Table of Contents
Part 1 The Birth of Optic
1 OpTicJ: A Very Humble Beginning 3
2 H3CZ: An Escape After Work 11
3 OpTicJ: Playing Video Games for a Living 21
4 Fwiz: Born and Raised in eSports 27
5 H3CZ: Back to Our Roots 33
Part 2 Building a Pro Team
6 NaDeSHoT: MLG Dallas 2010 39
7 H3CZ: My First Really Tough Decision 47
8 Fwiz: The Best Year of My Life 53
9 BigTymeR: All of This Almost Never Happened 61
10 Scump: Sometimes You Just Gotta Get Lucky 71
11 MiDNiTE: From GTA to CoD 81
Part 3 Modern Warfare 3
12 OpTicJ: Call of Duty Experience 91
13 BigTymeR: Rags to Riches 97
14 NaDeSHoT: No Bathrooms Backstage 105
15 Scump: My First Year with OpTic 111
Part 4 Black Ops 2
16 Fwiz: One Step Back and Two Steps Forward 121
17 NaDeSHoT: UMG Chicago 127
18 H3CZ: The OpTic House 133
19 BigTymeR: My YouTube Career in a Nutshell 143
20 Scump: How I Spent My Summer Vacation 151
Part 5 Ghosts
21 H3CZ: Hypergrowth 163
22 BigTymeR: All Good Things Must End 171
23 MiDNiTE: My Own Personal Grind 177
24 Scump: How Did It Get So Damn Ugly? 187
Part 6 Advanced Warfare
25 NaDeSHoT: Rock Bottom 197
26 H3CZ: Losing a Legend 203
27 Scump: There's Nothing Better Than Winning 207
28 H3CZ: OpTic's Best Year Ever? 215
29 Scump: I Loved Advanced Warfare 221
Part 7 Optic Today and Tomorrow
30 Fwiz: A Long Way from Ohio 231
31 OpTicJ: My Career in Gaming 235
32 MiDNiTE: Keep On Keepin' On 239
33 BigTymeR: Livin' the Dream 243
34 NaDeSHoT: What Now? 247
35 Scump: Already Focused on Next Year 251
36 H3CZ: Bring It On 255
Acknowledgments 259