OpTic Mercules: The Unlikely Superstar

No one could have predicted OpTic Texas’s season spiraling out of control in Black Ops 6. Fresh off a World Championship in 2024, the Greenwall came into the season with high hopes. However, a hot start in the Major 1 Qualifiers proved to be fool’s gold. In the next season, OpTic fell into a roster carousel that carried into early May and took the team on the longest series-losing streak in the organization’s rich history along the way.  

2025 looked grim for the boys in green — until they finally struck genuine gold and signed Mason “Mercules” Ramsey.  

Mercules’s jump into the top flight of professional Call of Duty was an unconventional one. His big league debut happened in a flash, with the young Challengers star getting called into his first CDL game just hours before CDL Major 3 kicked off — subbing in for the Toronto Ultra. 

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 “Toronto Ultra initially hit me up on the Tuesday leading up to the CDL Major 3, and the tournament started on Thursday,” Mercules told Monster in an exclusive interview. “So, I flew out there and everything Wednesday night, and by the time I got there on Wednesday, they thought Beans was going to be good to play.”  

“They told me, 'You’re probably not going to play for the main roster, but you’re still playing with the Challengers team, so you don't have to worry’. Then Thursday morning, at like 7 AM, I opened my phone and found out Beans didn’t make it into the U.S., so then they were like ‘you’re in’.  

 “I didn’t sleep at all the night before the first match, because I was just like ‘yo, am I going to play?’” Sleep-deprived and with little time to prep, Mercules played his heart out. The Toronto Ultra would go on to secure a Top 3 finish at the event, and the Mercules’ POV stood out in every series along the way. It was clear already: this kid was a real prospect.

Joining the Greenwall

“It kind of fell into place, to be honest,” Mason said, crediting the veteran flexibility of the team for his own success, “ I haven’t had to change any of my playstyle at all. I just fit right into the team. It’s so fun playing with Shotzzy, Dashy, and Huke, because they’re all so good. They’re all really smart, and they know the game really well. I’ve just been trying to learn from them.” 

There are some things, though, that are hard for you to learn secondhand. For example, playing for the loudest fanbase in all of Call of Duty, in their home arena — that’s something you have to experience. At CDL Major 4, Mercules learned what it meant to play for a team as historic as OpTic. 

“Oh yeah, first event on OpTic in Texas  —- and it was huge because it was DreamHack — that was awesome, for sure,” he said. “That was only my second [LAN ever], so now my standards are just going to get [set so high] because that’s one of the best events you’re going to get all year.”

From Beginner to Pro Player

Those kinds of crowds, those kinds of lights — that’s the kind of thing that can crush any rookie, especially one that’s been in a whirlwind of changes. Mercules had only started competing in respawn game modes a little over a year before joining OpTic Texas and yet there’s no shaking the young sharpshooter. Maybe that’s because he was raised with a controller in his hands.

“My older brother had a console — an old Xbox when I was like 4 or 5, and that was when I first started playing Call of Duty. He, like, played CoD 4 on his Xbox, and I’d just hop on and he’d let me play it. But on the competitive side, I started playing in Black Ops 2… I’ve been playing CoD for a while.” 

His interest only deepened over the years, with Advanced Warfare tipping the scales and putting him on the path to the pro league. “I started playing seriously on UMG in Advanced Warfare. That was the first game I started playing Wagers in. I just played a lot of 1v1s and stuff, just trying to learn the game on my own and get a feel for it.” 

Call of Duty 1v1s are notoriously difficult to master. To the untrained eye, every round of S&D might seem like a coin flip when there’s only two players on the map. Still, there’s a hidden depth to mastering the mode — one Mercules says was good practice for the subtleties of the pro game.

“I don’t think it’s influenced [my playstyle], but it definitely helps with your situationals in S&D, and just reading the map, I’d say. It gets you a lot of good experience in-game for S&D situations.” 

Chasing the Championship Dream 

Now that he’s settled in Texas, the real legwork has started. Champs kicks off on Thursday, June 26th, and the near-month-long break after Major 4 has afforded every team a chance to slow down and refine their gameplay. For OpTic, it’s a chance to take a deep breath and reset after that chaotic regular season. 

“There’s definitely a little less pressure, but I also kind of like the quick turnarounds,” Merc said of the extended break. “I like practicing and scrimming, but playing is just the best. Getting the reps under my belt is definitely good…it’s just the competitor in me that wants to play right away.” 

That’s not to say the extra time hasn’t been beneficial. A regular roster change in the CDL is much like solving a jigsaw puzzle. Sometimes, the team simply needs a piece that fills different gaps. Five roster changes in one season? That’s like swapping the jigsaw board for a Sudoku book. You can still make progress, but the rules of the game have changed drastically. 

That’s where OpTic finds themselves at this point in the year. Their continuity has lagged behind that of the other top teams. With Atlanta FaZe and Los Angeles Thieves splitting every event win this year, time is running out for the Greenwall to close the gap. 

“We’re really focusing in on the map pool to improve it. We feel like, at the last event, both series we lost could have been our win if we didn’t scam our situationals. So, we’re really confident going into Champs, and I just can’t wait to play.” 

His attitude is no surprise. After all, he’s the same player who has climbed from Call of Duty 4 public matches to CDL mainstages without so much as changing his controller settings or switching to Claw grip—a fact he shared when asked if there’s anything he wants fans to know about him, inside the game or out. 

Somehow, of all the head-turning moments in his story, the unorthodox simplicity of his setup feels the least surprising. It’s just another piece of his game for fans to marvel over as he tries to do what felt impossible only a few short weeks ago: bring home another World Championship for one of the biggest names in all of Call of Duty. 

Only time will tell if Mercules and the squad can pull it off. A first-round match-up with Atlanta FaZe, one of the few names that rivals OpTic, awaits them when they get into Kitchener, Ontario, Canada on June 26th. That’s when the time will come for young Mercules and we’ll all see just how bright this rookie can shine.