OpTic Texas crowned 2025 Call of Duty League champions

After three days full of shocks and surprises, the Grand Final of the Call of Duty League (CDL) Championship 2025 event continued to deliver. 

OpTic Texas faced off against the Vancouver Surge in the concluding match of the Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 season, with the Texas team coming out on top after an intense back-and-forth.

After dominating the winner’s bracket, OpTic Texas emerged victorious in a thrilling final against a Vancouver Surge side looking to knock down the Green Wall.

The Green Wall kicked off proceedings on Haceinda Hardpoint, with the submachine gun pairing of Anthony ‘Shotzzy’ Cuevas-Castro and Culyer ‘Huke’ Garland spearheading the slaying department to secure the opening map of the best-of-nine series 250-151. 

Vancouver Surge responded in emphatic fashion, knocking the Green Wall down with a defiant 6-0 win on Dealership Search and Destroy to level the series at one map apiece thanks to a flawless performance from Jordan “Abuzah” François. A five-round Protocol Control eventually went in favour of OpTic Texas with a 3-2 win for a 2-1 lead. 

Vault Hardpoint was another hotly contested battle between the two sides, with OpTic Texas continuing its impressive Hardpoint record with a 250-230 victory to establish a two-map lead for the first time. 

Vancouver Surge wouldn’t go down without a fight, winning a deciding round eleven on Protocol Search and Destroy to reduce the deficit to one map over an OpTic Texas side that had excelled in respawn game modes. A turn of the tide for Vancouver Surge resulted in the team scoring a 3-2 victory to level the series once more. 

OpTic Texas immediately issued a swift reply in Haceinda Search and Destroy with a 6-2 win led by Shotzzy and some crafty underwater flanking to outwit the opposition on Call of Duty’s biggest stage to move one map away from becoming the first team of the CDL era to win back-back-champs titles.

Rewind Hardpoint would determine if OpTic Texas could close out the series or if the Vancouver Surge could turn the tide and send the series to the ninth and final map. Clinical communication combined with excellent map control gave Vancouver Surge an early advantage, but the defending champions had an answer, closing down the early lead. 

The momentum continued to build for OpTic Texas, overhauling the lead on Rewind Hardpoint to win 250-215 and to close out the series 5-3 to win the CDL Championship 2025 event. 

This victory cements OpTic Texas’s place in the Call of Duty esports history books as the only team to win back-to-back season-ending championships. For coach Damon ‘Karma’ Barlow, the win gives him his fifth championship ring, after winning three as a player and the first as a coach in 2024.

Mason ‘Mercules’ Ramsey, the most recent addition to the lineup and a Champs winner on debut, secured the MVP award after a stellar performance in Kitchener, Canada.

Shotzzy also becomes the youngest three-time Call of Duty world champion in history, with three to his name at 23 years old. In addition to his Halo World Championship win.

For Brandon ‘Dashy’ Otell and Huke, both players earn their second championship ring after Huke won in 2020 and Dashy took home the title in 2024.

With the CDL season concluded, attention turns to the Esports World Cup, where OpTic Texas and other CDL teams are in action for the final tournament of the Black Ops 6 cycle.

Once complete, all eyes will point towards the launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and the likely roster moves that will take place in the months ahead of its release.