Top 20 Players of Vanguard : #3 Dashy
The #3 Player of the Vanguard season is the Dark Knight, Brandon “Dashy” Otell. The Main AR for OpTic Texas had a MVP caliber season and helped OpTic take the first Major of the season!
Dashy had a great season for OpTic during Cold War, finishing 12th in the Top players of Cold War. He looked to improve upon this going into the 2022 season. After not winning during Cold War, Dashy & co were thinking only about winning tournaments in 2022. They did just that in Vanguard behind the MVP-level performance of their Main AR!
Season Review
Dashy proved all of his doubters wrong this year with his dominant AR play for OpTic Texas. The Dark Knight dominated across all game modes with incredible slaying stats as well as proving to be a huge presence in key moments with a large number of clutches in SnD. His consistency from the get go till the end despite OpTic’s misfortunes were remarkable.
OpTic started out the season on fire coming out to dominate Major 1 and claim the brands first tournament victory since Black Ops 4. Their initial success would not last 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 serious thumb injury that would cause him to miss a large portion of the second half 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’s return OpTic hoped to regain their 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 Dashy in 2022?
Hardpoint
Dashy was one of the best player in all three game mode this past season, and it all started in Hardpoint. For the season, Bruce had a 1.16 KD in the mode with 23.7 kills per 10 minutes, 2977.8 damage per 10 minutes, and 73.1% non-traded kill percentage. Dashy was a slaying machine, taking engagements whenever he pleased and was always able to stay alive.
Stage 2 is where Dashy hit MVP levels of form. During the stage, Bruce finished with 1.28 KD while setting season highs in Kp10M (25.3), DMGp10M (3131.5), HTp10M (58.0), and TES Rating (63.4%). It as one of the best individual stages of the season out of an AR. With this level of play, OpTic will continue to be one of the best Hardpoint teams in the World.
Search & Destroy
Dashy was yet another player that came up from the SnD scene. He has always been a great SnD player, lethal with the sniper and has great awareness in clutch situations. This season saw him use the AR more, while sniping a lot less. In total, he ended the year with a 1.16 KD in the mode with 0.71 kills per round and 103.44 ADR. He was at his best arguably during Stage 4 of the season. While his champs run was stellar, at Stage 4 he had better advanced statistics. Dashy had a 1.31 for the stage, with season highs in KpR (0.79) and ADR (110.260).
Dashy was one of the select group of players to have a positive KD on every map of the pool. He went even farther though, having a 1.12 KD or better on all four maps. Bruce’s best map of the year was on Tuscan. There he had a 1.23 KD with 100.83 ADR, 71.4% opening duel win percentage, and 67.1% non-traded kill percentage. Dashy will always be a monster in the mode!
Control
Dashy’s best mode of the season was easily the swing mode, Control. He was a superstar in the mode, having the highest KD in the CDL. For the season, Dashy had a 1.28 in Control with a 1.12 KD on the attacking side and 1.49 KD on the defending side. He was at his best during the third stage of the season. There he ended with a 1.44 KD, while setting season highs in Kp10M (20.5), DMGp10M (2517.8), TES Rating (64.7%), NTK% (81.9%), ATK KD (1.22), and finally DEF KD (1.72). This will forever be one of the best Control seasons in CDL history.
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.
