OpTic Gaming Los Angeles, looking for a last place in the Call of Duty League, climbed Monday on Jordan “JKap” Kaplan in favor of Martin “Chino” Chino. Eric “Muddawg” Sanders, the general manager of OpTic L.A., made the announcement in a Twitter video. The change will take effect with the Florida Mutineers’ “home stand,” which runs Friday through Sunday.
“Obviously, our team’s performance was unacceptable, and we need to get a lot better,” Muddawg said in the video. “When we go to the Florida event, we try to play Chino for JKap in the starting lineup.” We also look at some role changes in the team. It hasn’t escaped us that we have two of the most talented key ARs in the game in Slasher and Dashy. But we are clearly in a meta that currently only allows one assault rifle, so we try out different scenarios to find out what the best team is. “
The new OpTic L.A. line-up includes Austin “SlasheR” Liddicoat, Brandon “Dashy” Otell, Kenny “Kuavo” Williams, Thomas “TJHaLy” Haly and Chino. JKap is one of only two players to have won back-to-back Call of Duty World Championships after achieving the achievement in 2015 and 2016. The other is Damon “Karma” Barlow (2013 and 2014).
JKap, a 26-year-old from New Jersey, joined OpTic L.A. last October. His previous teams were Evil Geniuses, eUnited, Luminosity Gaming, Team Envy, and FaZe Clan. Shortly after OpTic took him out of the starting lineup, JKap announced a partnership with other CDL backups to get some practice.
JKap tweeted: “If there are any teams out there who want to score against me @Enable @Gunless @Trei @SaintsNato, save one of us. Team Pine is trying to bring in our reps and will go fast” Peirce “Gunless” Hillman announced on Monday that he was on the couch at the Chicago Huntsmen. Ian “Enable” Wyatt is a backup Seattle Surge, Trei “Zer0” Morris is a sub-New York Subliners and Renato “Saints” Forza is a backup in Los Angeles Guerrillas.
