Scump claims OpTic Chicago “don’t suck” despite lackluster CDL Stage 3 results

With the Stage 3 Major fast approaching, CDL star Seth ‘Scump’ Abner returned to Twitch after a near two-month break to discuss OpTic Chicago’s latest performance, explaining how the team doesn’t “suck” in light of recent criticism.

It’s safe to say that Stage 3 wasn’t all too kind to the Green Wall. Finishing fourth in Group B, OpTic secured just two series wins over Seattle and London. Both of these victories came in week one. Ever since, they’ve been on a rough losing streak, winning just two further maps across three matches.

Dropping to eighth place in our overall power rankings, various teams have been able to pass them by throughout the season. Now looking ahead to a lower bracket start in the upcoming Major, OpTic has a considerable mountain to climb.

Despite struggling against top squads in the CDL, Scump still believes they’re a well-rounded team capable of big wins.

Booting up his stream for just the second time in seven weeks, he addressed the criticism head-on and outlined just how challenging Stage 3 has really been.

“It’s just been a cycle,” he said at the very beginning of his latest broadcast. While OpTic continued streaming their team practice deep into the 2021 season, that has since come to an end as the lineup moved to offline scrims in March.

Without his stream to fall back on, the grind has become monotonous for Scump. “It’s so weird not streaming. My days are just so repetitive. Wake up, eat, scrim, just nothing other than that, it’s so strange.”

While the schedule may be more tedious, the worst aspect now is that “nobody can see [their] practice,” he explained. “We practice every day without streaming. We go into our matches and we’re losing. People just assume we suck, which we definitely don’t.”

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If fans could see their performance in scrims, maybe it would turn the conversation around. But for now, Scump realizes it all boils down to “not executing in matches.” With some fresh wins under their belt, weeks of hard work out of the public eye could all be worthwhile.

In the meantime, there’s simply “nothing to show for it,” he admits. “The past three weeks have been so sh***y.” 

Down on their luck in official matchups, OpTic hasn’t found a series win in almost three weeks. After narrowly dropping out of the last Major in the most unbelievable way, they’ll be hoping to turn things around with a much better showing in the Stage 3 Major.

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Starting in Round 2 of the lower bracket, OpTic’s first game falls on Friday, May 14. They’ll be taking on the winner of Surge vs Guerrillas to start their run where just a single loss will send them packing once again.