call of Duty scene. They will be joined by Peirce "Gunless" Hillman, Alec "Arcitys" Sanderson and Dylan "Envoy" Hannon.
Damon "Karma" Barlow, the fourth member of the legendary OpTic team, was announced as part of Seattle's star-studded roster on Monday.
Thursday's announcement by Chicago came shortly after the roster reveal by OpTic Gaming, which is now owned by Immortals Gaming Club. H3CZ failed in his bid to acquire OpTic from Infinite Esports and Entertainment earlier this year before joining NRG.
OpTic Gaming Los Angeles revealed their roster earlier Thursday, with Thomas "TJHaLy" Haly and Brandon "Dashy" Otell as the only returning players from the Black Ops 4 roster. Immortals Gaming Club's decision to move forward with the original OpTic logo drew the ire of many COD players and fans on social media.
In Thursday's video, H3CZ takes views through his years with OpTic before revealing his new team.
"Every single moment is my favorite moment ... including this moment," H3CZ says. "Where I'm sitting here as a non-OpTic member. It's my favorite moment.
"I will not change, would not change, anything I've done in the past 10 to 12 years, 13 years, 14 years. I cannot change anything, would not change anything ... because we did it perfectly.
"My favorite moment is right now. Realizing everything that we have done, having accomplished everything that we have accomplished ... and sort of getting the chance to do it all over again, with the ability to learn from what I have learned, so late in life.
"I could do it in my sleep."
It's clear that H3CZ believes, like many in the Call of Duty scene, that OpTic Gaming as it was known is no longer, no matter what logo Immortals Gaming Club enters the franchise league with.
"Think of every single member of OpTic and what they have gone on to do," H3CZ continued in the video. "And then compare it to every other esports organization out there. No one has a story like this, not a single person. We wrote a book, we wrote a blueprint of people -- four people to follow -- on what could be accomplished. And in that sort of inspirational mentality, in that sort of inspirational state of being, you sort of see a path to success.
"And you say to yourself, 'We gotta be like OpTic,' right? And if you get lucky enough, and if you do everything right, you may be bigger than OpTic, you may dwarf OpTic. OpTic may be nothing compared to what you built.
"But guess what? You're not OpTic.
"No one will ever be OpTic again."
-- Field Level Media