The Flycast - How The Worst OpTic Team Became World Champions | The Flycast Ep. 153

Episode Date: July 12, 2025

Get your Championship White Jersey here: https://shop.opticgaming.com/Check out the OpTic SCUF collection and use code “OpTic” for a discount: https://scuf.co/OpTicCheck out the OpTic Podcast here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/optic-podcast/id1542810047https://open.spotify.com/show/25iPKftrl0akOZKqS0wHQGHow The Worst OpTic Team Became World Champions | The Flycast Ep. 15300:00 Intro02:00 Who is JP 09:30 How would JP fix the CDL 17:00 JP’s first game 22:30 0-18 to Champs 27:00 Who’s is JP most proud of? 35:00 How JP got his start

Ladies and gentlemen, the World Championship whites are available right now. The only difference, just so you guys know, the only difference is that we're going to not have the monster logo here. This is where the patch is going to go. But it's still available on a store. Look at the champions right now preparing for ESWC. Man, Hooke is all up in his monitor as usual. Go cop them right now. Welcome back to the fly.

Another episode of the Flycast episode. Why is it never up anymore? Just not. Matt doesn't care, bro. We stop caring and he stops caring. That's the way this company works. Matt doesn't care anymore. What's up, guys?

It's summertime. How y'all summer's been? JP's with us for audio listeners. J.P. Cres is with us today, man. That's the two-time. Back to back. That's the back.

That's the back-to-back. Might be the best in the game, but we're going to find out today. Got a lot of questions. Um, actually Before I get into my first question How's y'all Summers going? Is anyone enjoying this earth

Or is everyone just locked into Working? Making money, being productive I've been enjoying it Same, honestly, dude, Katie Trail walks every day That's the fucking move That's actually the move It is actually the move

Some pretty girls Are you live downtown? Yeah, I'm downtown Oh shit You know what's funny and this was actually gonna you saw JP out in the town hitting the clubs

Bob blonde Katie trail but I saw him on Katie remember it was me and James walking one way and we saw you and this was during this was during

this was during the Owen 18 bro I had to go on that trail for a walk just to clear my mind and I saw them and I'm like oh my and then we were like at first it was like

it was like we walked past and we were just like yeah yeah I was like I was expecting a conversation I think our first words were just like, what's going on? And then he was like, I literally expected to like

just clear my head not have to deal with this. And then here comes 20 minutes into my walk. I see him too. And they're like, so what's going on? Like he sort of explained it. I sort of explained it. But I'm like, dude, I don't know what the, like me and Damon are just like we're going to a match. Practice is actually going

pretty well. And then. Yeah, that's what you said. That's what you said. Like practice was going well. and then shit like that would happen, but I don't know. I'm glad we're just past it at this point. Well, we're going to double back to that point again. Also, you guys did it around the bar. Yeah.

So if my questions are, my questions are probably going to be a lot of repeats. But when did you guys do that? I can't remember. Was that during the? That was right after. That's what like still Caesar was on the team, I think. Okay, Caesar was. Yeah.

Okay, okay. So we had just gotten past it. Yeah. When we did the around the bar. Okay. Well, first things first And I'm asking this for a reason What is your first name?

My first name is John Paul Everyone just calls me JPM Why? Jean Paul Why? I mean, did you know that? No. You didn't know his name was John Paul

No, it's JP Yeah, everyone just called me J.P. But I did... The only reason I know the other J.P is Julian Pierce Because he posted everywhere. But I'm just saying that might be like a fake You had no idea... Shut up JP though.

You had no idea what J.P stood for. No. I didn't even know what's so for anything. Then I did, I did a wiki just to, like, see if there's something that could, like, you know, spark some ideas. I was like, John Paul, Cress, that's what that fucking means? Why? Why is your name John Paul? Why is your name?

Am I the only one that's never heard of a John Paul? Really? You never heard of John Paul? Sean Paul. Sean Paul? You ever heard Sean Paul? Yeah, but Sean Paul is like, Jean-A-Baw. It's not like one name.

I don't think I've ever heard two first names. Is it like some religious stuff? No, no, no, no. Is it normal? Is it part of your heritage? My dad's name is Paul and then like, I guess John was like just like an island in the Caribbean that like my parents liked, like St. John. Actually, a nice-ass like Virgin Islands island words in the Caribbean. Oh, you come from that.

Oh, you come from them. That's John Paul family. So John Paul together is fit. Cres is your last name. Yeah. See, I thought that might have been like your first gamer tag, the Cresonator. No, no, no. The Cresonator.

Cresident is my league gamer tag, though. Cresident? Yeah, president. I kind of fuck with that. So yeah, like I was saying, you guys did around the bar of some of these questions are the exact same thing. Just, I'm sorry. Yeah. Where are you from?

From the suburbs of New York. The suburbs of Barrington. Westchester New York? New York, Chicago. New York City. Like, basically like 25 minutes from the city.

Okay. You know, interestingly enough, I actually grew up, and I didn't know this, like, until recently, I grew up like

probably 15, 20 minutes away from Troy. Really? Yeah, he was also like more upstate New York. I was in the elevator this morning. Not Troy. Not Troy.

I mean, a lot of people that come from the gaming scene from New York are like either from the city or Long Island, New Jersey. I don't really know too many from Westchester.

But. Is that just like a random normal? Just random. Would you consider it New York? No. Like does it give a New York vibe at all? I mean, I would say anything north of Westchester's upstate, but everyone in front of the city just going to be like, nah, that's just upstate.

Even though it's like 25 minutes away from a minute. Dude, it's such a weird. Like, it's such a crazy thing. Like, for some reason in Arizona, a bunch of people are from Chicago. And I guess, I don't know why. But in the place that. My fiance's house is in Arizona. There's a bunch of people from Chicago.

So she'll wear her cubs shirt around and people are like, you're from Chicago? And then it's this 20 minute conversation between the two of them that I've heard a hundred times. Like a neighborhood walk. Are you actually from Chicago? Like what street are you from? Like you know, you're a Pertillo's down the street.

Yeah, and it's my family loves that. And I'm just sitting there. I'm like, dude, it's crazy how like big cities, like New York and Chicago takes so much pride and like where exactly you're you're from in this like you can't just say i'm from new york for to a person from new york because i'll be like where is then it's like they're grilling like oh westchester uh you're you're not you're not you're not i was about to ask you know i ask where you're at new york

like do you feel like a fake new yorkian almost yeah straight out as soon as they're like where in new york i'm like westchester like not you're like ashamed of it yeah what's like the cool places to be from new york like manhattan yeah just the city yeah Live under the sewers. What would be considered the city? Bronx, Brooklyn, New York, Queens. Like one of the boroughs. Yeah, one of the boroughs.

Is Manhattan a borough? Yeah, well, New York, Manhattan. It's the same thing. I'd be getting confused with New York. I've only been once. I don't even know the geography of it at all. I have no idea. I know of like the burrows just from like rappers and shit.

I actually think like something popped up on Geogessor when I was playing it one time and it was New York. And people were like, oh, that's just New York. Like, you got to find it. And I couldn't even find... Can I find New York? No, I know where New York is like on an American map. But like New York City in New York?

Yeah, it was like the... What's the park? Central Park? Yeah. It was like Central Park. And they were like, yeah, Central Park. Just find it. And I was like, bro, I have no clue where that is.

That's the five boroughs right there. And then you see like right up the top there, Westchester. So we made it into the image. You're from the Bronx. It's north of the Bronx. If I'm you, I'm saying I'm from the Bronx. I'm from the Bronx. Especially on the internet.

Like, someone's chirping over to my, like, oh, fuck, I'm from a Bronx, shit. When you're from, like, when you're from North Carolina or Hagerstown, like, when you hear the Bronx, you think it's like a, I thought it was like a neighborhood for a long time. I mean, it's like. Kind of. It is a neighborhood. What's this? I mean, it's like, it's a borough, but it's like a whole ass neighbor. The fuck is a borough?

Like, have you ever heard of yonkers? That's where. They made up a name. Like, where else is a borough used? Rabbit's. I actually have no idea. Rabbits. In New York.

In New York. That's it. Or, like, when you need a pencil at school. Click on that top left one. Yeah, that's where that Jean Paul is from. You ever visit the city a lot? Yeah, I would go. It's so easy because it's just like a straight up like a 20-minute train ride. Like, it's easy to get in there and get out.

But you would use the train. Yeah. Dude. If you're going from, like somewhere, like more north than the Bronx, you're just taking, like, metro north,

you're just taking, like, a train into it. Same thing with, like, Long Island. If you have anyone that's, like, from Long Island, they're just taking Long Island Railroad

straight into the city. Because driving into the city is pretty, pretty fucking annoying. Do you miss the city? Do you miss city life? A little bit. I mean,

I only lived in the city for like a year. Oh, it got, it got, it got, it got stunted. with COVID and the whole city

absolutely died and then I was like I need to see life Wait so you actually lived in the city? Yeah. Just for a year When we say city Are we talking a borough? Are we talking a borough? Are we talking New York City? Are we talking Manhattan? When we say city It's Manhattan. Okay. Yeah.

So why did you live there? That was during subliners? Yeah, subliners first year. Okay. So we practice in the Union Square in the city So how would you fix the CDL? How would I? fix it? Sorry.

We can go, bro. How long is this podcast? I heard the word subliners and I was like, I got a few more childhood questions. Okay, we can get back to that later. Sorry. How would I fix the CDL? Yeah, just like in one sentence. One sentence?

No, in like three boroughs. I might have to write an essay or some shit at this point. Dude, fixing the CDL, bro. First, I mean, I think the number one, if we're talking about number one, it's got to be like developer support and Activision support of like actual competitiveness. I don't know. I think everything stems from that and then from that is like okay now we can build a better

ecosystem of Cod then you go and target like obviously a better like amateur system a better format for the league but I think everything starts at like actually having a good ass game and good competitive like I mean that makes sense that makes perfect sense. Yeah would you consider Black Top 6 good? A good game? No. What makes it not a good game? The maps. The maps, just again the support. Like we don't have the same amount of support and just... What do you mean by support? You want me getting in trouble here? Codcaster's still broken. Podcast are still broken. Okay. We can't technically right now at this very moment. That's actually... Damon and I can't spectate with the mini map up or else we get scanner repair. That's the current moment of what we're

working on right now. Okay, so that's what you mean by support is like little things like that. Yeah, just little things. That mean a lot. That mean a lot to our community. To our community, but not a lot to like everyone else basically. And they just, it's weird. Like how are you like how are they not just, what's the difficulty behind fixing that? There's got to be. It's just the resources. Like he, instead of like, oh, you can make, you know, this skin or matpack or whatever word, we have people focused on X part of the game on new modes or something new maps that we want to create towards the end of the season or you can fix the codcastor that like

Yeah, one percent The one percent I played a I did a video or I played a bunch of old games and one of those was black ops one and you sit down You like I hadn't played in a long time you sit down in like a chair and then there's like a multiplayer campaign What is it like private match or whatever or zombies multiplayer campaign zombies that? I That's all it said. Yeah.

And then you click on it and there's like, there's like this like, uh, surround sound, like you're in the room. And then, and then in, and you're sitting in a chair and you're cuffed to a chair, you keep looking at your hands. And then if you click campaign, like, it goes straight into the campaign like in the chair you're sitting in. I was like, bro, it's got so much soul to it. Like, it's such a game.

Like it's a, it's a game that was made with like love. You could tell. I can stand. I actually, I couldn't stand that fucking game, but it was made. Made with love. Like, what game are you talking about? Black U.S. 1.

I think they've just taken away the arcadiness of it. Yeah. And it's like, now it's like we're trying to be milsim when it's like, God's never really been that. Everything's so like Robloxie. It's like very like like there's no like you, you don't even, is there a main character in Blackup 6? Like is there a person we can rally behind? Is there is it or is it, is everything just based around where can I put this fucking chop in? Like here.

Oh, by the way, before you go to this, there's seven. pop-ups about a black-ups or about a battle pass and then there's a shop yeah who's buying this shit dude apparently a lot of fucking people but apparently a lot of people it's like i'll look and i'm just like nah yeah that's i mean that's the same way i i look at it too and i'm just like 20 bucks for that why why why why why why in fortnight maybe it's just me but why in fortnight when i refresh that item shop i was like so excited to see if they're what like i was i was willing to buy something but I feel like with Cod it's not like that and maybe it is for a lot of people and maybe I just liked Fortnite more so I was willing to spend more but I feel like Fortnite had something

special with that. Cod just like spams their shop like like it's I mean I think some of the skins in Cod are really cool like especially like the big dragon skins and stuff yeah I feel like there's so much shit to choose yeah but like it when you first start Cod at the end at the beginning of the year there's like this huge race to get the master camo the best camo you can get and then within six months like that camo is obsolete because

they have available for purchase skins that are infinitely better like infinitely better they move and they have there's like a DJ scratch board on it you you inspect it plays a song like there's some crazy shit but like Fortnite at least is like third person

like you can see the skin right like if it's not a weapon sin and card like I've never really understood it because like... And you can stop, do a little dance. Yeah. What am I gonna see your skin do the dance? Like what do I see it when I die and my body falls over? Like, you know what I mean?

You don't see it all the time. It's all like competitive advantages in Cod. Like if you try to buy the darkest skins, you can hit in a corner in a war zone. Or dude, I see a dragon skin, I'm licking my lips because I... Yeah. Like the guy's a free kill, you know what I mean? That's what I never got to put that to you. I hate to say it, but every time I see an optic skin, free kill.

Free kill. It's a free kill. Really? Yeah. I love our fans, but they're ass at cod. Free kills. What's the hardest skin? Yeah, what's the hardest? Like the defaults. Like some like some guy who's like got the dark. The CDL defaults. What's the hardest CDO? What's the most try hard CDL skin?

Gotta be like phase, right? No, not phase. Didn't the LAT had like the full black one? Yeah, LAT had the full black. one. Yeah, that was like super cheese. People were buying them because it was basically another rose skin, but then like the CDL got rid of it. They told, they told LA that they couldn't do that anymore. The top right? Or top left picture, top right skin. Wait, have you guys seen the, uh, Yeah, that was it. It was pretty fucking cheese. Have you guys seen the Rainbow Six team skins?

No. No. Bro. Are they good? If you compare the ones that they're getting team skin one, that they're getting team skin wise to our overalls our overalls overall is that everyone looks exactly the same but different colors bro you have to see i think it's it might be the no it might be the the bottom right one is that it but it's like it's like super personalized each one is like a different operator and it just some have like everyone has a different mask on that's actually dope yeah that's kind of fire it's like this official one like like that g2 one i think in the bottom left might be official

I'm not sure. Oh no, definitely not, definitely not. But like, it at least has like personality to it. Right. Yeah,

no, there's like, there's no soul behind ours. Yeah, it's just like, oh, that's a CDL scheme, but that's the optical.

It just seems like everything about Cod now is like, but that being said, I haven't played the campaigns. So I'm sure there's, I've heard the campaigns have still been going strong. So I hope there,

I hope the campaigns are still strong, but it just, there's no unity in it. I haven't played a campaign. Yeah. I haven't played a campaign in so long. I saw that attached, like, played all of them. On veteran?

Yeah, in one sitting. And he was getting shit on for a... Played all the blackouts. Played all of them in one sitting. In one sitting. He was like, he was like, how fucking quick do you beat the game? Well, he didn't turn his stream.

I mean, he slept in. Me and APG were thinking about doing that here with Hela. Like Hala 1, ALo 2, Hela 3, probably like HALO reach. That'd be a good idea. Just set up fucking bunk beds. We can't. We can't. Yeah, legendary mode.

I've never beat in a legendary mode. That shit's hard. That's hard. Dude, that shit is hard. Halo is, Halo Legendary. I remember literally Halo 3 Legendary playing my friend co-op, and we would just take turns like, you go in, I'm going to like stay back here.

Yeah, so you can respond. When you fucking die. Because that shit was so hard for us. What was your game before God? What was your first obsession? First obsession? Halo 2. No, I didn't.

I'm 28. Okay. So I didn't play Halo 2 when it was in the table. Hayday. Halo 3 was like right before cod for me. Nobody played Halo 2, bro. But it was only like a few months before cod 4. Only old old motherfuckers played that. Only old heads played Halo 2. He said no one played Halo 2. Halo 2 is kind of like the cod 2 of Halo 2. There's like only like Hector's play. Dude, because the first time I actually played Halo 2, it's just, bro, you actually just lost so much full with them. It's so good. It just, no, it kind of just hurts. I'm just fucking with them. It's like

I don't know imagine seeing Michael Jackson live and then you ask your friends like you ever get to see Mike Jack live and they're like nah I didn't really like care and you're just like ah you never played lockout slayer

you just missed it a crucial moment not dude actually the first time I played it was when I was like a in senior in high school we had like a little senior lounge type thing and had that oldie Xbox yeah hit had Halo 2 we would just play like FFAs or something. Really?

Like four split screens? Yeah. The best of times. Those were good times. You went to, was that college? No, in high school.

Like, um, 12th grade was when they were like, oh, you guys get access to the senior lounge or whatever. And that's where people were like, eat or something, like,

have like couches like this. I forgot you're from fucking, where was it? Westchester. The Burbs. The Burbs. The Burbs. Yeah.

They had all the nice. Oh, you play any. sports, ice hockey and baseball when I was growing up. Ice hockey. Yeah. In New York?

Yeah. Is that your New York? Is that in New York? New York? New York? You bugging. Wait, did they say that? But they got ice hockey?

Oh, I guess it is cold as shit. It's fucking cold as hell up there. Is hockey popular up there? Yeah. Mainly northeast. And then, like, obviously, like, you got the fucking Minisotos of Michigan. How do you get into ice hockey?

Because it's not something you can, like rollerblade hockey, I can kind of see. What? What the fuck? Because you're just, you don't need any, like, you can play on your streets. You can play in your Westchester suburban neighborhood. Like, with ice hockey, you need to go to a rink. Yeah.

It's so like, like, it's not something you can just, like, pick up in your neighborhood. So, like, technically the way I got into it is like my sister started. I have a twin sister. And she started. She started figure skating, bro. And I was just at the ring sometimes. And I was like, okay, this is cool because I would see the hockey teams

on the other side of the rink or whatever. Do you consider soccer a real sport? You know, in front of hitch? Yeah, and not in front of hitch. What? Yes. Oh, my God. It takes some skill.

I just get, I like it when it's like Wall Cup and everyone's, like, rallying behind. Right. Yeah. I like FIFA. When they have that one big of. event. I get you. Yeah, but I'll like... What's your favorite sport by the way? What are you been keeping up with lately?

Recently. Uh, brilliant, enjoying. Like, just hating. Just hating. Just hating on... Tick-Tac. The best sport. Best sport, TikTok. I think I'm like top 10. All-time swipes. I'm sure you are. You've got to be a top 1%. Bro, it is. It is pretty bad. Are you addicted to TikTok or anything like that? What's your... I get addicted when I'm like about to fall asleep. Okay. Which is a... Pretty bad, but I was going to say... Honestly, it doesn't affect my sleep that much. I feel like I still, I'm, like, fine with sleeping, even though, like, I'll scroll out and just be doom scrolling for a minute.

What's your... During a... I feel like I'm a first day right now. It's just... What's your... Do you like TikTok? Yeah, that's kind of... What kind of toothpaste, dude?

I just don't... I just don't know how to host podcast. So I just... This is us getting to... This is me forcefully getting to know you before we go in the fucking... We're shot at Eau and 18. Oh, it's the mindset.

They just did it. They just did it around the, or a fucking inner circle. So like, all those questions have already been asked. Are they going to upload? Is this going up first? Yeah, yeah. Wait, we go. Yeah, but they're, they be on some fake shit.

They do be on that. Like, they never say that real shit. And Jean, Jean Paul. John Paul. John. Jean-Paul says that fucking real shit. Temperature, whatever. I mean, shit.

Where could we start? There's so many places to start. Did we start somewhere recently? Was there, was there, did you get your, did you ever get your get back this year? Like, get back. What do you mean? From what? Like, when you guys are 0.18, you guys are doing bad, you guys are people are saying,

oh, they're not going to make champs. Dash, he's not even a top five AR of all time. Yeah, yeah. Shotsie Shotsie's overrated He mean he's he's he's he because he plays fast like people think he's good But he's not actually good he only won one event on our one real event All this shit's been happening and then you guys

Win go back to back And it takes everything as being being a guy on the sidelines like I am I still sometimes just want to yell and be like yo fuck all you guys that were saying shit You should all die What No, I don't say that Monster Rehab Did you

Did you ever get a chance to Because you don't shock me Or you don't strike me as the No I mean because like I mean I feel like if I was the one playing I feel like if I'm not Like obviously I feel like I have some sort of impact With them but at the end of day like

They're one's doing it I'm just happy for that Like I'm the more gratifying thing I guess like for me and Damon is just like Dude seeing Kyler When is first for Optic after all the like hormal and after all the like good moments but never making it to first like with him and then obviously for mason it's like bro just came on the scene and it's just him and he wins his

first and the other two going back to back with like i think that's just cool to see like them do that did you think the emotions after they won were not higher but like did the emotions seem like sentimental rather than like hype I think for and it was I feel like Because that's what it seemed like watching like Yeah and even who I was like is he about that I was like shots he's crying Yeah shot he's like then I was like wait

Who? And then I saw a dashy who's just like He's not he's not crying No he was just hype because like obviously Last year was the thing for him with like Working seven years or whatever before Yeah Dude Just

Merk reminds me Listen man I get it bro I get it I'm so uncomfortable Yeah, MVP. On, like, stages like that. It's just, you're just... Yeah, Shadow Greenwall, MVP.

But yeah, did this scene more, like, I guess, more of a sentimental win than a... Yeah. Yeah. It was more like the journey. This was a journey. Like, the, like, last year was, like, the pinnacle, like, we did it, like, we, we were the best team in the game because we won the previous major, the major three. Right. And this one was just, like, this whole fucking season was a journey.

and to have it like the capstone moment, the climax, finally did it. It was like the uphill battle the whole way through. That was like the more emotional part for us for sure. But yeah, I think so. Like especially for Kyle and, well, Kyle for sure because he's like, I swear that he works so hard and like he's always like such a good chill guy

about anything that happens to him. No matter, even if it's like obviously screws him over. Like sometimes if he got dropped or like, yeah, he got dropped earlier this year. but he like his mentality about it is so good where it's like I'm just going to go here and work and work as hard as possible and you know I'm going to win with this team I mean he's been on the flycast I think twice and each time he comes back

it's like he gets dropped and he comes back and we do a flycast he gets dropped he comes back we do a flycast and every time he sits down with us he's just like you know I'm just ready to work like I'm happy to be here just gonna put my head down put in you know 110% effort and that's I mean I fucking love hook man there's not many people

I don't think how can you not like yeah I don't there is someone out there there's someone that doesn't like you don't like him I see he's not a good person right that's so true there's someone out there that doesn't like hook and it just doesn't make sense there's that that clip of

of temp talking about him on a podcast and he was just like dude like the thing with Kyler is like he just never he never cared like he'll get dropped he'll get dropped he'll get dropped and Temple's like I used to get dropped and when I get dropped I'd throw a fucking fit like I'm better than all y'all

I'm gonna come to beat you guys and Kyle would just be like alright I guess I can find another team and then he finds another team fries on that team well then he said like temp said he'd get thrown to challengers and then he just fucking run through challengeers, God challengers player like but he still just like Gigi's alright I'm back

I'm back to the league guys wait who's picking me up okay can't wait to play and you got my number again that shit is crazy who on the team would you say you were most proud of throughout the season most proud of throughout the season

probably I mean it's hard to choose I would say Kyler just because I know how much he worked like dude literally going through amateurs at the start of the year getting picked up by us doing pretty well going to that Madrid event

which he wasn't even our worst player at the event like we just didn't play well as a team at that event he gets dropped because we bring back you know the dynasty or not the dynasty sorry the championship team right and then we have the whole turmoil then he gets brought back but again he's still running through

wherever he like needs to be yeah and he comes back with us wins the championship at the end like dude I said this in my post interview but like No one plays I swear no one plays more eights no one watches more vaude as a player than him I would be very surprised if I heard someone like had more hours on him in general on the game It definitely seemed like you guys were the most prepared because I kept seeing like little articles maybe I was getting click baited by whoever but people were saying that like

Faze and thieves didn't switch anything up like during is that true like what I mean slightly to an extent but I think Damon had a good clip about it where it was basically like if I mean they're if they're doing their stuff and it's working it's hard to be like that as a player in your mind and be like oh let's just switch it up you know just because I mean it's working to practice it worked at the events but the fact is like you're just going to be under a microscope for everyone else like dude we had a month to prepare for phase on protocol yeah and we do like I watched it, I watched that map that they, like the last three maps that they played on protocol, at least like 50 times each.

Like, because we just knew that it was going to be the map. So like, and then we would watch it together. And then we'd play more protocols with each other. And then we've watched it together. Like, we literally knew it was going to be mapped to a month before. So we were like, let's just get ahead on this. Is it not a guaranteed to be mapped to? Like you're just assuming like, this is going to be banned.

Technically, yeah. So, so. So technically it could have been something else. Technically it could have been so There was there was two choices so like we most of the time they would pick team B against us and this is gonna go on to the fucking veto process But most of the time they would pick team B against us and they would pick this S and D map and since they beat us on protocol earlier and that was like their best or one of their best searches We were just like okay if they pick team B it's gonna be that We go into the match. They pick team A so we're team B we have first search pick and I'm and I go back to the players. I'm like yeah, sure we just guarantee this protocol since we fucking work so hard? I'm gonna

work so hard on it like and they're like yeah let's just do it so like we expected them to pick it it but but you guys ended up we were just like let's just fucking guarantee the shit because we so when you did pick it do you think they were like they were like they were like yes they were probably like what the fuck are they doing honestly if i had a given us our one of our best man i wonder if the castor said that whatever the castor said what why did it optic pick this yeah we i mean we were just so prepared on it that we were just like well let's just run it so well what's it like when you're breaking down you said you watched it i don't know how many times you said 50 times

what's it like what are you looking for when you're as a coach are you watching and I guess what you're watching phase play protocol against other teams yeah so just like protocol S&D? Yeah protocol S&D

so it was just protocol S&D yeah that was the map that specifically that I was looking at. I'm done with Cod so I might misspeak on it's mainly the S&D stuff that you can prepare for like respawn stuff is just like it's kind of on the fly and like there's some like small like oh they're they'll usually do this or whatever but search is like these are their plays that they'll probably do and yeah they could switch it up

but like this is you know how they like to usually play it so did you have like three different videos of phase playing this team phase playing this team face playing this team that's how they play yeah so it was just like let's let's watch all the offenses first let's watch all the offenses first see what they're doing see if there's like anything we could like exploit in that watch all their defenses see what they're doing see what they're doing see we could explore anything and then look internally into like what are we doing on protocol and like what could we do better just in general is like you know do we like what we're doing here is this like open to anything that could be like sketchy going into like a big tournament like this but is there

any specifics that you notice phase always did and you were like okay we can capitalize on this yeah so it was like one of the so you'll see in one of the rounds but it was like basically so Sorry. I'm a big ass fucking nerd with this shit. No, and I want to hear. I would love to see. And I know people will love it too. Because you're about to say there's a,

there's like a gameplay or something. Yeah. Like I would love for the gameplay as you're talking to like somehow be up. Yeah. Shut up on the, not right now, but like in the post to hear you talk about it and then see it like come into fruition. So there was one,

like we were just basically doing like a default A where we didn't send anyone towards A first. It was just like, okay, we're going to send just people to dig around, get info. We knew that they would like rotate off of A quick and trying, if they don't see anything A, go B. So we were like, okay, we know that they fucking rotate quick because they're expecting us to BB. So instead of actually going B, we just delayed A, went back into A, there was only one guy left on the site, kill him in the close corner, and then it's a free site. But like, we just knew based on what the reaction would be to like that type of place. was like oh let's rotate to be quick because we didn't see anything a quick yeah you know I mean so like shit like that is just like one smaller aspect that and honestly like it was good on I think

it was aunt who was who made the play call because it's like I I try to rely on aunt a lot because I'll like he's the one who usually will call plays and stuff and usually before games like I'm talking to him or we're watching in discord like me sharing my screen or Damon sharing your screen uh with them and detailing just you know this is here to like here's what to look out for you know they could change it up like that's always gonna be a thing but like if they don't change it up this is what you should expect basically so that was one of the bigger problems for me was like I don't want to over do this shit because what if they just completely don't do any of this you know I mean but I think aunt's been really good at that he's

just like dude I'd rather see it because like I'd rather have some type of information than no information because you know I just want to play off something something And he's really good at that because he remembered about them rotating off. And then he was like, you know, it's just delay A. And they didn't. It worked. And it was. We'll get back into more stuff like this.

How did you become, how did this start for you? I saw, I think it was on like Wiki. You started with the subliners in like 2019, 2020. Yeah. Right before that, where were you? It was a work in progress. So I was, I started doing. that stuff just for MLG back in the day, like, ghosts.

Oh, you love this. Yeah, I've been doing this shit for a minute. So, like, 2014 is when I started, like, beginning of 2014, probably. And then I got super lucky because I was literally a train ride and 10-minute walk from the MLG headquarters that were in the city, in New York City. So I interned there, like, freshman year of college. Yeah. Met Puckett, worked with him, was writing for that e-sports report, doing stat stuff.

He's my codfather, bro. That guy's a man. He might be my gaming father. Straight up. He actually is. No, but he gave me that chance. And from then on, from like 2014 to 2019, I was just working the cod events on the back end, like as a stats producer, basically.

What does that intel? So any, like, graphics that you see on the stream, you know, how you see something like, oh this KD or this leaderboard or this like map thing that was basically what I was doing back in the like CWO and like you're looking at every single stat calculating it up real quick no I mean it was like automatically calculated but like I was like oh which ones are good for this story of this game it was like you know they're playing

fringe hard point and they're 10 and no on it so like let's just let the the public know about that that type of shit right given the analyst desk like fuel yeah I was I was in the ear of nameless or whoever was on the desk at the time, study. Really? Yeah. See, I had no idea about this.

Okay, so you do that for, how long were you doing that until? So that was like the side gig all through college. It was so easy because I was just straight up like, you know, let's not have any, or let me schedule no classes on Friday, fly out Thursday night, go to the event, do that, and then, you know, come back to Monday. But I was doing that from, yeah, I guess going to events from like 2015 to 29. and then as soon as the CDL started, that's when more like just opportunities arose

like to help out a team. Or to like to actually help out a team because I was just doing it for MLG. Like I wasn't like part of a team at that point. So that's when I got contacted by the New York team to help out. I was like... For what like position?

Just to be like an analyst basically. Oh really? Yeah. So went into that. If you watch the Roundabout podcast, I was gonna say, is this all around the bottom? It's gonna happen a few times. No, it's chill though, but yeah,

I got a lot of experience just first year because I'd never been in the scrim before, never worked with the team before. Yeah. A lot of people took me under their wing, ended up working with greats, like, crim, clay, you know, obviously,

Damon, Ant, Chatsy, or Kenny, like a lot of different, really good minds in the scene. and it all just helped out in terms of like different point of views and different resources that I could fall back on and you see a lot of cod

What was your first? What was your first? What was your first? Who offered you your first like coaching thing? Coaching gig. Um, was that like something you were aiming to shooting to get at? Not really.

I think it was it was basically, I would say the first year for New York I was just an analyst. And then like I would still, at the end of that year, I would still like give my opinions to like the other coaches or the players. Like I was still in the scrimms every day just talking about them. So I was still like part of the team. So I feel like it just came natural that I was like sort of transitioning towards that way.

But I just felt like that first year I was like, I don't know what the fuck is going on at an in-depth level. Like I got to learn all this shit. And then let me like, you know, ask some questions or be like, well, why would you do this year? and then kind of just build up all that knowledge until I got more experience. To go from stats, because you would think it would be a smooth, a smooth transition.

I thought so too. Yeah. You would have to sort of be a player to be a coach almost. Right. I mean, yeah. Honestly,

were you like, were you ever a player? No. A good player and not even like challengers, but like maybe a top 250 or. The extent of my shit is GBs and wages, bro, like probably most people here.

But that's always the fucking, the imposter syndrome thing that I get. Yeah, I can imagine. You're not even a player. You never play at the high level, but... But now you have two rings, so fuck them. Yeah, I guess so. It's just, yeah, but it's still in the back of my mind because it's insecurities and shit, you know?

But yeah, I mean, it's more... Yeah, I remember asking you... I remember asking you... It's so much watching that, like, I know what is working for another team. Yeah. I don't have to play it, but like I can tell that it's working for them and it's not working for us, so it's like... Yeah. I think I remember asking you around the bar that, like, you always had like a coach with you, so you were like an analyst to a...

coach yeah and then like uh things didn't work out with rambo for optic and he he leaves and now you're the sole coaching staff yeah so you go from being an analyst your whole career to a head coach basically you're the ones doing the vetoes and everything yeah and uh and so i think that would probably be the moment that you that was like the the pivotal moment of like okay i got to take up a lot more responsibility at that point. That nerve-wracking? Not really. Like, are you at a point now

where it's basically whatever, obviously you discuss it with the team, but is it your call? Oh, I mean, for what, like, vetoes and stuff? Yeah. No, I mean, we're always going to talk about it as a team. I don't think it's ever worth for me or Damon

be like, no, we're playing this. That makes no fucking sense. Statistically, we have... What about GMs? Start bringing out stats and data and, like, trust. Like, I'll bring up some stuff. We have 68% of chance of winning this.

What about GM stuff? So like when somebody comes to you, because Hector has made it a thing that like the players, the players can always make the decision for the team, except for this year. And I think he's kind of changing his mind about it. But whenever somebody is like, yeah, I think there might be like a roster change.

Yeah. Can you shut that shit down? I don't think so. I mean, I never really, I think you should be able to do it. Well, I mean, talk about some of the things. that have happened this year. I mean, the whole Mason thing

and we want your opinion on. I mean, we can start from the very beginning. Yeah. I'm not a, I'm, uh, I don't have power in the roster stuff. I'll say that. No, I'm just like, all right, that's the roster, that's the roster.

But honestly, you know, it was, I loved how Hector did the whole Mason change because he called basically everyone. Like he even called me, he called Damon, we all had separate thing like,

yeah, what do you think about being a Mason? I was like, he'd be a very good fit. it, you know, short term and long term for the future of Optic. And I was like, I was basically like, it'd be a kind of mistake not to do this type of mistake. But I liked how he just got everyone's opinions about it and be like, okay, here's the decision now. But I'm glad that like it was first being brought up because me and Damon during that weekend were just texting each other.

Like, this guy is, like, all he does is go positive and make the right play. Oh, like when you first got him brought him on? When we saw him in Toronto. Oh, oh. Me and Damon were texting each other like. Just immediately, like, this guy is fucking good. Yeah, we're like, this guy would be really good. Can you set the record straight?

Because it seems like there's a big division in the community of how much of a role Zen had to play. I don't know. I assume, apparently it was a big role. Play it down, play it down. I don't know. Hopefully he never sees this. But I think, I think, from what I've heard,

that it was a really big role. I don't know the exact thing. I believe that because I don't know what, because I remember thinking it was kind of faded that like it seemed like the team like was just kind of like going to ride it out. I think the players were going to ride out because I had mentioned aunt on,

I think it was Sunday day I was texting him. I was like, are we making a change? Kind of thing in my head like, we're probably making this change. Yeah, like at this point like just because of the situation because me and Damon were texting each other. And I think, I don't know if Damon texted hex or what he did with Hex.

but I assumed he was messaging him, but then I hear afterwards that like Zini had a really big influence on him. I was like, hell yeah, Zin. I don't know how much of an influence that was. Zinni just had no, I mean, obviously he was friends with skies, but like at the end of the day he had nothing to lose, I guess, with voicing his opinion, especially behind the scenes. It's not like he went out publicly and was saying,

no, we fucking suck, we need a change. Like, this is all behind the scenes. And I think he just, just knew bro sometimes you know when you're a vet like zinny you got a you got a good eye for talent and i think everyone sort of everyone could see that when he played when murk played on toronto yeah everyone sort of knew but it was like yeah but the players are like yeah but we kind of promised we were going to ride this out so it's like we don't want to be those guys what if we do make the change and then zini was just like now like this has to have you ever done anything like that

with optic like have you ever done anything like what zin did I have one I respect it because I didn't think that like something I would have like enough power to do something like that When Cid said he did it I was like that's fucking awesome Because I've done shit like that before Like I remember when the Halo team was Lucid Trippy

APGola And And I remember Matt was playing He wasn't on a team But he was getting like He was going insane Like he was like a top five player Like instantly

Like instantly a top five player. He has impressed me so much. And I remember, I remember texting trippy. And I was like, yo, yo, I'm out of town right now, but do you want to go to lunch like when I get back? Like, I just want to meet the thing. You want to hang out.

But what I was going to, I was going to tell him like, yo, where should, where can Matt fit on the team? Yeah. And. But then by the time I got back, like, or by the time, like, I was going to go to dinner with him like or lunch with him like i think they had already started talking about like replacing ola with matt and then they win world i heard it when matt came when i heard matt was playing halo infidate again like i already knew it was it might have took a tournament or two yeah um

and they were gonna feel it because obviously if like the halo team comes out wins the first event wins the second event yeah like can they fucking pick up man yeah so i think they were just kind of waiting it out but i i knew right away when matt was starting to play a halo again. And that's what, that's what I'm saying. Like, I, I know that me texting trippy, if I would have gone to lunch with him and be like, where's his Matt Phelan team? I'm not going to take credit for that. But I, like, but I think Zinn like actually made a, like, I think he actually said, like, D.Mirk and was like, you know, don't sign anything, by the way. Yeah. And I think it gave our Cod team the confidence to be like, it gave them,

gave them the, it's the word I'm looking for, to where it's not going to fall back on them. like this is hex and zin so they felt more comfortable of like because if it's like sorry skies we're gonna fucking drop you and this is our team's decision then the community's in a fucking uproar but if it's just like

listen zin and hex are overruling whatever y'all think is gonna happen yeah just take it all for them a little bit yeah and I think that was sort of the goal behind it all and it really was sort of the truth I mean I can't I don't know what was in our

cod player's heads but yeah I think Hacks and Zinney knew, like, yeah, they already promised guys. They're going to write out for the season. But, like, this is CEO overthrow. Nothing you can do about it. Like, we need this fucking. The season has been terrible. Nothing.

It can't go down from here. We need this fucking kid. I mean, at the end of the day, like, and it's all going to fall back on us. Yeah. Straight up. At the end of the day, I, like, I would always compare it to, like, NFL or NBA draft. Like, you got your, like, he's on the table. Right.

Like, go get him, bro. Like. Yeah, exactly. If you, this is a long-term play. But is that weird? This guy's 21 or whatever. Is that weird now that we have a championship roster and people are, people are talking about fucking scrap being available, scint being available? This is.

Selyum being available. I see it's so much different because it's no experience. This guy's a free agent and he's like super young and moldable. Yeah, you got to grab him. Before we talk about this offseason and what could transpire between other teams. teams last year and we might have to cut this because I don't know if it's public last year after we won worlds is it true and I don't know if it's been talked about publicly or if we're allowed to talk about it we can cut it if not is it true that some really fucking good players we're trying

to get on optic that's what I've heard and could we could we say names maybe not say names the team the possibility of a team again Matt yeah yeah Okay, yeah, the team We're gonna be Hydra Scrap Shotsie Dashie I mean That's just That was gonna be the team

Like that would have been the team But it's like you can't make it You can't make a change Because you just won fucking war World's But now we're in the same spot But like You can't change this team either

But You can't You've got multiple Caternment just look at legend Cres Cres Cid Cs They won four events and worlds, and he left this team. Yeah, but he left.

Now he's on the best fucking team, guaranteed. Yeah. But Legend and Bound together. They probably would have, especially probably would have fell behind this year. Like, it was a good decision. But we don't have a, I don't want to call out any names, but we don't have a, we don't have a player on this team that is like the IGL. That is like the, you can replace, shout out my man, F&S, but like there's not like an F&S on this team. Where some, do you know who FNS is?

Yeah. Yeah, he's like somebody who's like shot calling, but like maybe not slaying out as much. Like it seems like everybody on this team is like any moment could be a double a 2.2.0 KD. Just three owing everyone until grand finals. Right. I mean, I felt like we felt like we felt like that last worlds. I mean, Fred was a guy. I mean, I don't know.

But she was a god. She was a god. Kenny's like that IGL. Yeah. But there was kind of that you kind of felt that way. but Kenny but Kenny's just so fucking smart so it's just like I don't this the team just messes perfectly and then you even see season starts with the number one seed so it's like yeah see I forgot that even happened but like I mean even before that bro it's like same year I mean

insane year mentally scrap hydra shotsy dashy god damn I would have love to see them but I remember And let me know, Matt, but that was Hex's call, is he was like, yo, this is going to be the team. And then I won't say who, but someone convinced Hex, like, no, we can't make a team. I think I know who, but I'm not going to say it. We can't make a change. We just won. We just won. And so Hex was like, I.

And then I remember Hex, after the O-N-A team part, Hex was like, bro, I had the fucking team. I had the team. I had it. I said we needed to do it. And so then the Mert comes along and heck, it's like, I'm not making the same mistake twice. Like, we're not going to write it out. Right. I mean, that kind of, you know, you never know about the decisions you make.

You never know if it's going to be the right or the wrong one. Like what if we would have picked them up? I'm out when the first event, lose the second, lose the third, get like get finals in the next, then get like top six at Worlds or something. Like you just never know. No, you know. Like, it really, really just fucking all worked out some way, somehow. Going from...

Literally the laughing stock of the CDO. Well, especially, yeah. And people, people were fucking eating it up. People were getting, people were getting off to it. Oh, I can't wait to see him lose again. I literally couldn't fucking wait. Oh, man. And now I hope they're sitting there just, but they're not.

They're not. They're just like, no, what can I hate on next? Drake's new song? They moved on to... But yeah, even just sitting here while they were going through like the 0-18 stuff, I was on the watch party for some of it. And it was just like, yeah. And then I would come in on like a content day.

I see them sitting here doing like a game chat. And I'm just like, man, what? I don't think I've ever watched the game chat, but I'd like to go back and watch it through some of the like when they're just 0-15 or something. And like, what's the concept? comment section look like you have to do it you have to do it it's like contractually obligated video what reacting to the comments of o and 18 of o and 15 reacting to the comments of

o and 18 just oh man what what what what what what kind of wait when did you guys do the around the bar was that after all that right after we picked up skies yeah basically so like like right after all the oh and 18 shit yeah we beat we had just beaten or we are right before we beat surge, I think. And we thought we were back. Yeah, we thought we were back. Yeah. I was going to ask, well, I mean,

I was just going to ask about the whole like 0-18 situation. Was it? It was all around the bar. Was it a, what was it? Because we started off first seed. Actually, can we talk about this first? Yeah. What?

And we don't got to say what happened. But we obviously win last worlds. stick it out with the same team and then what before even like the first online thing we dropped Pratt? First land, first land. Before the first land we dropped Pred. Right? Why?

Why? Without getting into details was it more of like did it seem like the team wasn't performing well? He was out in fucking Bali. No. It was Was there personal argument, was there arguments?

Was there, we don't got to get into the details, but I guess just give me like, I mean, it was just like the focus wasn't there. And once the focus wasn't there, like, maybe Shotsie's getting a little pissed about it. Yeah, there's some animosity. Now he's showing up late. Is he hung over? Yeah, Shotsie hung over. Was it just not Shotsie hungover, but like Fred's hungover or something,

and then Kenny's getting into arguments. Y'all start losing scrimms. Is that kind of the gist of how it went? Yeah, a little bit. I'm actually surprised at nothing. I don't mean, I don't know the details. But like, if this is, if this had happened eight years ago with a team, we would, we would know every argument about everything who fucked up, who said this, who was doing that.

Because that's just how the cock community was. Well, we got Pred on the flycast. And before we talked. Yeah, he ain't give us nothing. Well, before we. He was a stone wall, bro. First off, I was happy to have him back. was too.

I was like, listen, here's, we got some questions. We got some questions. And we said before him, but like, he was a PR. He was,

it was beautiful to watch. I was like, what happened with the team? And he would hit us with that, well, you know, it's just the, it's just sometimes.

No, I get it, but like sometimes it's just. And he, he wasn't giving us nothing. He gave us nothing. Honestly, very smart move by him.

Yeah, yeah. Because if he would have just said, I don't know, some stupid shit that might make people lose, respect for him in some kind of way

like you know it's just smart move by him not mentioning anything we just we just never really got to know of course we hear stuff and it's nothing like insane or on some like

go to jail type of shit it's just like I don't know maybe I should change this subject it's also no one's business that was one thing about that time is like because Optic has always been so like kind of transparent and handed about all of our decisions.

Oh, like we deserve to know. We deserve to know. We pay your bills. You deserve you deserve to tell us what happened. It's like that's not how that fucking works. It's not like he was like secretly doing heroin or like some shit like that. It was just. It's not like us.

I think I think the team just didn't like some of the stuff he was doing and it caused inner turmoil. And once there's like this weirdness between the team, it's so hard to scrim and then you start losing and then arguments. And, um. So I guess that happens. Then right after that. So at what point did you regret? Not that this is any of your decision,

but at what point was there regret of like, ah shit, we should have never dropped Kyler. Because like, Kyler was playing. So what we dropped Pred for Huk. Me and Damon were surprised even happened. Yeah.

I remember you telling me that. I was kind of like surprised that it happened. We, me and Damon are like the last to know. So we were like, okay, I guess this is already happening. But we were like, me and Damon were more like, oh, we just had a bad event. Like we assumed that we were just going to like run it back or whatever. Yeah, yeah. But they were like, okay, you know, we're bringing back the championship roster.

We're like, you know, if everyone's cool with that, if you're all, if like the, you know, if the focus is back here now, focuses on the game, then we're chilling. We're cool. Right. But I always, I mean, I texted Kyla right after. I was like, bro, you did everything that we asked for. Like, yeah. This sucks because like, obviously we're, they're trying to bring that. the championship team but like dude we can invest like you did everything that we wanted you to and

we just had a poor event i don't even think you were our worst player there you know i mean yeah it was super sitting played the bass and then he just goes back to did he go back to challengers after that or did he just chill i think he just chilled okay he was either chilled or went back to challengers i weird how teams weren't like dude and i guess he gets picked up they get top eight it's like it doesn't seem like he'd be like the hottest commodity i mean he was probably I'll be getting offers, but probably not just trying to move. Right. He'd get offered to like a shit team, which is like okay money, but then he's stuck there for a two-year contract, like something like that.

Right. You just don't want to get sucked into that. Yeah. How do you go from the number one seed to 0 and 18? Great question. Were there, hold on, I haven't written down there. Were there any specific? you noticed,

interteen, turmoil, and I say that because shot, and I had no idea, and Shotsie just said this recently, Shotsie said on stream

that him and Kenny would kind of argue, and then the other two would just like not say anything. I had no idea. I thought it was like, I think that was like a bit overblown.

I think they agreed on a lot of things, but there were still things that they didn't agree on. And like, and to say like no one else, like, I don't know. I think that was a little bit overblown.

Like people would, say their opinions but not as much as as Ken and as aunt and like me and Damon would always give our opinions and stuff too it was just like he was more so talking about like um you know like AG which was hard for him because he was just coming back from not playing for two months so he was all of that was all catch up and then like brandon brandon is more like he's not going to he said this but he's he's more someone who you know follows the game playing he's not going to just like outright say like we should do this all the time he will say that sometimes but not like if we have already like people

developing that with Ken and Ant I think it was a mix of like those two clashing a little bit but also AG having to catch up for that whole time too and all of that stemmed to each other

and it was like in the moments in the clutch or the game moments because I'll say in scrimms it wasn't like that bad it was still like not great but in the matches we couldn't even win a map like it was just and I think

at a certain point it just got to a mental point I was going to say, do you think, oh, we're going to a mental point? Oh, 100%. I mean, you don't go owe any team without it being somewhat like, well, with these players. You don't go into it and be like,

yeah, we're going to go into this and win one map this time or something. Like, let's win the match this time. It's been going well in practice and then 0.3. That clip of Hector's talking to Dashdie and said, hey, right now you are the worst optic team of all time. But you have the ability to be the best optic team. I forgot about that.

That's actually. Yeah, that's a great clip now. Yeah, he said that to Bruce and Bruce is just sitting there like, I mean, yeah. That's a, dude, that's a bar, dude. Wow, I completely forgot about that. You just reminded me.

You're the worst, right now you are the worst object team of all time. That's got to be crazy to hear. From X's mouth on cameras on. Process is going to be crazy. Yeah. Little bars like that in there. How Raj transitions it.

Rodg gets a whole year to work on it. That's crazy. We were talking about that a little bit. Hitch would only have a few weeks with vision. Two days. Two days of vision. Raj gets a month.

Roger gets a year. That's all good, man. Or a year. A year. A year. What was the last process? Like 20. A year ago.

That's all good, man. Who was your favorite, who is your favorite player to coach or work with? All time. A lot of shit with. Ant. Probably aunt now. Really? Oh, I have a good question.

I love, I mean, I love all the guys. I don't really have a bad, you know, relationship with anyone that I was with your least favorite. Lease first. Don't know to say that. It's not worth, not worth answers. I'll say that who the hardest was, and he knows it is Porter, Crim. Ah. That was like, yeah.

You can say that. You can say that one. But I love, I love all the guys that I work for. Um, I think, I think Shotsy said this on stream so we can talk about it. Because I was always one, I've always wanted to know. Um, Jossi said, like, back in the day he hated teaming with brandon because of his like mentality yeah but that but since then I think Bruce like flipped a switch one year I can't remember I mean it was MW2 because

like I started with optic MW2 and we were just doing like online scrims for the first month and then that's when like the whole Ray Brandon thing happened right and like so I that was my first like two months I was like like oh so much or like what is what is this what did I just joined but so i yeah i was wondering if you missed that because i i i missed that because i missed that because i don't know any of that that that was like vanguard yeah that's completely new to me because like honestly once brandon came back i think that's the the switch that flip because like i because it was just me him and who was it kiler and inder for a little bit before we pick up dan but something must have switched during that because i swear since that moment he's been more of like

Yeah. You know, like team player. Like, I'm not putting myself first. Was it Seth retiring, you think? I think so. I actually think so. Oh, Brandon randomly spawned up and just became like,

bivy and funny. I mean, he was always funny. He was always funny, but he was just so like. No, he's like different now. Like even,

like he used to be more quiet on podcast and like he might say some funny stuff. But like now it's like his. Oh, bro. That's all I know. Because like, I mean,

even like the 20V1 girl thing on stream. Yeah. saying crazy shit like he's he's always obvious like if you're funny you've kind of always been funny but that motherfucker like broke out of a show or something like I legit think you're right I think it's the set thing I after Seth retired it was like because even knowing him from like content no more pressure on me content perspective like like Bruce was always late like guaranteed I mean he's lay every now and he was going to show and a lot of the time wouldn't show up like I think one month he like didn't show up to a single shoot and

And Hex, like, freaked out. Yeah. All he needs is for Hex to freak out, and then he's, like, back on his shit. But then, like... But then, like, Seth retired, and it seems like Bruce is, like, relatively punctual, like, kind of like the rest of us are. It's, it's, it'll happen every now and then, but it's, like, a blue moon, and it's like, okay, Brandon's... I mean, it's, like, literally a completely... He's honestly been really good about it.

Bruce has always been a great guy, and I've always really... Like, when I streamed over here, he would stream, like, formal would stream there, and he would stream... the three of us would always stream in the same spot. So, like, we hung out a lot. And he's always vibey, but it's just, like, the content part he could never, like, get into his brain. Yeah. But ever since, it seems like ever since that retirement, which is at, like, what, two and a half years ago at this point, like, three years ago. I mean, he has been, like, a completely different person.

It's fucking crazy. And I think that's what Shots he was saying is, like, I used to hate teaming with Brandon, but now, like, now he's my duo. Because I think you can put Shotsie-Dashy as like a one of the best duos possibly ever like In-Cod Back-to-back duo right? It has to be right yeah first back-to-back duo I mean you I think you put shotsy dashy up there with With aches teep with the the terrors with Seth Matt like you can put them up there with the one of the best duos in Cod history And I'm glad that they were able to like work through that shit too Yeah.

Yeah, but I was wondering if you were part of that, but you weren't. No, yeah. All I know is the more vibey Brandon, I guess, and not yelling at him. And being viby too. Like every now and then I'll tell him, but he's not like full on yelling like that. That's crazy to think about it. I got a question about Merck. I've been seeing it in my chat, seeing it fucking elsewhere.

Is it true that Merck plays on, just plays default, no paddles and doesn't claw? Bro, this dude, you can go to Walmart and buy a PS5 controller who'll use it on stage. But like, that doesn't make sense. No, no, it's not playing. The way he does it. I was waiting for you to be like, oh, no, I saw that too.

And like, yeah, no, no, he actually uses it. He uses just, like, one left paddle sometimes. Like, you should have seen our reaction. Like, just, you're using a Walmart control? Like, just straight up from the... That's what someone said. I was like, no, that's impossible. Bro, the way he holds his controller,

like he can jump in and look at the same time with his thumb and shit. They have to make custom scuff controllers for him. Custom scuffs, no paddles. They just slap a scuff logo on the... I want to find a controller. And, like, I want you to, like, show an exact... Like, does it not look normal when he holds it? Like, his thumb will, like, be more sideways

so that he can press... It can hit, like... Or press A or whatever. So, like, he's doing button combos. He has to hit, Dude, it's fucking crazy. Does he play default? No claw.

So he slides with like what, what is that? No, dude, how, how, how? You gotta ask him. Don't you. It's fucking insane. It doesn't make sense.

Think about how in Blackop Six, you're just slide canceling around every fucking corner. Is he just like? And he's not like a, so what do you have to hit like circle than X? Because you hit circle to slide. He says he like half claws if he has to like slide or something I think or some shit. Like where he.

But dude You're like Just a little But like circle Yeah Yeah Can you demonstrate If how is

Like the way I was It's like It's kind of like this or some shit I don't get it how he does it But like Dude I wish he was here To like show up But like it's straight up like

Some sideways shit Where his thumb is like Dude I'm telling you That makes no sense You should see our reaction Some sideways shit You don't claw

What do you mean You don't claw You're getting shit on right No No No Do it like this MVP of champs actually

bro that makes no sense because here give me that controller just think about slide canceling how like like this this would on default this would be to slide right yeah and then so say he like half claws

but then to like get up he'll zoom in and he'll hit this and then he brings the thumb with both of them yeah so like dude it's fucking insane I don't get it honestly it's like a it's straight up like a

inspiration for anyone to be like, you don't have to do anything. Like, you can just get a default sculf. You don't even need paddles. You don't need nothing. You don't need a... That's free. You don't need a claw.

That's like, okay, there's, there was the... Who was the man before scump? Was there one? The man before scum? There was the Big T. Then there was the skump. Then there was the Shotsie. Then there was the Hydra.

Or then Simp and people like that. Now there's the fucking murk to where, like, you don't even need paddles. He's on a different level in that type of fucking way. He's back to just regular Xbox. Like, you have to be different to do that. That's insane to me. Especially on Call of Duty when you have to slide cancel around every fucking corner and you're sliding this way, popping up, sliding this way pop up.

It's like, how are you doing that without a paddle? It doesn't make sense. But you're confirming. You're confirming that he doesn't. Dude, you could legit, he'll go to a store and pick up a random controller and be like this doesn't have paddles.

No paddles. This is a scoff doesn't have paddles, but I'm going to use it. Because some people claw, so they don't use paddles. Exactly. But he doesn't claw. Dude, he doesn't do either.

And I'm like, how did you do that? It doesn't even make sense. Bro, if Optic doesn't come out with a video of just like looking, camera on his hands. The inside the mine videos? Yeah, camera on his hands. Show the game.

They need to do that. It just doesn't. Dude, I was, I can't have to hold them, but... Does scuff even make controllers with no paddles? I think so. They gotta get them like custom-made, I think APG. No, they gave them... A. B.G has to do that too.

Oh yeah, because he has hands are so they make them for sure. I just, yeah. I remember Bose used to rip them off. Like before, before you, they could detach. Not just like take them off, just rip them off. Well, before they could get, they could, like, because 360 controllers used to be like, they were kind of like really hard popsicle sticks on the bat. on the bat and he would just

fucking like I don't like I do remember that I know people that play without paddles but they all claw like sad you have to do one or the other that's what doesn't fucking make sense about that because you have to be able to

you have to be able to slide jump and move and aim at the same time it just you have to be able to it makes sense to me I have to see that in person because people were telling me that in my chat and I was like

you guys are stupid I was like yeah you guys are dumb as fuck I'm gonna all right time him out please like this is getting enough I'm actually mind blown I said that waiting for you to like be like no he uses like a left paddle and then just like claws sometimes

I'm like okay or he like plays tactical and maybe tactical maybe that fucking works do pros play tactical or my is it still the only person on tactical but it's like very I think it's very rare any good pros tactical was good when you when drop shot Selium played tactical.

I mean, there's still might. Akes plays inverted. Some people play a... Do you know that? Like, I know Paco plays like bumper jumper or some shit like that. What? You didn't know that? What do you aim in on then?

You use L1 to jump. And you stun with A. Like you throw a stun with A. Is L2 to zoom in? L2 would be... Yeah, L2 would still be zooming. So he has his fingers up here to jump and aim in. Wow.

Like, I'm just bad. just bad at the fucking I'm gonna teach my kids to claw and left claw I do got a few more questions How often are you watching their scrims And how often are you studying their scrims afterwards Like every single scrimm are you in there?

Oh yeah yeah we're I'm always there Every single scrimm Yeah every single scrim now what about afterwards Do you do? Is there ever like nights of scrims Where you're like fuck I gotta go home and rewatched Yeah if it's like a like a bad day or some shit Like at the end of the year like nowadays Not really because a lot of it's all kind of figured out.

There's just like some other like different shit. Like if there's a specific thing, I've kind of like made the Vod stuff for me more efficient where it's like I don't need to watch a whole map. If I know that we need to work on P2s or P3s, I can just watch back the last 10 P2s or whatever in a row and just keep seeing. Like think of it is like if you want to use like a halo analogy,

be like I can go back every time we have ball on recharge or whatever and be like, how do we get broken on every single time like the last 10 times we click this or when we had ball or something like that you know I mean? Yeah. So I make it a little bit more efficient for myself

so I don't have to watch a full thing but if I wanted to watch a full thing I'd watch the full thing I'd watch the whole thing. I think more nowadays towards the end of the year it's more watching other team stuff to prepare for other stuff or get new ideas for some shit but yeah a lot of the beginning of the year

is rewatching that type of stuff. Is Dane how would you compare Damon to when he first started coaching compared to now? Do you think he is more dedicated and passionate about it now? Did he start getting more into it?

Did he even want to coach? Or was it just kind of like, you're the goat, yo, just fill this spot, we'll pay you? I don't know how it. I feel like that's how it started. Then I feel like he found love for it.

But I think he has found love for it. I think he like enjoys seeing those guys succeed as well so I think it's like it turned it started as like I just got to help these guys out or like right like this is an easy sense like seamless transition and then I think he actually started to like really like it and work with him yeah it seems like he seems like he likes it I would dude I would kill to know how he was as a player just like working with him because like I've only seen him as like obviously like working with him as a coach yeah but like everyone that was always us oh is there one

person you wish you coached I was like dammit because I want to see how the fuck he was as a Yeah. What's something you like and dislike about each player? Like and dislike? Okay. Who should we start with? Chatsy. Chatsy.

Of course. Okay. I mean. Or if you can't think of any dislikes. You don't like when he gets a four piece and continues a child of fifth guy. Yeah. He was upset with himself. In my opinion, bro.

I think we all were watching it live. Dude, if we're talking like emotions and stuff, bro, every person is going for the first, the fifth guy. Every single person is going for that fifth guy. I don't care. Not me in 09. Yeah, not me. Perfect player. You're going for the second guy.

But, uh, dude, everything, dude, the guy is- I died to the first guy. I'm responding. I don't even get to the second guy. But, uh, dude, I mean, he's insane player. The best player I've worked with as overall, like, player in general, the nicest guy. something i don't like about him maybe that he overheats i think i don't want to give you ideas i think he plays dumb on stream so much man i don't he plays oh i think he plays dumb i think he plays dumb

so much he doesn't need to do that bro but i think he plays the character a little bit too much yeah for sure i think he does too but then sometimes i'm like wait he might be not be playing around he might he might not be playing around there's some things where i'm just like actually he doesn't know he's for sure like he has his uh what we're not he has his uh what his bit his stick yeah he has this thing

he's gotta be uh dashy dashy I love how Brandon has just evolved as a person as like a player like I said this

in one of the post interviews but like he's transformed into that formal for him role like how formal took him under his wing he's taking

like Mason under his wing like it's kind of that same shit where it's like you know he'll call up Mason for stuff that he does because he knows

that he should be better in that right area as well and he like he knows as an AR or as like you know a person with that much more experience like you can't be doing this and Mason is like a sponge and he just listens and it's it's perfect but just like grown as a player in person 100% something I don't like still sometimes it's punctuality punctuality not respecting other people's time and shit hey if you do well and get back to back I don't give a fuck at that point all right we'll go hook Tyler

I mean, we talked about it, but the passion, the absolute, like, no matter what I'm going to grind, no matter what's throwing at me, I'm going to grind, just straight passion, how much time he actually puts into the game, how much time he invests in just getting better himself. Hard to say something I don't like about Kyler, but... Yeah, this actually is a... Kyler, maybe that, maybe, like, maybe he's got a... I don't want to say he shouldn't spend as much time, but it's like, but like, you know, you got a life too, but like, you spend a little bit too much time. But hey, if that's what, if you want to do that, he wants to do that, he wants to do that and he gets better.

So I can't really say anything. But it's like, come right. You know, there's a little bit more to life than just cod, you know. And I hate to say that as someone like working with him wanting to be the best, but like, you might have to, you. He's got an off season through. Hit the Katie Trail. Yeah, take an off season. Take an off season off, bro.

Don't play off the off season. Don't play chalels and stuff in the off season. All right. And last but not least, the newest member, Merck. Mason? I mean, the best part about Mason, well, obviously not the gameplay, because the gameplay speaks for itself.

But. How we use this controller? Yeah, that too. That's just more amazing. Yeah, that's probably the least favorite. It's like, bro, you use of paddles or something, bro. You know how disgusting you'd be with paddles or with them?

Maybe not. Don't change anything, bro. Don't change anything. Don't even actually bring this up. I hope he, because I don't want him to start thinking. Maybe I should. I think that's the,

one of the better things about him is like he doesn't overthink about some bullshit like that. So he's super stone cold, like, not a tweak at all. I think the best part about him, though,

is like just his personality. I think he's so easy going, so easy to work with. He, like, you tell him one thing, it sticks with him. He's a sponge.

Like, he knows when the whole, like, screwed up somewhere and sometimes you don't even have to tell him he's so easy to work with maybe one of the easiest players i've ever had to work and and he came into the optic as this humble guy of like you know i was just outplaced you guys but i'm coming in as like this humble guy and like obviously super young let me just soak everything in let me enjoy the ride and he streams every day he is starting to make more content he's actually taking full advantage of it so just like

his mentality about everything is just been just awesome something I don't like about him I'm trying to actually think probably like a better way of put yeah great question Nick something I don't like this is honestly it is pretty hard but I think also wait did you know like what he does with the and this is like maybe I should start doing this but he has like a little towel that he uses to wipe his hands no you didn't you haven't I have seen that but he has a like not only does he play default he has this towel like yeah like a quarterback towel okay and he just he like after a round he'll wipe his hands with it yeah apg started yeah some some people sorry that was that was just like a little tangent yeah um dude honestly there is not much like he's so

he's such a good kid right now like i feel like he's hiding something though yeah he's got to i feel like he's hiding something you know what i mean like he's hiding some shit i think that's the thing like he's almost like too quiet and shy for my liking right now like i'm a i'm like a quiet guy sometimes all easy going but like he's like super quiet sometimes and i'm like he's talking like this and i was like yeah like what's going on behind those eyes maybe he's hiding something talking like this i don't know i guess we'll find out on the around the bar coming to us soon um shit i guess we can end it on that man this was this was a good one Appreciate you hopping on here.

Hitch, if you have a question, go ahead. No, I'm good. I'm living life, chilling, chilling, living hard. It's summer, man. We're going to go outside and enjoy our day. You hitting the Katie Trail today? Actually, probably, after screens, maybe. Okay, we'll see.

All right, man. Well, shit, that's going to do it for the fly cash. Shout out, Jean-Apaw, joining us today. Yeah, man. Appreciate it, man. Yeah, man. Thanks for stopping by. That was a really good episode.

Yeah. Matt Craig, hit us with the outro music, man.