OpTic Podcast - Dashy Recaps Major 1, Rostermania and The Biggest COD Event of All Time! | The OpTic Podcast Ep. 262

Episode Date: February 5, 2026

Go to http://factormeals.com/optic50off and use code optic50off to get 50% off your first Factor box PLUS free breakfast for 1 year. Explore coverage at http://ASPCApetinsurance.com/optic The ASPCA® is not an insurer and is not engaged in the business of insurance This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Go to http://betterhelp.com/optic for 10% off your first month. OpTic Gaming Merch: https://shop.opticgaming.com/ Check out the OpTic SCUF collection and use code “OpTic” for a discount: https://scuf.co/OpTic Check out the OpTic Podcast here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/optic-podcast/id1542810047 https://open.spotify.com/show/25iPKftrl0akOZKqS0wHQG 00:00 - Intro 01:22 - Toosh Took Over 03:56 - Most Insane Major Yet? 07:17 - The Major 1 Trophy 09:15 - Major IV Venue Rumors 12:35 - GGs Gentle Mates 16:36 - Rostermania Heats Up 19:03 - Jersey Jerry is HILARIOUS 20:35 - Toosh Plays Challengers?! 21:41 - CDL Team Changes Incoming 23:16 - Major 2 Online Format 23:54 - Factor 25:03 - ASPCA 26:43 - BetterHelp 28:18 - LAN vs Online 32:58 - He Got Banned from Xbox Live 34:27 - JMail 36:04 - Breaking Down Grand Finals 47:38 - Over-Valuing Online COD 52:48 - New Maps for Major 2 58:25 - Black Ops 7 Season 02 01:04:26 - Infinity Ward at Major 1? 01:05:01 - Getting Active IRL 01:09:02 - Fan Questions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One thing I'm optimistic about is I heard a little birdie told me that obviously Triarch was in the house, but one of the Infinity Award multiplayer heads came to the event because they wanted to be there. There was no, they chose to be there because they're interested in what we got going on. And what that tells me is hopefully Infinity Award is going to be. Maybe they felt the atmosphere, the viewership, they saw everything, you know, maybe it could have inspired one cookie over there, bro. Please. We back? Please inspire them.

I hope so. I hope Infinity Award really takes competitive series. Ladies and gentlemen, I want to welcome you to episode 262 of the Optic Podcast. This episode is brought to you by Factor and the ASPCA and BetterHelp. More on them later. Today's host is myself, Dashie, the man who puts AR in Superstar. And we have a man, Touche, who's on the team and also GM extraordinaire, Mr. Zinni. That's good, boys.

Great intro. Thank you. It's one of my best things to do. Yeah, you could just throw mine. You don't have to Caesar them, yeah. And by Caesar, I mean Caesar, not Caesar. First podcast, back, post-major. You're catching a flight after this. You killed it at the major. I did what I could. You were definitely the hype man of the event.

Amen. I tried to be. I mean... You were reminding me of Will Ferrell and Elf. That's fun. That's good energy. Like a really good That's good energy Fun energy Yeah I like that I mean

Yeah I did what I can I did what was asked of me And tried to try to deliver On the tuch takeover How close is he is in? Why the fuck are your lips on the mic? Yeah I saw that

And then I saw you inch He's like I've been up Yeah I'm like rock dude No you did a good job After the drums The first set of drums

He's like how'd I do up there I'm like yeah good I didn't think he was gonna go back up there The second time Oh dude First time I was shitting Yeah Oh yeah

Yeah, yeah. You were shitting an extrovert like you? Yeah, I get pretty nervous in big moments like that. What the fuck? I didn't want, like, I didn't like, I was, the whole time I was thinking like, what should I be screaming in between the drums? And I was like, maybe just like bump it down and don't miss the drums. That's the thing.

What if you think like a dead? I mean, yeah, it's my first rep. Like, I could not fuck it up. If I fucked it up, I'd have to go crawl in a hole and die. Yeah. Yeah. The whole stage. So I went pretty tame with the first rep.

and then second rep I put some more umph on it. How full did it feel when you were up there, the stadium? Like, did you look around and you just saw like a packed house? No, I was in a little tube. Okay, so you didn't even look at the crowd at all? No, I mean, I did, but I'm not processing any of the information outside of a five-foot circle around the body. That venue was awesome, man. Yeah.

Walkouts were great. Energy was great. Yeah. It was loud. It was packed. That was as good as it gets. Yeah, it was fun. Yeah, I was fun.

Yeah, I was shitting. I've thought of that before, and you're right. It's like, you think you're hitting them hard and it's not sounding loud. So I reverted to just using one arm and two, too, too, too, too. That's what I was asking. I feel like the one arm you can like really pop-b-b-b-a. But then this, you go big with the right and then you're small with the left. Tell us what you were telling the team here to get them hyped up.

There wasn't anything. I had a thought here where I was like I could say something because I can, you know, I can juice up people. Of course, yeah. You're your sportsman too. I almost did. The words got to like right here and I was like, I was like, they don't give a fuck. Yeah.

Don't say anything. Dude, if you would have started it with like, the way that I do it in Apex is like this. What's worked for me in Apex is the following. I didn't say shit. Yeah. That we all just touched each other and then I let them go back to their little corner.

Hell yeah. It was good. Dude, I can't tell you how, how excited I am for this season, man. Like the, we probably had one of the most insane tournaments. and I'm not talking about we as Optic, I'm talking about the tournament

and the major as a whole was just so elite from start to finish that I just like, I think it's one of the best ever. And I'll go ahead and say that this was not our first choice for venue, but I quickly kind of liked it.

Absolutely. It was awesome. I thought the venue was great. Perfect location too for like extracurricular restaurants, bars. 100%. A bunch of hotels. Alan?

Yeah. Alan, see, I don't know, because that, that champs was different. Yeah, it was, obviously. But. I think they're both great. I don't think, I don't think we've done a bad venue. I can't think of one where I'm like, that venue suck. They're all.

So we had the Toyota Music Factory as an option. We had the Frisco Star as an option, which is like one of my top choices because it's near the hex quarter. So if we wanted to do a tour or if we wanted to do, you know, if people want to go to the diner to have breakfast, like I ran into a bunch of people. week of, I always forget. And as soon as I pull in, everyone's there wearing optic shit. I'm just like, fuck, yeah.

And usually, like, we take pictures before the burrito arrives. Once the burrito arrives, people are like, oh, we're going to wait for the... Once my food's in front of me, you got to wait. Yeah. You reach out. I'm going to do like my dogs do. But, yeah, I think the Frisco Star would be sick just because we have concrete cowboy right there for the after party every night. We have excellent restaurants.

We have, I mean, it's just the spot to be. In my opinion, I would, like, if I had my choice between downtown and here, that's what I would pay. Yeah, you're a first. Well, the Omni is right there. The mall is right there. There is zero shortage. Where's the best sushi restaurant? In Dallas.

Frisco. Yeah, Kinzo. I mean, they're all. Kinzo's right there. Kenzo's up there. Yeah, Kinzo's way up there. So we have Kinzo. We have all of Legacy West is right there.

There's hotels in Legacy West. Portillo's is 10 minutes away. The mall's 10 minutes away. The headquarters is 10 minutes away. The airport is 30 minutes away. You couldn't ask for a better place. I would not like to go downtown to the American Airlines Center now that I'm thinking about it. Because it's just like...

Yeah, but airline center is just the airline center. That's ego, though. You just want to do it so you could be like, yeah. I just think it would be so cool. Of course. That would be. Of course. Of course.

Dashii, who's supposed to be joining us in a little bit, has just arrived. And obviously, look, we give the AAR whatever we want, man. He's all right, man. He's all right. Yeah, listen, they had a heartbreaking. I mean, I thought it was heartbreaking personally. Yeah, let's get into it, man. Congrats the gentlemen mates.

They, uh, they showed up. Dude, they, I mean, Neptune. The fact that they clawed into the final, like they were down 5-2 to get eliminated against Faze. Yeah. And Neptune was doing. everything. Neptune had back-to-back search rounds that I can't recall. Anyone having?

Seeing something like that in my life. It's like he had no right winning those rounds. And the fact that he does it, I mean, it was legendary. So he deserves a prop. Sib had a legendary grand final against us. He was playing amazing. Yeah. It does as good as it gets, man.

I mean, that was. Obviously, shots, I mean, obviously, Envoy and Ghosty. You know, they did their thing as well. I will say And I don't know why the story That I recorded here yesterday didn't upload But I had Riley Riley can you grab one of the

2011 MLG trophies real quick And hand it over to me We talked about how when the trophy arrived Everybody panicked Because once we opened the box Well first of all the box was tiny So when the people here opened up the box Immediately got on the phone

And they started hitting up the manufacturers Like yo what the fuck is this It's supposed to be this tall It's supposed to be this wide It's supposed to be a big ass thing and unfortunately we weren't able to, thank you Riley it was supposed to be like this

it was supposed to be an ode back to the good old MLG days it was supposed to be this it was supposed to be almost a replica of it but it had a little bit grayer details in here and it's going to be this tall the one they sent us was an absolute mistake

we I swear to God bro as we were about to win that thing I'm like thank God because now I get to get on stage and say thank you God that we won this because whoever got this trophy was going to be incredibly disappointed. But, you know, it is what it is. Now he gets to have that in a stream room and then he can put the big one in the in the org, at the org spot.

Yeah, that was a heartbreak. Sorry, truly, truly, truly sorry, Golaga and Brokey Brock's apologies. It was rinky dinky. I saw it. I didn't know it was a mistake. Shout out to that man. So, yeah. It was a sad little trophy.

Gentlemates is going to help us elevate, elevate this. damn thing. There is a lot of hype around that roster. The Paris event's going to be crazy. Just to fact, I mean, to have Gotaga here in Dallas, like, they care a lot. And that's a good organization that players are going to want to play for going forward. Do you know why? They care. But why do they care? Because they came from this shit. They came from this fucking shit. But that organization, good organization, they're so committed that they booked a 40,000 seat I'm not sure if that's confirmed, but that's like the rumor because apparently. So apparently the reason people found out was because

very passionate fan base. The Paris fans were, because the dates are announced for the tournament. So they were looking at all the venues, but every venue is booked, but the 40,000 capacity one. So I'm not sure if it's confirmed, but right now the running rumor is that it's going to be a 40,000 capacity stadium, which let me just tell you. Beautiful. Let me just tell you. If there's 40,000 cod fans in a fucking arena, holy shit. sick. How many were in that last one?

That is double a Mavs game. How many did we have here? Yeah, this past week. It was like, what was that? Riley, do you know? I think it was five or seven? I know that Allen Arena is 7500, I think. Five?

Yeah, it was five thousand. 40 would be insane. 40 would be insane. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, you would be like, what am I? Where am I at? I have the people up top even watch at that point. The big streams.

You need big screens. Everybody's having fun in that arena. Oh my God. 40,000. They'll get rowdy too. That's also, that's, I mean, we're going to Europe. So you got to think they're going to have flags and it's going to be like a chance will be significantly better for usual.

Or football if you find soccer disrespectful. Popping flares off on the top of that. Yeah, like that's, and we're going to need you there. The gentleman's fans are going to be out in full force. We're going to need. I'd love to be there. We're going to need to bring in the reinforcement. Will Ferrell.

Wait, what are you talking about? Well, I think, we're going to need tush there. There he is. There it is. There it is. So I think, I think, Mr. Bruce, the are his superstar. Yo. What part are we at?

Don't we get. What part of we are. We just talking about the Paris thing. We're just talking about the Paris thing. The reason why I think it's a possibility that they might be able to sell that out. Because think about how many people filled out the copper box arena. That one is, that's a lot. Right.

That's a lot of people when it was a packed house. So in Europe, it's a lot easier to, I think. All of Europe can fit in Texas, right? Isn't that the way of the way. Obviously, obviously. It's very easy, brothers. Constant trains. Exactly.

So you got Spain? They're also cheap, right? I'm pretty sure flying, like, once you're in Europe, getting to other European countries is cheap. But think about this, right? You have gentleness for Paris. You have Koi, right? That's Eby's team in Spain.

And then you have the heretics, which are all Spaniards. So Spain is definitely going to have a presence there. The UK is definitely have a presence there. And you know that the UK, you know who they cheer for. You know who, you know where the green wall is from, the green street elite? They chat for Damon Barlow. That's where the chance started.

Yeah. DB5. D.B.5. Dude, congratulations to all the boys, obviously, receiving their rings. So I would you think of the ring once you find this on a person. I mean, it's obviously the highlight of the week. Yeah. It has to be.

Yeah. What, uh, look, it's really easy. And I made this complaint be. four, right? Even when we didn't win, I think that obviously like waiting for your final, just sitting around and waiting for your final gives the loser run a little bit of an advantage. And I've said this before even when it wasn't us that was affected by it. But at the end of the day, at the end of the day, the mates did what the fuck they had to do. Like there's, it's, it's, what, how they played was like all on them ahead. You know, it is what it is. You have to separate the two. Gentlemanates deserved to win because they clutched up when they clutched up, period. At the same time, Winner's bracket no longer has an advantage. It should, it needs to be either two best of fives or two best of sevens or a best of nine with a one map advantage at least, because the veto advantage isn't enough anymore.

No. No. I don't even know if it is a veto advantage. You know how it works for vetoes? No, tell us. Tell us. So if you come from winners, you get Team A, but Team A just, you get to pick the first map, but then the losers team gets to pick two, three, and four.

Really? In that order. What? I thought you guys basically. What? So we're coming from winners. We only have game one. they have two, three, and four.

We have five, six, and then seven is like split or something. I thought that you guys were basically picking the whole map set as the way I... Fuck, no. And even if you did, I'm like... So we wait three hours, and then we have our game one, which is like, I guess in their way, like if you win game one, then it's... I don't even know if that's even worth it, but... Yeah, as a fringe cod fan that doesn't really watch God like that.

I was completely floored that winner's bracket and doesn't have any advantage goal. I thought it was nice. Yeah. Two, three, and four. People who don't... Like I invited a bunch of people who are not from the industry. And they were like, yo, how come the last set was like that? Like, where's, like, how come there's no advantage?

Like, these guys were sitting cold. Were you guys sitting cold? Or did you guys get a chance? Try to warm up, but like it's not the same as probably like an actual match. No, no, no. I agree. Yeah, look, I think, uh, but how else do you decide it, right? Like that, unless, unless you do what you said with the one map advantage in our best

nine or the two best of fives. See, I would choose best of sevens now because I do agree if a grand final end, and like a 3-0 or like a three-map victory, that's a little bit like, you want to see this more cod. So I'm a fan of two best of sevens assuming there's no time issue. I just think, listen,

if you're in a grand final, Vito, both of those teams have an insane map pool. If you're in the grand final, you're good at most maps because you're, that's how good you are as a team. So it needs to go back. And we've said that, no matter who's in the final,

whether it's you guys, whether it's phase versus Toronto. Like, we've always thought that. Like, it's stupid to... That like, yeah, we lost once and then, yeah. Like, I truthfully think it's kind of an advantage to losers now because you're just riding momentum. I do think of that as well.

You win a big match, you're staying on the stage. You just got done communicating and going hard 15 minutes ago compared to hours. Yeah. I also think it's a little bit on the league, too. Like, I feel like we shouldn't be waiting three hours from the last time we played on stage. We won winners finals. We waited three hours to play again. There's only one series.

I know it was a game five, but how long does a game five realistically take an hour and 20 minutes, an hour and a half? So we played again three hours later Like there's just an hour after our match For before they start theirs They win theirs There's an hour after theirs for some reason Like how long this shit take the setup? Yeah

I also don't like that they get to Whatever whatever I congratulate again and I mean this I truly do mean this Like congratulations to them They did their thing I think I mean obviously Neptune Last year when we beat them

At champs and like I went up to To say you know Congrats or like good games to them Like I told them I'm like, you're a fucking monster, like, whatever. The fact that I told Kazan, I look back at Kason who was up in the suite, I'm like, oh, that's Neptune out there. And then he's like, he's like, ah, yeah, it's like, now, you know,

like he still sticks to his decision. But, like, that's a scary thing. Also from HALA, right, Neptune from HALA? That combo cracks me up, bro. Because everyone's like, Faye should have got Neptune. Yeah, thank God. And personally, had I been at the helm there, I would have pushed for putting Neptune in that team.

Just like Neptune and Simp to me sounds good, but O4 is gross. I don't want that to be misconstrued. I think 04 is a really good player. But people are like KSom fucked it up, man, Sim was going to play with who Simp wanted to play. Like, you think Kaysom walked up to Lair and said, hey, bro. You're not playing with Neptune. You're playing with this guy, not him.

Lair would have been like, that's true. That's true. That's true. Good point. Good point. Good point. So Rossomani is expected to start happening this week.

Have you heard anything? Did you go to the after parties? Was anybody talking to somebody that made you be like, wait. I've been recovering. Honestly, Sunday night I was like, I'm not going to go out. I'm just going to chill for a bit. I'm kind of a little bit too pissed off to go out. So just chill.

I don't have no intel. Really? So you didn't go out at all? Good man. I know what's going on. I don't know when announcements are coming out, so I don't want to spoil it. How about this? Let's talk about it all right now since this is going live.

This is today's Tuesday. This is going live on Thursday as usual. By Thursday, we should have a good idea of what to cut and what to render. What I will say is that when he called me like three days or four days ago, and he's like, yo, do you mind if I start negotiating all these like contracts? And I was like, yeah. Yeah, dude, have fun out there, man. Do your thing.

Like, enjoy it, right? Because it's a learning experience as much as it is anything else, right? I can't wait to really get into it. I just need, all I need is a player with three good offers and I'm just. Your money ball? Yeah. See, here's the problem. They're offering 20K.

So if you can go 25, that can make it happen. Then I go to the next team. The problem is they're offering in 25. So if you make a 30-9-year-year-year-old is to go-Ref 50 and who knows. The problem, you just do the same one. One day, one day. But yeah, you know, congrats to super big congratulations to Rock who come in from Saudi and win challengers. That is-W-E-WRog-Wing challengers.

Yeah, I mean that they beat two DeHums. They beat two DeHums. Yeah, it's like Dom and DeHum. It's such a checkout. It's D-7-O-M and D-O-O-M. I want to say that's the reason they won. You can't call? Call him out.

Yeah. It's the Oom, no, it's X. Yeah. It's too late. He's ready in your spawn. One has a sub, one has an AR. You're like, I don't know what the fuck. I don't know where he is, what he's doing. But, yeah, now, Bush placed second.

We placed fourth, so really happy with the Huntsman's growth, man. I mean, they went out there and they placed fourth. And once again, they were up 4-0 against Bush and Surge. They were up in the overload. They had so many opportunities. And fourth for the first challengers event for these boys together was, was great. But yeah, this was a bit shocking, right? Because you're thinking of like Bush and then Mythics and FDot in them and

Awakening's team we sent home. We sent home Cobra and Linz in them. So there were a lot of teams that I considered like potential favorites that we sent home and that. But Rock coming out here and doing it, that was that was super impressive. So congrats to them. For real. For real, for real. Wait, what the fuck?

Dude, Jerry might have been the MVP of the weekend. Dude, can you imagine? He loves it. He's great. Can you imagine me reaching across. like over over formal and Seth Yeah, and just screwing choke. Talking to the panda gaming dudes,

you fucking choked, you fucking. Yeah, yeah, shit. Look at him, look at him. Don't chock. Yo, and he got up pushing cap and shit. Gimbo's fucking set pack or cat packing. Don't choke it, though. I love how intimate that saying it is.

Right here with his. Yeah, he's talking. Yo, what can he be saying this part? Do you think that? I will tell you this, though. If I was Jerry, I would screenshot that and I'll put it up somewhere. Just like me talking into Sparta's here. And then he's enlisting.

Sparta's fucking just taking the biggest. Yeah, fucking shit on. Look at it. Shit on. Shit on. Yeah, fucking shit on. Like, look at Byron. He's just like, Jesus Christ.

Yeah, this is my favorite part, though. Will he walks? Would he walks away? I literally, I watched it 10 times. Yeah, like, he's walking. He starts walking back to the top. Like the bathroom, bro. He's a bathroom.

He starts tapping up people in the staff. He is great. I will say, when we played against him and they knocked us out, he wasn't screaming at me. But Dom was like, yo, Zins checking his own team out. Go back to the watch party. It was hilarious. Yeah, Challenger is awesome. I love this shit.

Touch your fire. I don't know. I just think that could be that all could be all of it. Why don't you take a running challengers? I think you have a shot on you. I told too, I said if... Let's not go crazy here. When I'm in one of those hitch tournaments,

Like you're you're someone that I consistently would be happy to play with. What's my end game in challenges? Be on the team? No. Even more so on the team. Well, I mean, you're already on the team, but I don't know. Dash is getting old, yeah. Personal pride.

You know my spot? You know what I had. If also, bro, I swear to God, and I say this to myself in the mirror every time I'm, before I go to bed, I'm like watching my face. And I'm like, if you were a little bit better, you could be in challengers. If you were a little bit better, you could be in challengers. That's what I tell myself. Win or lose, we slam food. Wow, that looks phenomenal. That's a good way to feed the players.

That looks phenomenal. That's a good spread. That's gross. What are those? Quarter pounders? What is that on the double quarters? Wait, so is this for Jerry? That's for the whole roster.

I'm kidding Jerry. The whole damn gang. Good budget. Win and lose, we slam food. I like it. I know my 20 ago going crazy on that cap. Yeah? Yeah.

We used to, you know. Oh, Cap slaughtered that buffet. I know. I know he went to work. All right. What do you think? In terms of like other changes in teams, like who do you think, in your expert opinion, as the man who was out there gunning these folks, what team do you think needs a change?

I think the top teams that could change that I'm looking at are like Falcons and maybe Koi. That's what I was thinking. Falcons. Not Falcons. I was thinking more Toronto. I could see Falcons doing something. I could say, I don't know what yet, but my spidey senses are tingling. Falcons is weird.

I'm not sure what they'll do. but Coy, Coy's a weird one. I kind of feel like Coy will stick to their guns. They need to change roles. They gotta put Toby back on a sub. Especially in this game,

Kleenex needs to be on a sub, 100%. Yeah. Maybe have Real in the AR because he's probably, he's definitely a little bit slower than Toby. Yeah.

Joe Deceives is, of course, consistent. Yeah. I think they'll... Monster. I think they'll give it one more go. And then you have like Carolina

who were globetrotting online. They show up in a very slow way at the event. I think they'll stick. I think they'll just try to like look back on before the major and just try to get back to that form. That brings me to a whole new combo though.

Because the next, Birmingham is a 10 team event, right? Dude, it's so, Damon Texan is supposed to like, only six teams qualify for winners. Seven through 10 are playing to play in to get to like the last two spots that in what it's like the NBA. Like if you're six or seven or if you're seven eight, I think you have to win one before you lose two. And if you're nine, ten, you have to win two before you lose one. Really? Really? To get the last spot.

I'm pretty sure it's how it works. That's what's terrifying about how much impact online Codd has these days. It's ridiculous. Two teams aren't even going to go to Birmingham because of their online play. What teams? Do we know? No,

so you play all 11 teams. So stage two the way it works is each team plays every team twice, correct? So I think you play, or once. So you're sitting there? Each team plays 11 matches, right? You play every team in the league. You play every team once, and then the bottom two after that from that stage, don't even go to the event.

and then like he said, seven through 10 are in a play-in. So you're sitting there trying to tell me that if we were in the same position that we were last year where we were 0 and 18 and we were last in the bracket, we wouldn't be able to go to Paris? Correct.

Not Birmingham, I think. Birmingham, whatever the fuck, yeah. Yeah. What? Part of the interruption, let me say, a little factor. If you want to eat better, but you have zero time and zero energy

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Dude, I sure we just had such a lit lanternie. What do we get a word with? The most online matches we've ever had in our lives. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. Like, in my opinion, I don't know. Like, these matches are just, I mean, we're obviously going to go hard because, I mean,

Look at the consequence if you don't fucking, you don't win. You don't even get to go or you're in a play in where you could, you know, you could be out at the tournament on Wednesday. The tournament starts on Wednesday, pretty sure. All right, well, listen, I'll say this. If I lost it, how many teams don't live here? Give us your thoughts. Yeah, you know, I'm soaking in Intel.

Two, I think Ravens in Toronto. Ravens and Toronto are the only ones that don't. Okay. That again, don't what? David, don't live here. They don't live here. But the majority of them do, which means that the majority of the matches that we have on a weekly basis can be had online.

I mean, I'm saying on land here. 100%. Right? We can open it. We are willing. And I know that Faze esports is right down the street. That's it. You know, everyone, we just set that up.

Every single one of our matches, play on land right here. Yeah, play us here. Play us here and then next week we'll go to the LA Thieves ones. And then the following will go to Falcons. Yeah, Falcons. Minnesota. Your team house. No, no, no.

No, not on Minnesota. If you have a facility, like, I'm offering it up. Nobody needs to fucking pay anything fucking extra. You can send whoever of your technicians is to make sure that all the technical shit is done properly. We don't play in that realm at all, but please come and check everything that we do. We'll cater food. We'll fucking do it all. See, here's the thing now.

With that open invite, people that decline, it's going to be like, why? Why don't you want to play on land? Is she? You know what I'm saying? Now it's going to be like... You're cheating? You'd rather play online, really, instead of in the same room? Yeah.

I thought they just also have not as many league matches. I don't think league matches are just fun to watch, in my opinion. I don't think they're exciting. I think people just watch them and it's kind of like homework because you've got to do it. I think we were 600 viewers off of the peak call of duty competitive viewership ever in major one. So I don't get it twisted. I know. Wait, like what was it at?

Do you know? 350 something thousand? I think. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They were 600 away from the peak all-time viewership. Like across all-channel. Yeah. Dude,

and we didn't do a fucking, we should have done a call-out. Like, yo, everybody opened up a third and fourth screen. Up 119,000 compared to the major one of Blackop 6, averaged at 178K. Most viewed was gentlemen mates versus optic. Obviously.

Look at that. That's a major. Like, nobody gives, like, what's the fucking top, like, watch league match this year? Can we,

is that a stat? Can we see that? And nobody cares. What I'm saying is nobody cares about league matches. The players don't care. The fans don't care. We need more lands, man. We need more lands.

We need more lands. We need just shit that's like... I don't know how to say this any louder. We need more lands. We're willing to throw more lands. The whole ownership group is willing to throw more lands. Get out of the way. Look, look at this.

Get out of the way. 350K viewers. And then I want to see the top of fucking watch most watched league match of this year. And now I'd love to see it. Like 30K. Yeah, like 50. I'm just looking at all the topics.

and I see Jeffrey Epstein banned on Xbox Live in 2013. Like, what the fuck? That caught me so off guard. That's so random. I thought Shazi was the one fucking putting this list together of topics. Yeah, that's one of my favorite clips. You guys are having a random combo. Did you see this clip?

No. On the podcast. Shots, there was talking about something random. And it just goes, yo, what are, uh, what is Epstein Island? Yeah, what is this Epstein Island? I want to be in that kid. Or he said, yeah, what are the Epstein files? And you're just like, dude, what?

But if you were in his head, don't. Don't you think that you would be like thinking in his like so you wouldn't notice anything wrong? I want to be a fly on the wall in his head. In his. A fly on the wall in his head? Yeah, I just need to know what the process is of just making. Breaking shit down, like breaking decisions down. Yeah.

Well, no, not decisions. I mean, in game stuff, that's obviously too complicated, obviously. And he's talking about like, you know, Epstein. Because like he, he, I was sort of sit there and think I'm like, he obviously kept getting like here is Epstein because everybody's talking about it. But he never once said, you know, what's, he's. this aspect he never did this he never gave it what is going on with epstein and then googled it and then read a little bit of it he just said what's up with epstein and that's it's where it stopped that's how it should go that's that's old school word of mouth yeah back then you didn't have

back then you'd ask around like yo what what's up with this yeah he said fuck that I'm not doing that this new I'm just glad he didn't look over at at one of y'all and said hey have you have you ever been to Epstein Island because he doesn't know what it is so he was just like asking if you've been to Disneyland we should have known right here that he was us after this. You get banned on Xbox? Yeah. Jeffrey Epstein was banned from Xbox Live in 2013 due to harassment threats and or abusive players. That was.

If you were, wait. It takes a lot to get banned on Xbox Live. Are you are you saying? Wait, wait, are you telling me that actual, no, okay, I'm fucking lost. I thought the word, the same way that you ban bad words, that that's why they banned that word. I didn't know this was even possible. I didn't know that he himself

got banned. What games did he play? That'd be a good thing to know. What was he doing? What? What was he doing? Was he going in game chat? Just saying crazy shit. I can't pull up to my island. I can't even. I mean,

he was probably... You think he was like, you know, giving his pitch on game chat? Like, you'll have this sick island you guys could pull up to. He's just a 40-year-old... He's just a 40-year-old man being toxic as fuck.

I mean, I think... Wait, wait, wait, wait, I'm so fucking confused. I'm so fucking confused. Yeah, exactly. He was 40. That's true. That's a good point. He knew better by a large margin.

I was 15. He was a 35. five-year-old billionaire. Yeah. Bro, I seriously thought that it was just the name that got banned. I didn't know that. I just saw that he himself, himself got banned. Yeah, that's what we're saying.

What in the fuck? 2026 is crazy. So there's something called J-mail, which is like a Gmail, which is like a Gmail dupe. Yeah, yeah. But you can press a link and scroll the Epstein files as if you're in your own Gmail. So like you're on his email essentially, if that makes sense. Really? Yeah, watch.

Roddy, can you bring it up real quick? Just type in. Same thing. Is it real? Watch this. Yo, 100% real. It is,

it is his email inbox that you're able to scroll and click on and read emails. Watch, it's right here. I clicked on it this morning. I was like, this is actually insane. There's just something weird about it all that everything's encased in emails. Like, did that fucker never make a text or call?

Yeah. Like, if you want to talk to me, always email me. Look at this. Can I just send you an eye message? Is that a thing? Yeah. You have an iPhone?

Okay. Okay. Why are they, why are they redacting shit is what I want to fucking know? So is this is email? Yeah. This is his entire. entire email.

This is crazy. And you can just go... So we're in his inbox. Exactly. Make keyword pizza. Trump. Trump shoots back. I can't remind.

Just those things like that. How crazy is that? The first email is you are dead? All people, Elon Musk. Wait, that's in his contacts? He's got Elon in his content? Yeah. That's pretty cool.

Oh, shit. What are they talking about? What are they talking about? All right. So it says another time for... No shot. This is real. It is.

Like, you could read their convo? This is real. This is real. What? This is actually cool. Because these are all in the files. So the files are basically just now in like email form.

Why don't they text this? Dude, this is such a textable convoy. Yo, it's like I have to be in Lutton in California on those days. You know why. This is why he did it though. This is why he only communicated through email so that he can have blackmail.

Blackmail. That's the whole thing. Or if it's an alibi, potentially. Apparently he's like, you got no alibi. That's so far. fuck.

This whole thing is crazy. Anyways, back to the major. After Mason clutched that, I thought it was... Yeah. I thought it was... I thought we had that dude. And then the final, I finally went back and watched the 4V2 and I knew it was going to hurt.

But that play looks a lot worse with what we knew. Because from what I can tell, they thought they were taking a 2v1. They saw one person. And they were going to double chowl one guy. They didn't see the second guy. And it just so happens that when they double-chaled,

There was two guys looking there. Yeah. It's what I think happened. And then I was, I was flanking and I still remember I was like, stay up, stay up. I'm behind them. And then when I flanked, they already kind of died. And then Aunt got one. And then I was chasing with like maybe 12 seconds left.

And then they were like, one of you, he ran the third side top greens. So I'm like, okay, I know he has no idea where I'm at. So I'm like, I have that limit of surprise on my part. So I just hop up in the window. I shoulder peek. And then I don't see him. So I'm like, what the fuck did he go out the back door? And as I was going to jump out to like cut him off.

They were like, yo, you saw me at the door. me like this is AIDS like now he gets to like basically like shoulder me and then just run away and then guarantee the round win so then I went low thought I saw him in the doorway but in reality like whenever they said like he's at the door like he didn't see me so it's like fuck I could just chased him from how about yeah and that's what I said and the moment it felt like yeah they saw they were like calling it out like well I interpreted it wrong probably but yeah you you almost this this was fucking this was just he had no business no I thought it was over he had no business get on him too dude look at mark look at mark look at mark

Mark. I look at him cold, fucking blooded. Dude, that was, it's just so happy that it's Mason, too. It makes it so much it just, it's like, it's like, what is this voodoo shit that he's got going on? How do you see him? They smoked out the bomb, which was scammie. They have a 2V1 and they like give Mason an opening, like in cover. So you don't do that, bro. You want to, you want to see him.

Look at it. I often wonder if he realized. is like how like uh it's something that i told neom i'm like yeah or no kibs i was talking to kips i'm like i'm like yo man enjoy this moment man you know like there's there's definitely like interest enjoy the moment your career is literally happening right in front of you and enjoy every moment of this this was a bro i fucking felt it in my bones that we're gonna fucking win this thing so i was like we're gonna then we got a bud yeah the aunt slips to net he gets top green gets one in the back and then we'll watch it and even here i could see neap

right here. So like we're shooting at each other. I'm just shoulder you know, I'm just kind of keeping him at bay. And then we ended up seeing, I see Dante laying down Pua and I'm like, that's a scam right there. Holy shit. Or like I don't seem like, I see him running around. Like eventually he'll get up like, yeah right here. Like right here I go top blue. I see number six bottom. I'm like midcut, midcom, mid cut. So like, it's like what the fuck? So I'm about to pinch him too also from shop. But A ends up getting the kills. I'm like perfect. So right here, watch. And then right here, I'm like, I'm just gonna flank the fuck. We see one only. This is so hindsight too, but if I cut through the inner part, and we also...

Oh my God. That's what happened. No, that was actually just tragic. Right here, I'm like, he has no idea where I'm at. I hop in here. They saw him right here. They're like, in the door.

So I'm like, fuck, he saw me somehow because I was turning away. And I was like trying to cut him. Oh, the bomb was there too. That was such a shit spot. I mean, I mean, that was R&G at that point. Yeah, that was kind of shit.

Oh, that was such a 50-50 there, dude. But yeah, that was heartbreaking. Because that was... Yeah. You're unlawed lost for sure. That just looks... Way worse than it truly was from like Kyler and

what was it, ANTS POV? I don't blame them for that. Well, because they're thinking, I just hit this guy. We have a 2V1, chow the fuck out of him right now. Just so happens, his teammate was to the right

and we didn't see him. And then his teammates helped and pre-ame. It just looks worse that it actually really is in the moment. And of course, I'm sure if they could go back in time, they'd fucking plant a bomb

and do something different. But that's, you're making millisecond plays and adrenaline's crazy. Yeah, what do you think about the, because people are talking about this, I think I already assumed, Neptune spots were all fair game, right?

Yes, I mean... Yes, the answer is yes. But like, I want to say, and knew a lot about those spots, but then a lot of them, we just thought that they were G8 because, for example, like the beginning of the game, the one on Scar, the one Top Hotel.

Scar was the one where I was like, that's cheese, because that's like a stare glitch. Yeah, because I was looking at it, like, we knew those spots. It's not like, you don't play the game, it's more than us.

Right here. But it's more like the fact that, I don't want to say it's like common sense GA, but it was more of a... We just thought it was GA. Just like we thought ordinance goals were G8, but people were using it against us, we started using it.

Like the fucking thing where you can Nate across the map? Yeah. We're like, what the fuck? You could do that something? Like, strong arm, essentially? Yeah, strong arm. That's how... That's how...

That's how... So we're like, what the fuck kids are using this against us? So we started using it on Saturday because G2 was the first team to use it against us. We're like, what the fuck? Like... That's how people were pre-nading people in spawn.

Yeah, that's what I was like... I was like, what nether can be throwing? Because we were like, this shit obviously got G8 for obvious reasons in MW3. It's the same fucking, like, it's the same attachment. So we're like, people are using this shit? Caesar was the MW3 guy, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. The one that was fucking, we got to like fucking, we got to proceed with caution now.

You feel me? My assumption was like, Aunt and Kyler probably know all these were to save them for... That's what I thought too, which is, in my opinion, fair game. In my opinion, fair game. There's anything G8 actually anymore, dude. I'm about to snip every round. I think this two sniper life rule also is the dumbest shit over. I think if the other sniper goes up one

Or like he's just like For example he has two lives you have none Or he has one and you have none He gets to just rank supreme on the roster I can't fight back Yeah I think that's so stupid If you're gonna snipe the whole game If you're not gonna snipe the whole game

If you're not gonna snipe at all That's why I look at it Like me personally but I don't think you get to just sit there And get one pick and then now for the entire map You're basically Thanos on the map Yeah kind of like me Winters Finals like I snip them once

And then now they can't kill me Because now they're fighting a guy With literally the strongest amuses I've ever used on any sniper And they're using an air and I'm just sitting there, boom, oh, you scammed? Like, you know what I'm saying? Just took a one sniper.

When sniper's on, like when you're on or Sibber on, you're terrified on the map. It's so hard to actually like get info and peek because if they're looking at your hotspot, it's like when you were on offense on SCAR and they were trying to check like bomb cross by jumping behind that train. That's a hotspot that you're ready for. And as soon as you see a fucking pixel, they're gone. And then obviously like that shot was pretty nice. But if I hit that shot in any other game that like took literally out like,

a little bit of skill, I'd feel way more gas than like... Yeah. Because, bro, I tried aiming top broken, but the aim assist was so strong that it just pulled on the guy on, like, jumping. So I was like... Really? It was... I'm telling you, the aim assist is that ridiculous on the sniper. This shit takes very little skill anymore.

That's why I turn it off when I play free-for-all. You don't need stronger for this, though. Yeah, it's the one where... It was the one where... The one where... The one that grenades the car and spawn. I think it's the... There's another spot to the left of this, right?

Like, back here. Yeah, top left. Look at this. Look at number six. Look where he's at. He's literally on invasion. Yeah, no. When we saw that, we were like, wait, what? We were using this too, though.

So I'm not saying we weren't using this. Yeah, of course. It was just more like the, like the fact that there's pretty much nothing GA. Yeah, but force out of that, you thought you couldn't do this though. Wait, is that where, is that, this is that, this thing that blew up. Yeah, that's a good, I mean, that's a good toss, dude. You know, it's funny is we threw this nade.

We've got a handmarker on him. Dude, I swear this tourney, we just wasn't meant for us to win. I'm bad of a joking. And threw this nade, hit him with the Humphi blowing up. Did like 50 damage and then Dante stymie two seconds later because I didn't know he was gonna go top solar inside. He ate the aid, but we got two pieces from it? For sure, dude.

Overall, it was a really, really good, uh... It's a good series. Man, such a fucking great series. It was a great day of God. Ron, yeah. Now, gentlemen, it's Ron, I can't. Because I was, who was I talking to about it? I was on the phone with Tommy, Zoom after the event.

And I'm like, bro, I mean, if you want to be super technical, there was a... Faze should have been in that final because they were up five, two, and they lost the most. Neptune had one of the best days I've ever seen like a player have. Yeah. Those two rounds,

when I tell you how I couldn't get over it, I was like, they need to build that kid a statue in Paris. Yeah. The way Faze was flying at him and he was just 360 shitting on these kids. Dude, he got a 1v3 into a 1v2 ace. Like, look at this, this is an ace. He got two before this.

They're just running at him and he's world starring him. Yeah. That was insane. Yeah. I can't believe they actually lost this. I mean, and most of it was fucking right stick work, too. No, like right here, this is all, look at it. All right stick.

Aimed at the end, but. Damn. Damn. Wait, who's that on the left? Who's this watching on the left? That's fun, that's good. What watch party was that? Might have been more gentlemen.

It's guys at home. At home? Damn. Oh my God. Oh, my God. Dude. That was crazy, dude. Dude, you know, they almost lost round 11, too.

They got blooded by a Nate. Yeah. This was a crazy series, man. We got to tip of the NEP actually had one of those days that you just... The timing that Aunt got pulled or Kyler got pool steps also is fucking annoying. Yeah. When he just, he gets up pool steps. Kyler probably should have still, like, made a play a little earlier even with no info.

But, like, still, if he sees Envoy there and gets that first blood. And the one ended up killing me because I was like, where did he just pinch from? Did he just come through middle? And then, like, Dave was like, he came through water. And I was like, Kyler was water. And then Kyle was like, he didn't come through water. And then he was like, he came through water. Like, trust me.

That's God, bro. You can say Faye should have won that. We should have won that. They want it. Okay, what's this? Okay, on the right. It's because it's- Oh, wait, what the-

Fyler is hugging the close left wall. So like he only sees if he like- Yeah, goes beyond that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, basically. But he, but like, Audvoir from like the rocks and just kept like tucking on the right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Wow. Matt Brontzweiler most only the timing ever. That is fucking insane timing. It wasn't the same time, but it was more just the way like Kyler played it, if that makes sense. Kyler was just more like not expecting the path like that. They found it. I mean, they found the guy.

I mean, bro, I'm telling you, they were playing, the way they were playing their S&Ds was really good, like, especially the last two, the exposure in Scar. Like, whenever we won rounds, we had to work for it, they were winning rounds off, like, just, obviously there was a couple of plays, like, where they were just like some jump spot, some nades, which is like, you just got a tip as a competitor.

Like, you guys are just, because we're trying to find these two, It's not like we're just, like, some of these nades, but they're just, some of them were hitting. And then even Date was fucking frying, too. He had a great, he had a great final. His grand final was crazy. And then he was...

And then goes to you, like, Envoy is just such a good fundamental player. Dylan is so good for that team because of what he allows NEP and Dante that you just do basically. He's just not scamming. Yeah, Dan is like a little bit like Dylan, like the way of a, he'll just get time,

he'll just, he'll do like the dirty work, he'll block, he'll just do, he's got good comms. Like, same thing with Dale, but he's just more doing it for I feel like for a sub player it's godlike because you just enable Nep to just don't even think about anything except for just getting a

one B4 fucking every three rounds No Neptune was due bro He had like four second places last year And how well he was playing last year I mean he was due Yeah he's one thing I hope that this major does And all majors Is makes like

The people put a little bit less stock In the online matches Because people draw such like absolute things from narratives. They're like optics not good right now. The Ravens were

Carolina are gonna go win and including us too because it's kind of all we have to go off of so we're making power rankings and stuff based off I saw you guys just put a six

and just put Ravens like second or third I didn't oh I saw Zinny did bro what are we supposed to do otherwise am I tripping I said

God damn you cannot lose a series The thing is like who's making these these set one of them is over there these decisions

He was being your royal highness. Yeah, but I mean, I guess they're doing it for the show. But me personally, I saw this and I'm like, why the fuck is like, first of all, the majority of the people saying like the ranking systems are all like, you know, they're all like us, right, spectators and fans and whatever. Because people just need to say something in the moment. They have to say it. This team is awful. We got to talk about it. But it's like what I'm, I don't know, back in the day, back in a day, you can talk to talk about it.

But it wasn't just taken as extreme as it is now. Nowadays, if a team loses two online league matches in a row, what do you think the narrative is? I think these are all full. They got to make a change. We lose two in a row. What the fuck is going on? Yeah, 100%.

It's like, we don't even wait for the tournament. There's too much stock. Well, back then, you waited for the tournament. You put no stock on online. Back then was 90s basketball. And this day and age, it's all online matters so much.

Online is ridiculous. Online is so soft. This generation of CalDuty players is so soft. That's the one thing that would improve right now. Period. Like, because I have this convo a good amount. Everyone's like, oh, we need a land league.

we need a land league, for competitive integrity and like being able to like draw conclusions more confidently, 100%. Viewership-wise, land league is not going to change the slow drip league matches. Like you need to change the format and have a land league for the viewers. But for the players, land league is what you need.

That way you don't have this bullshit of oh, so-and-so is great online. They're going to go to land. That way of like, if you lose five matches in a row on land, it's a lot different talking about it than losing five online. Yeah, 100% It feels different

But now it's just I don't know Like I know people That's the only thing we have Because of the format Yeah Like bro for example We're gonna play 11 matches

By the time we get to match Like 5, 6, 7 When it's like you're in the heart of it It's like people are gonna forget about land They're just gonna be like This team is god awful This team is This team at the tournament's gonna get ran

And maybe there might be some You know some truth to like some of them But It's just crazy Because I would have had a fucking lead On formal Had I just picked The people that I wanted to pick

instead of my friends as teams. My right, Riley. Yeah, because I wanted gentlemen's over thieves twice. And it just didn't, I was just like, I'm going with Kenny and nature. My boys. Yeah, I don't know. I actually did have a lot of faith in thieves

this weekend. I had faith in them too. I just thought they were going to make a run. And then when they got smoked by gentlemenites, I'm like, that's just a match-up diff. Like, that specific matchup, they just can't fuck with them. Like, I feel like when we play gentlemenites, we match up pretty well. Yep. And then apparently, I think gentlemen, it's a low-key just thrashing the rest of the league from what I heard.

I think so. But us, obviously. Like us, whatever. We just have a good series against them. Or we kind of just, it depends on like the day. So what is the next, the next event is Birmingham in March? But we have, I think, eight weeks of online matches, right? Is it eight weeks of online matches?

Surely they don't start this weekend when the Super Bowl. No, the February 13th is our first day back. Anybody want to go to Chicago for the weekend? This upcoming weekend? Yeah. Rank play's coming out, bro. Oh, never mind. My boys are pulling up.

Win, when, when? Thursday Friday. So they want to meet you, you guys. Maybe Big Z. I'll be. Listen, you tell me where to be. You tell me what you need. You want me to open up with the garage mall.

You want me to, you want me to. Absolutely. You tell me. You don't have to go to garage mall. You tell me what you want to do, man. Actually, you don't even need it. Are you going to play?

I am. You are? Everything's at. Why don't you just make a full-fledge dive into the car community? Well, yeah, no, I realize that me sitting here, I'm like, damn, I'm not talking or contributing.

No, no. I have nothing to base it off. Yeah. You're on the team, though. I'd be spewing bullshit. But you're on the team. So I'm soaking Intel and I will be playing cod rank to kind of try to throw myself into it.

Cool. For the starting roster, right? Yeah, got to get the starting. Yeah. Get locked in. Because you are good. I mean, obviously you can point and shoot pretty well. I think I'm more so in the light of like me being able to contribute to

conversations. Well, yeah, well, you're, you're already one of the best personalities in the game. So now you add game knowledge to that arsenal. That's just going to take time. Now you're going to be, you're going to hit a second win. Yeah, it's going to take a little bit. Did he give you any, any hype? Yeah, he did.

He was the main reason we actually made that run. You know what I mean? I feel like a good run. The reason we lost is because we didn't have a pre-grand final speech. Oh. I know, I took a lot of the, I was like, damn, what did I do wrong? Then I was like, dude, literally nothing you did all week and had any effect on any of the games. Like, get out of your head.

I think I've decided that I'm going to sit on that chair instead of watching independently because at least when I'm sitting on the chair, I can, like, I'm forced to sit there. I was pacing back and forth that by the time I got home and it was late, my feet were fucking cooked. The 95s, are they comfortable? Fuck, yeah, they're comfortable. I love their shoes.

What do you think? You think Map Pool is going to change now after a major one? I hope that they're... Slums is coming back. I'm not sure... See, I'm just not sure how these games are going to play.

I think Fringe should be played. I think Utopia should be in for everything. I'm not even joking. People are like, oh, the maps are overrated. Play it over fucking Colossus S&D, for example. Colossus S&D, awful. Black Card. HB, really, like, is this really one of the better wraps in the game?

It's fun to watch for sure. It is. It is so annoying to play. Running through a doorway. Oh, yeah, I'm sure. Running through a doorway to break every hill. It's not just a doorway. Like, you come out into confined spaces out of every door.

Even on the outside, there's like, if you go towards the back where the window is, and then there's like, as soon as you turn, you have to jump up, and then there's a big tank in the middle and everything's close quarters. It's ring around the rosy. It's essentially what, every single part of the, the map is. Yeah, like this map looks so cool. It's just the way it looks. Like it's it's so aesthetically pleasing. You're looking at like the wall runs like lane. Like there's a pool lane. It feels like six star. Yeah, I was going to say it looks exactly like it. I like how the midcon, like there's

just at different access points to like get to like different lanes. It just feels like you have options. Now some of these maps, bro, it's just. I want to see fringe too. Fringe would play not bad. Yeah. Like this, this is the game to bring back fringe if you're going to bring it back because you know, you have the wall jumps and I'm just picturing someone like back bar and do a double jump with a snipe over barn or something if you can or that like wall that cuts granny to the front white truck what's that top right map

yeah is that gridlock what is that sake can you look at it 6 v6 is it a 6x map yeah comes out to on Thursday wait when's rank play come out Thursday

you want a team I'm free hex I got you there you go thank you I'm gonna fucking run into you and I'm gonna fucking show you you something you save me no I'm gonna need you I'm not sure who I don't was gonna be right now. Yeah, at a certain rank.

Isn't that weird? Yeah, no, that's good. That you can't force stack? I mean, I think if you force stack, you just have to be matched up against the first stack. No, I don't think you can't forestack above Crimson right. No, you can't. Really?

No, you can. I didn't know this was a map. Steaming Room. This comes out Thursday. Hopefully, hopefully somebody's new maps are also bangers. Okay, okay. Why is this giving me CS vibes? Like that little area right there?

Seriously, yeah. This map looks pretty decent, bro. Okay. Yeah. Anytime it says 2B2-6-3-6 map, it's shocked. Well, the thing is, is like, this map reminds me of, like, a good hide-and-seek map. It's got a lot of personality. I do like the way it looks.

Torment. That's a fire name for a map. Torment. That is sick. The Avatar man. Game to go. We're playing Game 5, Torment. Look, is that blood?

That's blood. White. That was pretty cool. You come out of that. You look like, oh, slummies. Yeah, no, this map is... I don't think we're going to see this map, I call it. You imagine you jump on that van, jump off of that thing.

Snipe, Dad, thank you. Yeah. What is that? What was that? Oh, that was sake, right, at the end? Is that shipment? Maybe I'm getting too excited for Gridlock. Is Gridlock coming back? I heard it was. Did you see that one overview of the...

Oh, yeah, like, they found the... They found the... That was crazy. They just found the whole map off another map. Is that how they do it? Yeah, like... I've never seen that before until this time. What?

Like, they found Gridlock in the game because someone went into theater mode on a different map and, like, flew outside the map. And then they stumbled upon the full... gridlock map. See you kids weren't around for map monkeys. That's something standard that every map monkey used to do. Shout out all your map monkeys out there. Is that like Minecraft? You know how you could have your own server and then within the server you could... Hey, you're just going to private match. You're just going a private match. Is that how it is like at the studios though? They develop it in one like blank slate. Yeah, yeah. And then you end a different. Yeah,

exactly. That's what I, that's how I envision like some of these maps are made. This is like roller coaster tycoon. It's like someone just built gridlock on this... But it's too perfect of a build for it to be not. To be fake. That is that is gridlock. Like they have to have some use for this, right? Like this is in Blackop 7. Like I don't know.

The way I look at it's, it has to be coming back in. Or maybe they saw this leak and they're like, fuck that. I think gridlock is a great map. You go back 10 years and you will see me in a podcast at the Optics, scoff house saying this is what a war zone map should be. Right?

You go from from this map to the next map to the next map. And it's just like all the POIs are maps from, from color. Duty. Like, yeah, just good maps. I'm like back in the day. Yeah. Because just think you're like, you're like choosing where to spawn how to enter the map. You know, I mean, obviously, it's not a map at the point, but the POI. Sick. Sick. I like, I like all of it. I'm having a lot of fun playing this, this game. I haven't played free for all the way that I've been playing free for all this past two weeks. Just cool. They're dropping like a blackout too, aren't they? I'm not sure.

There's something. Yeah, something like that. If they announced it, I didn't. didn't see it. I know it's going to be like a blackout inspired map. I'm not sure if it's like verbatim blackout. I've really seen any updates on. The only war zone update I've seen is that rebirth island tournaments are going to be at Dreamhacks and EWC, I believe. I think it's like a $1.2 million prize pool for the rebirth players. Wow. I didn't know that. That's pretty cool.

A new battle royale mode inspired by blackout is coming to. Inspired by. Yeah, that's what throws me off. Yeah. Hell of an inspiration. Blackout was great. You played Blackout? Oh, I played a lot of Blockout, yeah. Really? Okay.

Yeah. Six viewers. Hey. Me and Amanda Root. So it takes. Shout out those six viewers, man. Day once, dude. Day once. I hope they're still around.

All right, let's get into some final topical things before we head on now. Recochet anti-cheed season two update. Season two is almost here, blah, blah. To that end, we're focused on making the players in the matches that are using the systems for PC, achieving this investing major technology innovations for our anti-chee system and our security technology stackless rank play approach as team ricochet is focused i don't what ask rank

rank play approaches hashtag team ricochet is focused what the fuck what are we team rocket these devices you know what i'm done reading this i just want to see it work that no matter what they say we're going to see how it works am i crazy for having faith in them right now yeah i would say so i just think it's the because what you have to have secure boot on you have to update the BIOS and now they're trying to target like what the Kronus Zen does. What? Like if you read this instead of targeting the actual anti-cheat? They're now reading what's humanly possible and what's only possible with machine.

That's the way because with the Kronis Zen and this X-I-M matrix, these devices alter player inputs in ways that create unfair advantages. We know what an unfair match looks like, losing a close gun fight to aim that never seems to miss, recoil it never kicks. They're basically just going to now look at the tendencies and the actual data is what I took from this and ban people that way.

This sounds very AI-ish. Whatever they got to do, I hope it works. Yeah, and use AI. Who cares? New detections target these input modifying devices that simulate machine-perfect aim and recoil control, removing advantages, no human player, can naturally achieve. They basically said it's not going to be perfect,

but it's constantly going to improve, and we are doing everything we possibly can to try and make it as fair as possible. And I believe him right now. But what about people like him? Me? Him. Oh, like he shoots like a machine?

Well, yeah, like the pro players are definitely going to, like there's going to be, some pros are definitely going to get banned off of just like a three piece that they fucking pull up. But they can tell, like, for example, he's not hitting 30 straight headshot. from across the map like an aim bot. Is it just like, wait, I don't understand it.

I thought it was one of those where they can kind of see in your PC, kind of like Valor, and they could see like something that's open that shouldn't be open. So they're like, what the fuck is this? You know what I mean? And it kind of just goes down. See, that's what my gaming PC only has the essentials. I don't access email, social media, or anything on. It's just strictly Call it Duty Minecraft and OBS.

So this is just going off of like if you're just frying, if you're like, if you hit like 20 headshots in a row, let's just say you're, you randomly just hit. 20 headshots in the road, they're all perfect, you don't miss a single bullet, you'll just get banned for that? I don't think so. Unless, you know what? I don't fucking know.

I'm just, I'm just reading this, and it sounds all good and dandy. It sounds good. And hopefully it works. Hopefully they fix the servers, too. Because if it doesn't work, it's going to die every single year, and it's going to start this constant pool of hate over and over and over again. So if you can't fix the cheating issue, you might as well not even have a rank play. Like, I'm not even kidding.

What's the, unless you're playing on console. Yeah. Fuck. Yeah, we felt that pool of hate during the race. If you're a certain level, if you're, no disrespect, bronze or gold, you're not going to feel it like crimson or iridescent or top 250. Wait, what's above gold? Well, actually, we don't know what the emblems are, right?

No, they shut about the event. They look kind of sick. They're like Greek gods or something. One thing that was cool that I heard, and I'm not sure if this is public, but I said it on the watch party, so I don't give a fuck. So, Trey Arc, obviously, super receptive, and Lawrence and Maddox are always willing to have a Convo. Maddox is the man.

But Infinity Ward had... That's fire, dude. Infinity War was in the house at the major. What? That is fire. Yeah, now those look sick. Hey, we're trying this year. That's diamond bottom left?

Yeah, I've never been above that. But I do play solo, though. I don't... Dude, Iridesa looks hard. Yeah, that looks sick. Yeah, it looks like it. And what's top 250? Who is that?

Aries? What? These are heat. Those are sick. Okay, we're trying this year. These would be heat if you are able to bring your rank as a prestige emblem next to your

actual prestige emblem so that people who play regular matches can be like wait what is that how the fuck do I get that that's this what I'm saying right now has been said over the last 20 fucking years 100 per second because bro what I've been saying this thing since von der Har brought us black ops to

game play or a league play the way to get the casuals to understand is to have the achievement hunters see an achievement that they don't have. So they can be like, wait, is this guy hacking? How does he have this fucking cool-ass, fucking Aries emblem? What the fuck this top 250 mean?

I thought I was top 250. Yeah. Oh, wait, this is pubs. Wait, what the fuck is this rank play shit? Yeah, this is like, bro, what is exactly? Status, bro. You get the status. You want to grind for it, man.

I mean, even if you see the bronze one, that's this shit fucking looks super cool. In a public lobby with somebody who hit Max prestige and they're like, man, I'm fucking bored of this shit. What's next? Bam, right here, this is what's next. And that guy's a bronze bed and he just, looks hard as fuck because he has someone else that no one else has.

Yeah, they have to show the, you should have it not, you should always be able to see your prestige rank and also your rank in, in, in, in rank, I'm sorry, you rank in rank in, I'm sorry, you rank in rank in, so that people can get curious about it. Yeah, I agree. I don't think that people fully know or understand. You think the general, like, cod player doesn't know that. Apps are fucking lulently. One thousand percent.

It's proven. They don't want to cross-pollinate because they don't want, obviously, SBM is such a fucking important part of their technology. so they can continue to have player retention on the game so they can buy more skins and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But this is what's needed. We need to educate the public that, hey, you achievement hunters, you who have reached the top level

and you feel like you're the hot shit of the whole night, you're not, go play some rank play. I agree with that. I saw this issue in 2014. No one listens. What I was saying, though, real quick before we head on out, one thing I'm optimistic about is I heard A little birdie told me that obviously Triarch was in the house

But one of the Infinity Award Multiplayer heads came to the event Because they wanted to be there There was no They chose to be there because they're interested in what we got going on And what that tells me is hopefully Infinity Award is going to be Maybe they felt the atmosphere The viewership, they saw everything

You know, maybe it could have inspired one cookie over there, bro Please. We back? Please inspire them I hope so I hope Infinity Award really takes competitive series. All right, let's do some final three topics, getting active IRL. Are you golfing

this weekend, tush? No, I'm playing some disc golf this weekend this weekend. Oh, disc golf. I turn 30 this weekend as well. Happy birthday, man. Thanks, and we're going to have a... I'm going to have a Super Bowl party. Popcorn and soda. Very cool. Yeah, it'll be sick. Just you and friends? Yeah, friends. Do they have to, do they

drink? No, I got some that drink and some, but a lot of my close friends now are also sober. Oh, awesome. dude. Congrats. It's easier. Birds of a feather fly together. Yeah. How old are you turning?

30. Damn. Yeah. So it's emotional. That's nasty. How old are you? 26. Oh, God.

I still got, I was 26 in 2006. I bought my first townhouse at 26. Very nice. Damn. Yeah. My dad had me at 26. And I'm 28 and I'm like that. I can't believe you fucking had me two years ago.

Yeah. My brain is so. How the hell? It was cool. though because there's there's perks to that like my dad like when I was eight my dad could still run around anyway oh I could pitch and you know his he was agile enough to you know throw back and forth all the time and I always say if I could do it all over again I can have the exact same kid I would I would have done it like at 25 26 damn okay yeah I would have done it sooner

personally that's a person yeah I'm going to New Jersey on the seventh or just a few visit my family. I feel like you're there all the time. Not even nearly as much as I feel like I should be. I agree. I'm not calling you out of business. No, I only go home. I only go home really now for holidays. I guess, yeah, it was just Christmas that you were there probably.

Yeah, Christmas I'd like to go for like 10 days at least to be there for a bit of time. I'm there less now that I'm retired than, because as a player, you had like a three to four month off season where I was just there for months. Now it's like I'm here. I have my life here. Right. I got this. I got my girl. It's just different now.

Taxes. If I hop back. Taxes. Yeah. I do try to go back when I can. What's you got going on this weekend, Hax? I'm thinking about heading out to Chicago to watch the Super Bowl with the boys. Because I didn't get a chance to hang out with them and they all came out with my friends.

Yeah. You know they were from there originally? Yeah, but you're going to go to Chicago. I'm not going to watch it on TV with the boys? Yeah. Wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wow.

I didn't get a chance to hang out with my boys this weekend. I would love of Chicago. Yeah, sure. I feel like this year would have been perfect. Instead of Atlanta, it was Chicago. Do you want to travel somewhere to go see your friends from home? Probably not to watch the Super Bowl on TV. I would watch the Super Bowl in real life with my friends that are also going to be there,

which I have done. Wait, wait, so you're going to the Super Bowl. I'm not. I have. Yeah, I get invited every year, but I'm not going. Actually? Like, I was saying, like, yeah. Really?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Last year, Oh yeah, you guys did. You and Seth? No, I gave mine to him. I remember that.

I went last year. With Seth? What Seth? What's Seth? Yep. Okay. Well, he made, threw half of it.

He was fucking drunk of the teeth. I was in bad shape. Did you guys have your teeth? Oh, yeah. Fantastic. He was like, he was like this looking at the game. I'll go to last year.

That was, that was, those are great seats. Oh, Oakley, yeah. He guys got great seats. See, it would be different if the Giants were in it, because I would be a whole different. It was cool to beat the Super Bowl and see everything. because it was like once again.

The event. I was at the casino and to my right was Pooka Nakuwa and Dak Prescott. Like that was just like crazy. Same table. No, they were at the table next door. I'd be scared, yeah. I was with Exposed.

Oh, then he would definitely belong to that table. Yeah, exposed. Well, then the table that he was at was too out of their price range. Yeah, dude. Expose is out of his mind. But it was super cool to see, but. All right.

One last thing, Dashie, do you have a hidden talent? What is this? Oh shit. Those are our seats. Wow. Those are insane. Not bad. Not bad.

Any hidden talents, Daschy? Besides gaming? Like, what are you really good? I'm gonna have other games I'm good at. That's my other guys hidden talent, but it may be, maybe poker. Poker? I'm pretty nasty at poker. I see your chip, your chip handling.

Yeah, like I hold them. What about you? There, Tushy? Secret talents? Yeah. No, everything's on the table. Yeah. I've had to put everything on the table to make it to where I'm at.

I'm not hiding any tricks up my sleeve. What about you? Zinni? I'm great at finding restaurants. It's all my God. I'm making sure everyone's eating. I'm so good at planning stuff. Yeah.

Building something. Yeah, I'm like, I'm like, too. All my talents are, they're out there. Yeah. You guys can see it. Yeah, I can't afford to have secrets. Not these days.

Even not these days. I've definitely still like streamed poker when I'm back in Canada because you can't do it here. It's illegal, but in Texas. But sometimes when I'm back home, I have a couple of viewers, but like I have to play with a three-minute delay. A couple.

A couple of what? Three minute delay whenever I'm playing, poker on stream. Because, like... You have to. I'm not getting streamed. You're not going to just see

what I have for free. I want to know on poker. What to know? Seth's Bachelor party. Yeah, the river monster. I cannot believe set till this day hit quads against me.

I don't know if you remember. Yeah, of course. You know what? That's kind of what just happened to me a couple days ago at the tournament. So one of the main... One of the main topics this past weekend was regular poker parties.

Dude, I'm in. Yeah, yeah. So we might have to actually host them here because the amount of people that were like there we might have like 30 people thieves that probably were down 30 people attorneys

easy that's like Oh my god $50 buy-ins and then you could rebuy buy one You can only re-buy one Really? Jayrod Yeah

You know just only one Buy back in Well yeah if you if you have And we do have people That just have infinite amount of rebuybacks They're just gonna fucking sit there The whole time

And the game's gonna go from You should only get to The way that we play tournaments Back home is you have one buyback and then the second buyback is full price, but you only get half the chips. And that's it. You get two buybacks.

The first one is full. The second one is half, but at full price, and then you're out. No more buybacks. Dude, I'm in. Even cash games, like even if we don't want

just play with actual just cash. Like, love that shit. No, we'll play chips. We'll play attorneys. Actual attorneys. I'm in though. Ladies and gentlemen, then I'm going to do it

for this episode of the Optic podcast. We certainly appreciate you guys stopping by. I want to thank again, our sponsors for the week, and we will see you guys next week. Absolutely. Peace out.