OpTical illusion – what’s next for konfig & co.?

With Immortals Gaming Club’s long-awaited acquisition of Infinite Esports & Entertainment, the company behind OpTic Gaming, the ownership rules will necessitate the death of the latter franchise in CS:GO. While the organization had a very promising lineup at some point in the past, their experiments (and by multiple accounts, their obscene expenditures) failed to yield results in the space. From a player perspective, perhaps the most pressing concern is the future of the current OpTic roster – and it’s not exactly all bright if you look into the crystal ball.

Many newer fans wouldn’t know this, but there was a period where OpTic’s team was legitimately considered a top-tier contender and arguably one of the best sides around. In 2017, their roster consisted of RUSH, mixwell, stanislaw, NAF and tarik – two of which have, of course, just reunited under the NRG banner –, peaking #3 on the HLTV rankings after winning ELEAGUE Season 2 and finishing second at the ECS Season 2 finals. Running into Astralis and Virtus.pro in the ELEAGUE Atlanta major’s Swiss group stage pretty much scuttled their run and eventually the entire project, setting up one of the more interesting “what if” stories in CS:GO, especially considering how much success the individual players found elsewhere later down the line.

Since then, OpTic experimented with a weird Danish-American mix which seemed doomed to fail at the start before pivoting to an all-Danish lineup. (Let’s not get into their crazy OpTic India scheme here as it would take too much facepalming to break down.) They are currently listed as the 33rd-best on the HLTV rankings, with the core barely breaking into the top 20 at the end of May off the back of their win at the last week of ECS Season 7’s online competition, barely missing out on the finals in the end. Since the arrival of MSL and niko at the end of March, they haven’t posted any noteworthy results: it goes without saying that whatever changes the owners of the Immortals franchise are planning CS:GO-wise, they won’t play a part in the rejuvenation of the MiBR project.

So what’s next for these players? It’s tough to imagine that any prospective org would be interested in their floundering, and if this project is blown apart, there aren’t that many Danish or international sides where they could find a home – North already raided them for JUGi, after all. Heroic could use a few gallons of fresh blood, Cloud9 seems willing to try out anything at this point, but that basically closes out the list of viable opportunities in the top 30 for the individual players. TSM’s often mentioned as a logical destination for a Danish roster, but it seems somewhat unlikely that they’d be willing to break the bank for a roster so far from the top, especially how you consider how the whole "Danish depth" thing is a little overhyped.

That said, everyone with half a brain will be aware of how much a fire sale this is, seeing how Immortals basically cannot field this team in any competition. Who knows, if the price is low enough, maybe it will tempt an org to keep the experiment going – but realistically speaking, this seems like the only reason why this lineup might get one more chance to stay together and prove the doubters wrong.