H3CZ teases adding college athletes to OpTic after NCAA rule change
H3CZ / OpTic Gaming / NCAACEO of OpTic Gaming, Hector ‘H3CZ’ Rodriguez, may be adding college athletes to the famous esports brand. This is following the NCAA’s decision to allow athletes to profit off their likeness.
The NCAA ruled on July 1, 2021 that college athletes can now make money off their likeness. This includes sponsorship deals, merchandise sales, and their own personal brands.
This would be the second big-name esports organization to do so. Back in July 100 Thieves CEO, Matthew ‘Nadeshot’ Haag announced his org was looking to sign the top college athletes.
H3CZ and some OpTic members sat around the table and broke down some of the pros and cons of bringing on these athletes to esports brands.
OpTic GamingH3CZ hints at adding college athletes to elite esports org
The OpTic CEO brings up the topic of adding some other members to the OpTic Gaming team. College athletes could be a good way to advertise the brand and there would be a long line of people that would be interested.
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In the OpTic Podcast, the members threw around the idea of having a young traditional sports athlete be part of the brand.
H3CZ went on to say that he is thinking about it and teased fans by saying, “I’m super cool with giving the OpTic athlete group exclusive OpTic s**t that only they get.”
OpTic Chicago player Seth ‘Scump’ Abner added on to the conversation saying, “It’s good for them,” and added that the team should look to add someone that already is playing college esports. He thinks it would be weird to have someone be part of a gaming brand who doesn’t play video games.
A lot would determine how the organization would be responsible for paying these athletes. H3CZ noted that that Barstool Sports started to add athletes to their brand but he doesn’t know the exact details of how that works.
For now, there are no further details at a timetable for when OpTic would look to add some college athletes to their brand but as we all know when H3CZ commits to a project, he is all in on it.