Top 20 Players of Vanguard : #4 Shotzzy
The #4 Player of the Vanguard is the multi-game World Champion, Anthony “Shotzzy” Cuevas-Castro. Shotzzy first season under the OpTic banner ended with a major championship!
Shotzzy was apart of the Dallas Empire franchise the first two seasons of the CDL until the brand ceased last offseason. It saw the OpTic Chicago merge with the Empire to form a super team to fight for multiple championships. With Shotzzy as the entry SMG, the team found instant success. Without an injury to a teammate, the heights of the roster were untapped. With another season under their belt, the roster will look to take over the CDL!
Season Review
The movement king Shotzzy once again wowed us with his consistent incredible plays. He started out the season with some quite remarkable performances and seemed to always be there with a huge moment whenever OpTic Texas needed some inspiration. Only a slight drop off towards the end of the year prevented him from climbing even higher in the rankings.
OpTic started out the season hot coming out to dominate Major 1 and claim the brands first tournament victory since Black Ops 4. Their initial success would not carry on however as they were shockingly defeated by the Florida Mutineers and fell to a Top 6 placement at Major 2. OpTic would look to rebound at the Pro AM but would hit their biggest roadblock of the season. Their flex IGL player iLLeY would suffer a thumb injury that would sideline him and affect him for the remainder of the season. This would led to a Top 4 placement with General at the Pro AM.
With Prolute entering the starting lineup, the team place Top 6 at Major 3. iLLeY would make his triumphant return and help the team to a 4th place finish at Major 4 to end the regular season. It was a disappointing end to the regular season for Texas, as the early season momentum had fully faded by this point.
With iLLeY back in the team they hoped to regain that major 1 form once again but couldn’t manage it. They narrowly snuck past Toronto Ultra winning a Game 5 Round 11 to prevent the reverse sweep before facing a red hot LA Thieves and being swiftly crushed in the most one sided series of the tournament. They rebound taking down NYSL before falling short against a resurgent Seattle Surge squad to end the season with another 4th place finish.
How good was Shotzzy in 2022?
Hardpoint
Shotzzy played respawns at a very fast pace in Vanguard, flying around the map. It made it hard to track him, and easy to get lost in the fog of war. Overall, he had a 1.03 KD in the mode with 25.7 kills per 10 minutes and 68.8% non-traded kill percentage. Shotzzy was at his best during Stage 3 of the regular season. During the stage, he finished with 1.12 KD, 26.8 Kp10M, 3019.8 DMGp10M and 72.0% non-traded kill percentage. Without iLLeY, Shotzzy had to step up and he did just that during the stage.
Shotzzy played the top teams extremely tough, always trying to match the output of the competing star players. Over the season, Shotzzy had a 1.10 KD against the top 3 teams of the CDL. He added 26.7 Kp10M, 83.8 HTp10M, and 58.3 TES Rating. When the lights shined brightest, Shotzzy was there to propel OpTic forward.
Search & Destroy
Search & Destroy was easily Shotzzy best game mode of the season. This is the mode that allowed him to use his high pace and elusiveness to his advantage. At the end of the season, he ended with a 1.15 KD in the mode. His advanced metrics were just as high, finishing with a 0.81 kills per round, 100.99 ADR, and 71.4% non-traded kill percentage.
Shotzzy showed his insane skill against the top 3 teams again, dominating the top. In total, he had a 1.23 KD against LAT & ATL with 0.86 KpR, 109.53 ADR, and 50.8% opening duel win percentage. Those weren’t even his greatest statistics. On Tuscan, Shotzzy finished the year with a 1.59 KD with 0.98 KpR, 117.31 ADR, and 64.1% opening duel win percentage. It was an insane year for Shotzzy in the game mode!
Control
Shotzzy continued his all-out aggressive play in Control, just as in the other two modes. OpTic was known as the best Control team in the League while their team was healthy, and Shotzzy was a major part of that. During the season, he finished with a 1.01 KD in the mode with 18.9 kills per 10 minutes and 2272.2 damage per 10 minutes. He was at his best on Gavutu shockingly, playing as the sole SMG on the team. There Shotzzy finished with a 1.15 KD with 20.5 Kp10M and 2396.2 DMGp10M. It was a surreal season for Shotzzy to stay this consistent in all three modes with the hurdles that the team faced!
A look ahead to Modern Warfare II
Heading into the 2023 season, OpTic Texas will be sticking with their Vanguard starting roster for another year. While it had seemed like iLLeY and Dashy were on the way out of the franchise, the team quickly reversed their decision and rallied the group back together. The biggest change to the team was recently announced, with coach Troy “Sender” Michaels departing the team to coach the New York Subliners. While the team will miss Sender next season, they are hoping to regain their early season form in Vanguard and build back up the team’s chemistry. This could see more championships for the Green Wall, as the roster will definitely be competing for Major victories all season long.
