ESWC Results and Recap

The eSports World Cup Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare tournament has just rounded off in Paris, France. 8 world class teams from North America, the United Kingdom and France came together to celebrate competitive gaming and compete for the hefty $50,000 prize pool. As always, the outfits from the United States were considered favourites to win by an absolute mile, asserting their dominance against foreign teams as they always have done in the past. They did seemingly have a little more difficulty beating down their French and British rivals on home soil than usual, though.

Final Placements

1st: OpTic Gaming | Scump, Formal, Crimsix, Enable

2nd: Denial eSports | Clayster, Replays, JKap, Attach

3rd/4th: Vitality Storm | MarkyB, Peatie, Reedy, Watson

3rd/4th: Team Revenge | Faccento, Remy, AquA, Nagafen

5th/8th: Epsilon eSports | Joshh, Tommey, Swanny, MadCat

5th/8th: FaZe France | Zeroo, Vortex, Malls, ZylewR

5th/8th: Barrage eSports | Urban, Bance, LXT, Rush

5th/8th: Millenium | Krnage, Mel0, Gotaga, Carbon

You can view the full ESWC Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare bracket and more information here.

OpTic Gaming's Road to Victory

OpTic Gaming entered this weekend missing their newest acquisition in Damon "Karma" Barlow, instead brining FaZe captain Ian "Enable" Wyatt to help them secure victory on international soil. This would be an important event for the team, with a victory adding both to the Green Wall's accolades and a level of confidence heading into the Gfinity Spring Masters I next weekend.

Group Stages

OpTic Gaming vs Barrage: British underdog Barrage eSports clearly came into this series with something to prove, playing with reckless abandon and taking an unprepared OpTic completely by surprise. A lack of practise with Enable also seemed to hamper their performances on the whole, slowing down rotations and making the entire team seem somewhat awkward. Maps went back and forth in a worrying manner for the dominant OG roster, resulting in a Game 5 Search and Destroy finale. In the end, Barrage came out on top and achieve the unthinkable - defeating America's finest.

OpTic Gaming vs Denial: This match was now key. OpTic needed to defeat what many believed would be their biggest rivals for Gold, here and now in the group stages. If they failed, they would be eliminated with little more than a lingering sense of shame as their prize. Luckily, a fire had been lit under Scump and company, igniting a similar level of play to what we're used to seeing from these players. It felt at times like the only member of Denial able to go toe to toe with OG throughout this series was Clayster, dropping consistent big numbers and doing everything he could for his world champion team. OpTic Gaming took the series 3-2.

OpTic Gaming vs Millenium: This was an easy series on the whole, swiftly ending with a much appreciated 3-0 victory for the Green Wall.

OpTic Gaming 2 - 3 Barrage eSports

OpTic Gaming 3 - 2 Denial eSports

OpTic Gaming 3 - 0 Millenium

Championship Semi-Finals

After a close shave in the group stages, the team knew that they had to perform here. Luckily, OpTic managed to avoid pulling both Team Revenge and Denial eSports in the semi-finals, instead being matched up against the last bastion of hope for Europe in Vitality Storm. Storm had performed admirably the previous day, managing to overcome the odds and progress to bracket play over favourites Epsilon, so they'd no doubt be on a high and competing to the best of their abilities.

Unfortunately, nothing went right for the English quartet, thwarted at every step by OpTic's superior gunskill and rapidly developing co-ordination with one another. The series was over before it began, with only the Search and Destroy representing any semblence of difficulty for the North American roster.

OpTic Gaming 3 - 0 Vitality Storm

Championship Grand Finals

Here it was: the rematch everybody in attendance had clearly been waiting for. Denial eSports knocked out Team Revenge to progress on the other side of the bracket, moving up to face OpTic once again in the Grand Finals. The World Champions would no doubt be looking to capitalise on their previous tournament win and grab one or two more to cement their place in Call of Duty history, whilst the 3-time Advanced Warfare champions wanted to deliver a simple message. "We're back". 

They certainly delivered that message clearly on Hardpoint, keeping Denial to a mere 100 points and taking victory in a truly domineering fashion. At this point Denial rallied around Clayster, regaining composure and bringing the fight back to the OG lineup led by Scump. Search and Destroy was an intense affair, with OpTic Gaming taking it home after a clutch Round 11 victory. This was swiftly answered by an Uplink victory for Denial in similar fashion.

It eventually came down to Retreat CTF, where OpTic rounded things off with a 4-3 victory to lock out Denial and take home the eSports World Cup trophy as champions. An exciting tournament all round for the Green Wall, highlighted by an initial loss to unexpected opponents and followed immediately by constant displays of brilliance throughout the rest of the weekend. OpTic Gaming is back, and it looks like they're ready to take home gold even without their fourth.

OpTic Gaming 3 - 1 Denial eSports

Gfinity is going to be exciting.

The best Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare teams from around the world are set to compete at the Gfinity Spring Masters I, May 8-10th. You can grab tickets to spectate the entire thing live, or read up on additional information here.

Keep up to date with all the latest gaming and eSports news via our Twitter: @GfinityOnline.