OpTic Formal: The Best Call of Duty AR Player Ever?


This week marks one year since the retirement of one of the greats: OpTic Formal. A key figure on the OpTic gaming roster that terrorised the Call of Duty professional scene for years, from Advanced Warfare all the way to Black-Ops: Cold War.

Millions of fans have watched him crush his opposition during his career, but many won’t know where he came from or where he is now.

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Before Call of Duty

Like many Call of Duty pros, Formal began his career playing professional Halo. Working his way up through Halo 3 and Reach, he found his real success in Halo 4, consistently placing top 3 with his team Ambush.

optic formal during call of duty esports event
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They won 5 straight events, the last with teammate Enable, who also transferred to Call of Duty where he made his name. After taking one more first place following the release of Halo 2: Anniversary, Formal made the move into Call of Duty.

Call of Duty Career

Formal made the move to competitive Call of Duty in late 2013. Despite playing with many of Call of Duty’s best back in the day, such as Censor and ProoFy, he didn't find much success until he joined Team EnVyUs and stormed the first event, Gfinity3, and became the first ever player to win a major event in both CoD and Halo (Followed later by Enable).

Formal then moved on to the dynasty team we all know and love: OpTic Gaming. Despite their disappointing CoD Champs performance in 2015, when Karma replaced Nadeshot the following year, they established a reign of terror, with countless tournament wins, and a World Championship in 2017.

OpTic Formal and Scump
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This OpTic roster was almost undisputed as the best in the world, perhaps even uncontested before or since. Formal, Scump, Karma and Crimsix remain the 4 players with the most championships to their name to this day, despite Formal and Karma’s retirements from competitive.

Following the dissolving of the OpTic roster during CoD WWII, Formal spent a brief stint on Luminosity Gaming. He then rejoined his ex-teammate Scump, to reform their T2P duo, in Chicago Huntsmen, which later rebranded back to OpTic, where he remained until august 2021.

As the primary assault rifle player (or Slayer in the early days) Formal was the bane of more than one generation of CoD pros, dishing out damage from a distance and holding the line. He will no doubt go down in History as one of the best of all time, but where is he now?

Where is he now?

The revival of competitive Halo in 2022 was seemingly too tempting to pass up. Still playing for Optic, Formal has returned to make his mark on the new scene, with 4 tournament wins already to his name, alongside aPG, Lucid, and Trippy.

No Doubt Formal will continue to make his mark on Halo, as much as his Call of Duty fans miss him. Watch him play in the HCS as OpTic prepare for the World Championship in October.

For more articles like this, take a look at our Call of Duty, First Person Shooters, and More pages.