Top 20 Players of MW2: #8 Dashy

The #8 player of the Modern Warfare 2 season brought to you by Thunder Pick is the Dark Knight, Brandon “Dashy” Otell. Dashy took the reins in Texas and put together a season with multiple Grand Finals appearances.

Dashy had a lot of weight on his shoulders after Seth “Scump” Abner retired, but he stepped up and performed great over the entire season. While OpTic didn’t win a tournament in 2023, they were dominant online and had three Top 4 placements. Add in strong individual numbers in every game mode including a 1.10 KD in Hardpoint, 1.14 in SND, and 1.05 KD in Control and it shows how dangerous OpTic and Dashy were in Modern Warfare 2.

Season Review

The Vanguard season was extremely unfortunate for OpTic Texas, as it was marred by the hand injury to Indervir “iLLeY” Dhaliwal. The team decided to give the roster one more go, keeping the starting roster while adding JohnPaul “JP Krez” Krez, and later Damon “Karma” Barlow, to the staff with Raymond “Rambo” Lussier. The hand injury ruined the potential during Vanguard that the lineup had, and with time to heal and rebuild chemistry. The team believed they could capture that potential yet again given time as a full lineup.

The year wouldn’t start off how the team expected it to. Texas would fall early at Major 1 to finish Top 12 and rumors of roster changes began to swirl quickly. During the Major 2 qualifiers, Seth “Scump” Abner would walk away from competing and leave a spot in the lineup for Cuyler “Huke” Garland to take. The team improved to finish 4th at Major 2 but would bring in Daniel “Ghosty” Rothe for iLLeY. With the newly revamped roster, OpTic was ready to get their season back on track.

OpTic instantly clicked with their new starting roster, marching through the bracket at Major 3. They’d fall to Boston in round 1 0-3, but start the run in the Lower side. After a shaky 3-2 win versus London, OpTic would take down four straight opponents in Florida, Seattle, Boston, and Atlanta all 3-1. Sadly, they’d fall 2-4 in the Finals to Toronto but it was a great start to the new roster. In the final two qualifies, OpTic would go a combined 10-0 in online matches but the Majors ended very differently. Major 4 would end with another 2nd place finish but Major 5 ended with a Top 12 placement for OpTic. Dashy was at his best individually during Stage 5, finishing with a 1.17 overall KD, a 1.35 Control KD, and a 1.30 attacking KD in Control. He was finding his form at the tail-end of the season.

In the final tournament of the year, OpTic were one of the favorites to take home Champs after their two 2nd places and their run in the qualifiers. Their run would start with a 3-1 victory over the Boston Breach but fell in back-to-back matches against New York and Seattle. It would be a painful finish for the Texas franchise, as they ended the year with 0 championships after multiple Grand Finals appearances and strong online play.

How good was Dashy in 2023?

Hardpoint
Dashy was terrific across all three game modes during Modern Warfare 2, but arguably Hardpoint was his best mode. Bruce finished with a 1.10 KD in Hardpoint over the entire season, having a 1.11 in LAN matches and 1.08 in online qualifiers. He ended with per 10-minute statistics of 22.1 kills, 2840.6 damage, and 64.9 seconds of hill time. Dashy’s advanced analytics were also strong, leading Texas in TES rating (59.8%), non-traded kill percentage (74.2%), damage per life (141.3), and KA/D (1.23). The team as a whole finished with the best Hardpoint record in the CDL, going 50-28 over the season. They were at their best on Mercado (15-5) and Hotel (16-5), while only having 1 map with a losing record (Embassy, 2-8).

His best stage of the year came during the middle of the year. Dashy ended Stage 4 with a 1.21 KD in the mode, netting the 2nd best KD in the CDL behind Standy’s 1.22. Bruce did lead the CDL in TES Rating (62.0%), KA/D (1.35), and damage per life (149.6). His form was in full effect during the Grand Finals against LA Thieves. During the Fortress Hardpoint, Dashy finished 25-19 (1.47 KD) with 3165 damage and 23 non-traded kills. This is the form that fans should expect to consistently see in MW3 out of Dashy.

SnD
OpTic started the season with a team that was expected to be a great SnD squad. They ended up struggling, having a 4-6 record in SND during Stage 1, but got better as the season progressed. In the end, OpTic finished 34-27 in the mode over the entirety of MW2. They did struggle on LAN, having a 13-18 record in LAN matches compared to 21-9 in online qualifiers. This trend stayed true with Dashy’s individual statistics, as he performed much better online (1.23 KD) compared to LAN (1.06). Bruce was truly the Dark Knight online, having a 58.8% opening duel win percentage, 0.73 kills per round, 105.1 ADR, and a team-low 46.9% of rounds with 0 kills (the league average was 52.2%).

Overall on the year Dashy led the team in KD (1.14), opening duel win percentage (59.5%), kills per round (0.74), ADR (106.7), percentage of rounds with 0 kills (46.3%), and 1v2 clutches won (3). Dashy was arguably OpTic’s most impactful player in the mode and showed that during Stage 2. With the new roster during that stage, Bruce finished with a 1.38 KD while setting season highs in many statistics. He improved to a 70.6% opening duel win percentage (15-6), 0.85 KpR, a league-high 125.8 ADR, and had multi-kills in 25.5% of his rounds played.

Control
The last mode to dive into is Control. This was Dashy’s weakest mode out of the three, but he still performed very well. For the year, Bruce had a 1.05 KD in Control while having a 0.94 on the attacking side and 1.20 on the defending side. He contributed per 10-minute data of 16.2 kills, 2202.5 damage, and had 1.7 ticks captured per attacking side.

Dashy’s best stage of the season came during the final portion of the season. During Stage 5, Dashy led the team in KD (1.35), attacking KD (1.30), defending KD (1.41), Kp10M (19.7), DMGp10M (2467.7), and KA/D (1.46). The team as a whole struggled in Control for the majority of the year, which led to Dashy’s decreased stats compared to his Vanguard Control stats. For the year, OpTic had a 23-27 record in the mode and went 10-16 at the Majors. The lackluster Control performance will be a priority in MW3 if the mode returns.

A look ahead to Modern Warfare 3

Heading into the 2024 season, Dashy will be again returning to OpTic Texas as the Main AR. He will be joined by fellow returning player Anthony “Shotzzy” Cuevas-Castro and new additions to the roster. OpTic released both Cuyler “Huke” Garland and Daniel “Ghosty” Rothe early in the offseason while looking for replacements. The team turned to star superstar SMG Amer “Pred” Zulibeari and a true elite flex player in Kenneth “Kenny” Williams to complete the starting roster. With the now complete OpTic roster, they are instantly championship contenders and are firmly ranked as one of the best teams in the CDL with Atlanta, New York, and Toronto.