The behind the scenes look at OpTic, their Valorant team, and the documentary-worthy story behind the scenes.
After failing to secure a coveted NA Valorant franchise spot for the 2023 season OpTic Gaming was forced to let go of possibly one of the most talented Valorant rosters in recent history. Now a documentary released by the team takes a look at what happened from a player and staff perspective. It also shows what the scene lost in saying goodbye to this roster and the organization in Valorant.
The OpTic Valorant documentary
OpTic Gaming’s released documentary released on November 18th 2022 entitled ‘The Process: An Epilogue’ the documentary begins by showing the Valorant Champions Tour 2022 Istanbul, as OpTic faced up against LOUD and other teams to secure a strong start in the competition after a dominant year in North America.
Offering insight into the behind-the-scenes of players and staff and alongside the difficulties being faced by the organization itself, the documentary provides fans with a look at just what was taking place all that time. Adjusting to playing in front of live crowds again and sickness among the players were all part of the struggle. It's also how despite everything turning out so right for the roster--the year that OpTic was certain was its year--a roster that was one of the strongest seen in recent history wasn’t enough to hold things together.
What happened with franchising?
Despite claiming the title of Valorant Masters 2022, and an incredible run throughout the VCT Istanbul right up to the finals; when Riot Games announced the new franchise for 2023, OpTic was nowhere in sight. After taking their final defeat in Istanbul to LOUD at the finals, the support staff, Chet ‘Chet’ Singh (coach) had stated ‘now we just see what happens next year, that’s going to be f**king interesting.’
Except sadly for OpTic’s Valorant, there is no next year.
"we never had one doubt in our mind that we were going to get a spot. We obviously thought we were going to get it."
After several months of silence, members of OpTic’s staff and players opened up to express their thoughts on the matter. This includes why a household organization missed what was to be a given spot in the NA franchising system for 2023. FNS spoke on the documentary, saying "we obviously thought we were going to get a spot…we deserve a spot,’ while the CEO, H3CZ said "it hurt,’ in regards to missing out on a spot in the franchise.
While the staff and players spoke out on the lack of franchise spot for the organization, there hasn’t yet been a clear reason sighted for not being able to secure a spot.
What now for the players?
As the OpTic Valorant roster has disbanded due to the lack of franchise for the team, all the players have left the organization. And as said by FNS in the documentary ‘this is the last time we are all going to get to play together,’ and sadly, for a roster with such incredible synergy, he was correct. For the 2023 season four of the five players will remain as pro players:
Austin ‘crashies’ Roberts – signed with NRG GG for 2023
Pujan ‘FNS’ Mehta – signed with NRG GG for 2023
Victor ‘Victor’ Wong – signed with NRG GG for 2023
Jaccob ‘yay’ Whiteaker – signed with Cloud9 for 2023
Jimmy ‘Marved’ Nguyen – taking a break from competition and pro play
Chet ‘Chet’ Singh – signed with NRG GG for 2023
The end of an era for OpTic Valorant
For OpTic Gaming, losing out on the Valorant franchise spot is more than simply losing out on an opportunity to continue. It is the loss of an opportunity to continue building the legacy that the org had made such huge strives to achieve in the first place. OpTic’s Valorant roster was ‘essentially something from nothing’–FNS, and that was what made the team so supportable for fans.
This was a roster that no one had expected to do so much in such a short time. They defied the odds, extended the OpTic legacy and were more than just a roster of players. Support the players by following their social medias and give OpTic a follow.
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