OpTic Gaming has defeated Sentinels in a 3-0 sweep at HCS Raleigh, advancing to Round 3 of the winner’s bracket. This was the matchup that most Halo Infinite fans wanted to see for a couple of reasons. The main reason, though, is that current OpTic content creator Matt “FormaL” Piper is playing with Sentinels this weekend after the roster was forced to make a change earlier this week.
FormaL is filling in for Mathew “Royal2” Fiorante, who was banned from competing at Raleigh after network manipulation by HCS. The complete Sentinels roster had defeated OpTic in the previous two tournaments leading up to Raleigh. However, with FormaL on the roster, OpTic swept through Sentinels.
OpTic gets revenge on Sentinels
The #GreenWall secures the 3-0 sweep against Sentinels! pic.twitter.com/IWBnXt8V9y
— Halo Esports (@HCS) December 18, 2021
OpTic came into this match as the heavy favorites. While FormaL is a legend of the game, he has only been competing with Sentinels for a little over a week at this point. This roster inexperience on the side of Sentinels was all OpTic needed to come out of the series with a 3-0 sweep.
Tommy “Lucid” Wilson was once again the MVP for OpTic. He was consistently atop the leaderboard, securing clutch kills and slaying out on every map. However, the win was a complete team effort, as every member of the roster contributed to the victory.
The highlight of the series was the first round of Oddball on Live Fire. It looked like Sentinels were going to walk away with the round win and possibly gain some momentum for a series comeback against OpTic. Sentinels only needed a few points to secure the round win, though, OpTic came firing back.
.@OpTic CLUTCH ODDBALL ROUND 1 🤯🤯 pic.twitter.com/WDncoW1jNJ
— Halo Esports (@HCS) December 18, 2021
Brad “aPG” Laws took the skull with OpTic down around 20 points and never gave it back. OpTic killed the entire Sentinels roster with the skull in aPG’s hands and then set up in garage, which is incredibly difficult to break through for an opposing team. They won the round by three points and then went on to dismantle Sentinels in the second round of the mode, winning the series.
The win pushes OpTic into Round 3 of the winner’s bracket. They’ve yet to lose a match at HCS Raleigh and continue to look like the favorites to take home the championship. Sentinels, who came from the open bracket, will now have to make a miraculous loser’s bracket run to make it to the grand final.
