In an unexpected move, OpTic Gaming completely overhauled its CS:GO roster. Many assumed the organization would make changes as the most recent roster struggled to perform, but this was different.





It has three Danish players, a shot-caller who has brought the Green Wall success before and a veteran AWPer. It's the makings of a fantastic team, but will the players jell?





DBLTAP's Nathan Fusco had the opportunity to talk to Shahzeb "ShahZaM" Khan about his free agency experience immediately following the ELEAGUE Major: Boston.

It is our pleasure to announce our 2018 OpTic Counter Strike roster! pic.twitter.com/04nHr1Cii0 — OpTic Gaming™ (@OpTicGaming) February 7, 2018

Nathan Fusco: Initial reports said that Misfits were interested in re-signing you guys, then SicK left. Why did the deal fall through?





Shahzeb "ShahZaM" Khan : During EPL we heard many rumors that Misfits were considering dropping CS:GO, but after the event, they told us they will be staying in CS:GO. Before the ELEAGUE Major: Boston, they sent us blank agreements to look over, but things progressed slowly from there. With three of us being free agents after the event and still waiting for the Misfits' decision, we started to explore options individually. Hunter " SicK " Mims got a very lucrative offer from Rogue and decided that was the best option for him. I really enjoyed playing with him, he was a great teammate, in-game and out-of-game. I hope he finds success with his new teammates. Not too long after, Misfits told us they were going to take another route with CS :GO .





NF: Do you think if the results at the Major would have been different (made it to the New Legends stage or farther), the Misfits organization would have made a different decision?





SK: I'm honestly not sure. They were probably deciding the future plans of the organization well before the major, but it's hard to say if us performing better at the major would have changed that outcome. Regardless, I have to respect their decision and thank them for supporting us through all of 2017.

Also want to thank @MisfitsGG for everything they did for me through 2017, wish all the best for them in the future! https://t.co/nAXaixchJU — Shahzeb Khan (@ShahZaMk) February 7, 2018

NF: Was there an initial plan for the three of you guys to stick together even if it wasn't with Misfits? Did that change when SicK was offered a deal?





SK: We explored a couple of ideas, but everything was up in the air because we didn't know what Misfits wanted to do for a while. After we heard the news from Misfits, we began talks with other organizations about acquiring David " devoduvek " Dobrosavljevic and François " AmaNEk " Delauney (who were still contracted until May). Throughout last year, we performed better than most of the NA pro league teams (outside of C9/Liquid) and especially saw improvement towards the end of the year, so we decided sticking together with this team might be the best option for all of us. We planned on having the roster be Sean, Devoduvek, Amanek, myself, plus one more.





Surprisingly we had a lot of orgs interested and talking with Misfits about the transfer. Eventually , we had an org agree to transfer terms for the French guys, and individual negotiations with everyone done. Right before anything was signed, both Frenchies pulled out. They said that they would really love to play with an all-French team and I know throughout the past year they have been homesick, I just wish they had made their decision sooner. The organization still wanted us to rebuild a new team with Sean, myself, and three new players but we just called it quits at that point. There was too little time to put together anything that we would be happy with. I'm going to miss David and Francois, I know their dream has been to play together on a French team and I hope they get that chance.





NF: We've heard the OpTic deal was very last minute. How did it start? Were certain players approached first or was it a group discussion?





SK: Without going into a ton of detail, things did move very quickly. OpTic was honestly the best organization I had ever played under, largely due to Hecz and the Green Wall, so there was no hesitation from me. As far as I know, both Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz and Chet "ImAPet" Singh recommended me and everyone else was on board.

I'm very excited to announce my return to @OpTicGaming CSGO  Looking forward to playing with my new teammates, @peterjarguz, @k0nfigCS, @cajunbCS, and @gadeCSGO  — Shahzeb Khan (@ShahZaMk) February 7, 2018

NF: Were there other teams that you were looking into or that offered you a spot?





SK: I was honestly very committed to continuing with the Misfits guys under a new organization. I didn't see the other options I had at the time as an improvement over our squad.





NF: This is a pretty mishmash of players. You have three Danish players, a Canadian shot-caller and yourself. The deal would have made even more sense if they kept Magisk, but he left for Astralis. What makes you confident that this roster will work?





SK: It definitely came as a big surprise to a lot of people, but the roles work out very well and the roster has a lot of firepower . Cajunb is a veteran of the game, k0nfig is one of the best players in the world, gade has great mechanics and a very high potential; the last time stan was IGL for OpTic, they were a top three team in the world, and Imapet has the reputation of being one of the hardest working coaches in the scene."





I know there have been mixed reactions from people concerning myself. I think a lot of it stems from a reputation I built a few years ago and it's a difficult one to break within the Counter-Strike community. It's very rare in life to get second chances like this and I'm excited to give it my all. I put a lot of work into the game individually and with my team over the last two years, but had very little chances to play at big events. I'm grateful for the opportunity and extremely confident in this roster.





NF: How did you guys decide who would be the main AWPer between you and cajunB?





SK: The guys added me with the intention of me being the primary AWPer. I think it's really impressive that cajunB simply took up the AWP role in North because they needed one and still put up the numbers that he did. I'm sure that experience will play a large role in his impact as our secondary AWPer. I'm excited to see what we can do together.

NF: The Cloud9 Major victory could change the NA landscape dramatically. In your mind, does this increase the level of competition in North America knowing that NA teams have the ability to win on the biggest stage?





SK: I hope that every player in the NA scene gained motivation from watching C9 win the Boston Major. I don't know if it will directly increase the level of competition, but hopefully, it has a big impact. I've noticed that for some players, it seems like winning a big tournament isn't a reality in their universe, and it leads to complacency in the scene. Having the guys that we regularly practice against, play Rank S with every day, are friends with and some even former teammates, win the biggest event makes it a lot easier for other players to relate to them. They have shown that although it does take talent, it also takes a lot more hard work as a team to put that talent into play. I'm very proud of those guys, they fully deserve it.

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Photo Courtesy of DreamHack