TJHaLy reveals OpTic Gaming role changes ahead of CWL Championship

SMG maestro Thomas ‘TJHaLy’ Haly has given fans an update on OpTic’s roles ahead of August’s Call of Duty World League Championships, as they look to turn their fortunes around. 

OpTic Gaming crashed out of July’s CWL Finals in Miami in spectacular fashion, failing to win a single map in the two series in which they featured. They started off against Luminosity Gaming, and fell 3-0. Notably, the hardpoint saw LG run up a 246-15 point run against the Greenwall. 

This was followed by a Loser’s Bracket matchup with Nadeshot’s 100 Thieves, which they also lost 3-0. This tournament was the first major in which OpTic tried to implement new roles, as they looked to improve on their third place finish at CWL Anaheim, back in June. 

At the CWL Finals, Dashy maintained his long term role as Prophet, with a Maddox RFB and Tempest. However, TJHaLy took over as Ruin, a specialist role that Damon ‘Karma’ Barlow had occupied for the majority of the season. 

He also used a Maddox more frequently, as opposed to the Saug SMG.

• Read More: Meet the 9 players that have attended every single Call of Duty World Championship

Similarly, Crimsix was playing as Crash, the in-game medic who Scump occupied for the majority of Black Ops 4’s early season. To round off the changes, Scump was using Battery, a specialist TJ had occupied up until this point. 

Now, though, TJHaLy has confirmed these changes will not be continuing, following the teams CWL Finals implosion, speaking on his livestream on July 26.

TJ addressed the role changes in a response to a viewer. “Nah, I’m running War Machine again,” he explained. “We scrimmed today, we’re fucking frying. I’m back baby. We’re back to our old roles.”

Haly is clearly excited about being back as Battery, and feels the team is performing better with players returning to their familiar roles.

It’s clear they will be trying to rekindle some of their old form with the role change, as they look to challenge the game’s top teams once again. However, CoD pro Maux recently suggested that they have wider teamwork issues, away from simple role problems. 

• Read More: Sneak peek at Modern Warfare factions revealed

The old roles have not seen OpTic win a tournament since CWL Las Vegas in December of 2018. However, they placed fairly consistently while using these roles: 3rd at CWL London, and 3rd at CWL Anaheim.