THE INTERNATIONAL 2018 TEAM INTRODUCTIONS – OPTIC GAMING

Optic Gaming is an American Esports organization. They compete in various games like CS:GO, League of Legends, Overwatch and of course Dota 2. Optic Gaming ventured into Dota on September 26^th 2017.

Optic Gaming’s Current Roster: 

1. Pajkatt
2. CC&C
3. 33
4. zai
5. ppd

Optic gaming had a slow start at the beginning of this season but they started to pick up pace in the final few DPC tournaments. They won StarLadder ImbaTV Invitational Season 5 and came 2^nd at the ESL One Birmingham Major.

They qualified for TI8 through the North American qualifier.

About the Squad:

Pajkatt has been in the Dota scene since the Dota 1 days and has played for over 20 teams in his career. He was always known as one of the best carries in the EU region. Pajkatt was Digital Chaos’ coach for TI6 which went on to get second place at TI6. He is famous for his humorous personality and voice impressions of various players and talent in the Dota scene. He has also been a panelist for various events in the past.

CC&C got recognition after climbing the NA leaderboards in early 2017. He played in a few NA teams with little to no results. In late 2017, he got invited by ppd to join Team Dire which later became Optic Gaming. He is known for his skills on TA and Puck.

33 is an Israeli Dota player. He has played in many European teams like Kaipi and Hellraisers. When MiSeRy left Optic Gaming, 33 was invited to join the team. Zai switched from offlane to position 4 and 33 joined as the new offlaner.

Originally a HoN player, zai transitioned into Dota 2 along with ppd. He got instant success with team S A D B O Y S which later became Evil Geniuses. He quickly established himself as an incredible support player. After having an underwhelming performance at TI7 with EG, Zai decided to join ppd and make a new team for the season.

The Man Who Created Optic Dota:

Captain of the team ppd, is well known in the Dota scene as an incredible drafter and strategist. He was the brains of the EG squad that won TI5. In 2016, ppd decided to leave competitive Dota and became the new CEO of EG. After almost 1 year after being the CEO of EG, ppd decided to make a comeback as a player and made Team Dire on September 5^th, 2017 which later got picked up by Optic Gaming.

Optic has a strong lineup with a mix of both new blood and veteran players. With ppd’s captaincy, I think they will be one of the teams to look out for at TI8.