Of the two major Gears of War 4 pro circuit LAN events which have taken place since the release of the game in October, there has been only one winner. Through the many 2K online tournaments that have taken place so far, the same winner is the only one to be crowned. OpTiC Gaming has been the completely undeniable number one team in Gears of War 4 eSports thus far, and continued to show us why in last weekend’s Mexico City Open LAN tournament.
OpTiC Gaming and Team EnVyUs both went an undefeated 3-0 in their pool, each without dropping a round to no one’s surprise. Ghost Gaming surprised everyone by defeating eUnited and knocking them out of the tournament, just after they made roster changes in the hopes they’d be able to defeat the top teams, who they didn’t even make it far enough to face. In stunning upset, nV knocked OpTiC into the loser’s bracket with a 2-1 victory, forcing Ghost Gaming to play the reigning champions in order to make it to the grand finals, and slingshotting Team EnVyUs straight into the grand finals. OpTiC ended what one of the announcers called Ghost Gaming’s “cinderella story” with relative ease, defeating them 2-0 to move on to face nV in the finals.
This is a story we have all heard before, OpTiC vs EnVy in the top 2 of Gears of War 4. This would not be the first time EnVy knocked OpTiC into the loser’s bracket, only to have OpTiC come back and beat them in the grand finals. However, this time that was not the case, EnVy held on to defeat OpTiC in the grand finals to dethrone the champions of Columbus and London and take their spot as the Mexico City Open champions. Team EnVyUs earned themselves $40,000 while OpTiC gets $20,000 for second place. There is a new champion in the Gears of War 4 world, and for the first time since the game’s release, it isn’t OpTiC Gaming.
A common theme in Team EnVyUs’ tweets were that this weekend was “the best of their life” and how much they enjoyed meeting and playing in front of the fans in Mexico. The entirety of OpTiC Gaming tweeted about EnVy simply wanting to win more than they did but ensured us all that they will be back and better than ever for the next one. You can bet that EnVy will be their strongest opponent once again in the next tournament which will take place in Columbus, Ohio this spring.
