The day Matthew “Nadeshot” Haag left OpTic Gaming to start 100 Thieves, a rivalry was born. Years later, the OpTic and Thieves rivalry continues with Call of Duty: Vanguard, except this time around another piece of the puzzle stokes the fire.
Dylan “Envoy” Hannon was kicked from OpTic Chicago and joined the Los Angeles Thieves roster during the offseason. For the first time in the Vanguard season, Envoy faced against former teammates in Seth “Scump” Abner and Brandon “Dashy” Ortell. Envoy had been a part of the OpTic Gaming brand for the last two years under both Chicago Huntsmen and OpTic Chicago, but was left out of the picture when OpTic joined forces with the Dallas Empire. Now on LA Thieves, Envoy has a chance to show that OpTic kicking him from the team was a huge mistake.
OpTic fans shake the building
Before the New York Subliners had left the stage after their win over the Minnesota ROKKR, the OpTic Texas fans were already on their feet chanting “Let’s go OpTic” loudly enough to shake the Esports Stadium in Arlington, Texas. That, coupled with boos for the Los Angeles Thieves deafened the sounds of any Thieves fans in the audience.
With every all-green kill feed or round won in Search and Destroy the crowd got louder and louder. But even their shouts could drown out the precise gameplay that was coming out of the LA Thieves. Before long, the Thieves were up 2-0 in the series over OpTic, who made it close but just not close enough. While everyone talks about the rise of king Scump, few take the time to realize the skill of his prince Envoy.
Went up 2-0 in the series and wouldn't be denied. #LAThieves pic.twitter.com/zjewlOpZhH
— LA Thieves (@LAThieves) January 23, 2022
The Green Wall wasn’t going to let Envoy and LA Thieves walk away with the clean 3-0 win, however, as they fought them back to a Map 4. It all ended on Tuscan Hardpoint. The map was as back and forth as the first Hardpoint, but again the Thieves came out on top. Now Envoy can confidently say that his move in the offseason was the right decision.
“The team’s mindset has always been just teamwork this year, especially being out in LA we are at kind of a disadvantage online,” said Envoy in a post-match interview. “It really takes that 100% of teamwork to win maps. Coming here to LAN I think we are doing a good job of translating and we’re just going to keep building on it.”
