Thursday night at 9 P.M. Eastern time, a first place showdown between two of the giants on the Call of Duty scene will erupt. FaZe Clan and OpTic Gaming have been long-time rivals and competitors at the top of the CoD competition. With Stage Two of the CWL nearing the halfway mark, this matchup will set the pace for the rest of the Stage.

The winner will take first place in the CWL standings. For OpTic, it would be a familiar place after winning the Stage One Finals. FaZe is looking to solidify itself amongst the top in Black Ops Three competition. Both teams

Both teams are entering the match at 7-2. FaZe has the advantage with a map winning percentage of 72 percent, compared to OG’s 66 percent. OpTic is riding a wave of momentum with a six-match winning streak; FaZe enters on a four-match winning streak.

For OG, the season started slowly at 1-2. The second loss is still weighing heavy on the minds of OpTic Nation. A lag issue would prevent OpTic from defeating H2K in Week Two. Karma openly talked about it in a recent YouTube video, essentially saying that it killed the drive because they felt cheated out of a win. Ever since that loss, they’ve been playing like a team possessed. Winning two matches 3-0, and all others 3-1. They’ve not been taken past the fourth map since the first match of the season against Team SoloMid (they would win 3-2).

FaZe has had some near misses and have only lost against Rise Nation and Dream Team, two of the top teams in CWL. Despite the ability to outslay almost of its opponents, FaZe has allowed a team like TSM, who’s at the bottom of the standings, nearly won all three of the maps last night, (250-238 in HardPoint, 6-5 in Search and Destroy, and 10-7 in Uplink) despite the 3-0 FaZe win, it was a rough evening. The only match FaZe was outslayed was against Rise; that’ll be high on OG’s priority list.

Keys To The Match:

OpTic Gaming: For OpTic this match is all about staying level-headed and trying to beat FaZe in whatever way they can. Early on we’ll be able to determine if OG is going to win by out slaying or by winning the objective battle. Last Stage OpTic dominated FaZe in every facet. Out slaying them 247-214 for the match. It was a 250-96 HardPoint that kicked things off in last Stage’s first matchup. For OG to win, a big HardPoint and consistent slaying, keeping FaZe out of the zone is the key.

FaZe Clan: Same old, same old for FaZe. The only way they’re going to win is to play the way they have been. They need to slay early and often. However, only killing OG won’t do it. They need to rotate on spawns efficiently and score in game modes like HardPoint and Uplink. Killing by itself won’t be enough to beat a team like OpTic. Wednesday’s near disaster should suffice to get the team to focus up.

Prediction: FaZe will do well slaying tonight, but not as well as they need. An early start and win by OpTic in HardPoint will be enough to get things started. FaZe wins the SnD. But back-to-back wins on Uplink and CTF will be sufficient for OpTic to win 3-1.