YOU may never have heard of OpTic Gaming.

But if they have it their way, you’ll soon think of their name and the names of their players alongside some of the biggest sports teams in the world.

OpTic is the biggest name in competitive Call of Duty, a first-person shooter video game that has sold more than 250 million copies over its lifespan — behind only the Mario games and Pokemon in the biggest video games ever created.

That popularity translates into success in eSports as well. eSports is currently exploding online and reaching into the mainstream, with 23 million viewers in North America and Europe combined last year. Add in the massive Chinese market and you’re looking at something bigger than some major sports.

And while most fans follow and view the games online, that doesn’t mean the guys from OpTic aren’t celebrities in their own right to a certain audience.

The team has travelled to Melbourne for this weekend’s Crown Melbourne Invitational where they along with the best team from Europe, Millennium, and six Australian teams including local champions, Mindfreak, will compete for a $70,000 prize pool in Call of Duty: Black Ops III.

From left to right — Matthew ‘FormaL’ Piper, Seth ‘Scump’ Abner, Ian ‘Crimsix’ Porter and Damon ‘Karma’ Barlow, members of Call of Duty eSports team OpTic Gaming. Source: Supplied

But even on their way through airport customs the OpTic players were being welcomed by local fans.

“When we went through customs we were already taking pictures, then at the casino, at the mall, we’ve seen people everywhere here,” Damon ‘Karma’ Barlow told foxsports.com.au.

“We’re outside talking or getting food and someone comes up to you, they look so happy and they’re shaking when they’re touching you. It’s a pretty cool feeling,” added Matthew ‘FormaL’ Piper.

Barlow and Piper are two of the most successful Call of Duty players of all-time. Alongside Ian ‘Crimsix’ Porter and captain Seth ‘Scump’ Abner, the four have totalled almost a million dollars in prize money over their careers.

While even that pales in comparison to some other eSports such as Dota 2, which gave out a total prize pool of $18,429,613 to its 16 teams at their 2015 championship event The International, the guys from OpTic have the advantage of a massive team behind them.

THE TEAM

OPTIC is a major player in the eSports circuit with teams in popular shooters Halo and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive to go along with Call of Duty and was named eSports Team of the Year at the 2015 Game Awards.

The team has earned prize money totalling almost $830,000 over its lifespan according to esportsearnings.com but while they’re already a big name in competitive gaming, they’re also looking to transition into the mainstream.

OpTic owner, founder and CEO Hector Rodriguez told foxsports.com.au that the team was all about connecting with its fans and making a connection that goes beyond just the video games themselves.

“From the beginning we were all about YouTube, connecting with our fans and doing everything we needed to do to have the fans be interested in our lives — to know us without even having met us,” Rodriguez said.

T2P A photo posted by @opticscumpay on Feb 14, 2016 at 6:47am PST

That’s clear when you check Twitter and see just how big their presence is. OpTic itself has over 1.25 million Twitter followers but even Rodriguez has over 700,000 fans, which he helps grow with constant video content and communication with fans.

“Traditional people go to TV but for kids, they have this thing that’s easily accessible from anywhere — from their classrooms to church. Wherever they are they have access to entertainment on YouTube,” he said.

The team is gaining legitimacy with advertisers too as they look to target the prime audience which eSports has, with the majority of fans being in the prime males 18-34 years old demographic. That has seen Pepsi sponsor OpTic using iced tea/juice brand Brisk Mate.

In that way OpTic’s growth is good for eSports overall with the major hurdle for the field simply being to get people to accept that competitive gaming not only is big, but something worth paying attention to.

“2015 was a very transformative year for eSports because it started to reach a level of mainstream — traditional mainstream media like television and radio,” Rodriguez said.

“As far as the numbers go though, we’re already mainstream. You cannot deny or argue with the numbers for eSports.”

THE PLAYERS

BUT none of OpTic’s growth would be possible without the players themselves.

OpTic’s reputation means they’ve been able to collect the best players in the world, with Damon ‘Karma’ Barlow a new recruit who just happens to be the only Call of Duty player ever to have won two World Championships.

Barlow has won the most prize money in competitive Call of Duty history, with teammate Ian ‘Crimsix’ Porter — the team’s in-game shot-caller — close behind.

Porter said he got into eSports after seeing one of the first televised events — a Halo 2 tournament run by Major League Gaming that aired on the US version of Foxtel.

“Before then it was always Super Mario Kart or Super Smash Brothers — it wasn’t serious at all,” Porter said.

“(But) I saw those guys play and they were doing stuff I’d never even seen or heard of. That was how a lot of us found out about it.”

Both Porter and Matthew ‘FormaL’ Piper made their names playing competitive Halo first, with Piper the first person to ever win a major event in both Halo and Call of Duty — similar to winning a championship in both forms of rugby.

Although Piper doesn’t exactly make his remarkable transition sound difficult.

“When I first came over from Halo I thought this looks pretty easy, these guys are doing stuff I could do too,” he said of his introduction to Call of Duty.

“So when I switched over it was pretty hard at first but it’s a game where if you put in the hours you can get pretty good, pretty fast.

A screenshot from the video game Call of Duty: Black Ops III by Activision. Source: Supplied

But the team’s biggest name is Seth Abner, or Scump to fans. Many refer to him as the Michael Jordan of Call of Duty and he’s generally regarded as one of the best players the game has seen.

Funnily enough Abner has an athletic background — his dad Shawn was a baseball player, taken first in the 1984 Major League Baseball draft by the New York Mets.

But Abner has carved out his own path and has done what many of his fellow eSports stars have done by turning his own brand into a money-maker.

Abner has more than 1.8 million subscribers on his YouTube channel where he uploads daily clips of him playing Call of Duty which receive hundreds of thousands of views each in just days.

That sort of viewership means Abner could safely retire as a professional player and just live comfortably off of the money he makes from playing games online for fun.

Not that he wants to quit any time soon.

“I’m competing until I feel that I’m not an asset to the team anymore and I feel that I’m not bringing the team positive things,” he told foxsports.com.au.

“These are like my vacations because every day it’s the same thing like a regular job — make a YouTube video, get lunch and then you’re turning on your live stream from practice.

“I could definitely benefit from the YouTube side of things more if I didn’t play because I’d have more time. But I just love competing so much that I could never not compete if I was capable of doing so.”

THE GAME

THIS weekend’s event, the Crown Melbourne Invitational, will see the eight teams clash in the most recent Call of Duty game, Black Ops III.

The Call of Duty series exploded back in 2007 with the release of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and from there the first-person shooter has been one of the biggest brands in video games.

If you’re under the age of 35, you’ve probably heard of it — and even if you’re over that, you’ve probably heard of it from your kids.

The teams will clash in different game modes in teams of four, including the classic Capture the Flag mode as well as modes that involve defending a base, capturing specific points on a map or simply just taking out your opponents.

Compared to most eSports it’s ideal for new viewers given the objectives are almost always clear — shoot the other guys — and rounds are short, close to five minutes each, making the stakes apparent and matches exciting.

Interestingly from a competitive perspective, the game literally changes each year as publishers Activision release a new edition of the series every October or November.

That’s different to most eSports which may balance the game every few weeks or month with downloadable ‘patches’ that make tweaks to even out characters which are stronger than others.

Dealing with each successive release “is almost like riding a bike” though according to Abner.

“A couple of things may change but the fundamentals always stay the same so it’s easy to go from year to year,” he said.

“It takes a month or two to pick up and try to master but the other teams still have that same obstacle.

“And I think our advantage is that we learn faster and we get ahead of the pack before they get a chance to fully learn the game.”

Competitive Call of Duty players also had to recently deal with a switch in the actual games console they play on, with sponsorship changes meaning their matches now are played on PlayStation 4 rather than the Xbox 360 or Xbox One — although Abner believes that change wasn’t overly difficult either.

Their competition on Saturday and Sunday, where fans can watch live at Crown Casino or via an online stream, will come mostly from European powerhouses but also from the top two Australian teams, Mindfreak and Tainted Minds.

Mindfreak in particular has performed better than most other Australian gaming teams have in all of eSports, finishing sixth at last year’s Call of Duty World Championship — above OpTic.

“Australia lends itself to be a competitor simply because of the market,” OpTic team owner Rodriguez explained.

“Consoles are sold more here compared to Europe, where it’s often more PCs than consoles. As such there’s more people competing, more competition and more acclimation to actual competitive nature so you have the breakthrough players.”

OpTic are confident though given their win last week in Stage 1 of the Call of Duty World League which, given the level of competition they face in their North American region, was mightily impressive.

“Whoever wins major North American tournaments is usually considered the best in the world at that time,” Porter told foxsports.com.au.

“But now we’re playing on (Australia)’s home turf so that’s an advantage for them.”

LIFE AFTER GAMING

WITH eSports being a relatively new phenomenon, many players aren’t yet considering what they’ll do once they get off this rollercoaster ride.

The best players are making millions of dollars simply playing video games and being really good at them, but even they have to look down the road.

You’ll rarely see an eSports player over the age of 25 and some are as young as 16. The reflexes of players in this age bracket are crucial to perform at a high level and while some are able to continue on past their physical peak, it’s uncommon.

Even if they’re able to do so players face the problem of missing out on the first decade of their adult working life and sometimes abandoning education post-high school to chance their dream.

OpTic’s owner is well aware of this conundrum and does his part to give his players the best chance possible to do well after their short careers are over.

Thousands of fans packed the KeyArena in Seattle, USA to watch a major eSports event — Dota 2’s The International 2015 — last August. Source: Supplied

“Since they’re skipping school and work I always make it a point to put as many opportunities in front of them as possible, both from a content standpoint and within the industry jobs outside of just playing or entertaining,” Rodriguez said.

“That’s where our following comes in handy. Some of my buddies have gotten jobs at Google, in big YouTube networks and so for us I call it a fraternity.

“Everyone branches out into different corners of the industry which in the end is going to help the players.”

There are plenty of roles inside of video gaming particularly given the expertise the players have once they retire from active competition.

One ex-OpTic player now works at one of the companies that develops the Call of Duty games, Sledgehammer, and others have advised the game makers on what they should put in follow-up titles.

It’s why Rodriguez is very optimistic about how his players will go after they exit from under his wing.

“The transition from player to post-player is an easy one and a bright one as the market and space continues to level out — the possibilities are going to be endless,” he said.

But for now they’re living the dream of millions — paid to play video games and travel across the globe doing it.

Not bad.