OpTic Gaming won their second back-to-back event to prove they are truly at the top of the Call of Duty Black Ops 6 competitive world, sweeping Vancouver Surge in the process. The result all but guarantees that the upcoming rostermania will be one of CoD’s most active and interesting rostermanias of all time.
The roster had pulled off a hugely romantic victory at CDL Championship Weekend 2025, as the roster recovered from the depths of going 0-18 in maps at one point to retain their title as the best CoD team in the world, and further cement the legacy of Anthony ‘Shotzzy’ Cuevas-Castro.
EWC proved that the CDL Finals, which featured numerous early upsets, was no fluke, as OpTic defeated 100 Thieves, Heretics, and then swept the Vancouver Surge in the playoffs to claim their $600,000 winner’s prize pool.
The victory gives them Call of Duty’s biggest prize pools back-to-back, claiming the title of “World Champions” at EWC. With the EWC expanding its influence and meaning in various esports, do you think EWC warrants the title of ‘World Champions?’
The Mercules effect: Looking forward to Rostermania
Mason ‘Mercules’ Ramsey’s emergence from the Challengers league has not only had an effect on existing rosters, who know they must step up to compete with OpTic’s mix of seasoned veterans and this new prodigy.
The 2003-born rookie has awakened the whole scene to the idea that there is talent outside of the CDL, diamonds in the rough that can be polished into superstars. Long gone are the days of recycling talent, shuffling the same players throughout different rosters and hoping they work. Mercules has changed that.
The process has already begun with Abe signing for Toronto Ultra, representing Movistar KOI at EWC, but he won’t be the last, as Call of Duty moves towards a new season and a new game, all things are possible in this new world following the emergence of OpTic Texas’s new star.
Rostermania is guaranteed to be cinema.
Darragh Harbinson is an esports writer specialising in Counter-Strike. He has written for Esports News UK, Esports Insider, UKCSGO, Dexerto, and Rush B Media.