Earlier this year it was leaked by ESPN on January 20, 2019 that OpTic Gaming would be going up for sale with a $150 million asking price. The sale of the Texas based esports organisation is to include the Houston Outlaws, OpTic Gaming and the OpTic League of Legend spot. It was believed that Infinite Esports & Entertainment (the holding company for previous said organisations) was set to listen to bids as early as February of 2019. Since then, rumors of bids from various esports organisations, Hector “H3CZ” Rodriguez (previously CEO and founder of OpTic Gaming) have placed bids for the massive esports (currently #3 on our biggest esports organisations list) and multimedia companies.
On May 3, 2019 it was announced by ESPN that Immortals had raised $30 million in Series B funding. The $30 million was to pay off the Overwatch League spot and seek new franchise markets. They also announced that Immortals would be placing a bid for OpTic Gaming. It isn’t 100% certain the intent of Immortals, but one thing is for sure they are after the League of Legends franchise spot. By purchasing OpTic Gaming entirely the team would be forced to sell the Houston Outlaws, and release the OpTic Gaming CS:GO team.
After a few days of speculation and outcry from the fans it was announced by Kevin Hitt that Immortals was not the high bidder and that other higher offers had been placed. One of those offers was rumored to have been played by former President of Infinite Esports & Entertainment Chris Chaney and founder of OpTic Gaming Hector Rodriguez. However, early reports indicated that a higher up in the Infinite Esports & Entertainment was rejecting the offer. Why the offer was rejected is uncertain, however, many believe that the offer from Hector was rejected out of spite.
Later on Kevin Hitt also announced that Hector Rodriguez and Chris Chaney were set to meet with Immortals executives and Infinite Esports & Entertainment executives to discuss the sale. The initial report indicates that Hector is being asked to become the CEO of OpTic Gaming under the Immortals umbrella. This would entail managing the Call of Duty team and possibly any other teams that Immortals chooses to keep. However, because of the Overwatch League rules OpTic / Infinite / Immortals would be forced to sell the Houston Outlaws as no ownership can have stake in two teams.
OpTic Gaming Sale Timeline
- 01/20/2019 – ESPN leaked that OpTic would be for sale with $150 million price tag.
- 05/03/2019 – ESPN announces Immortals have raised $30 million and entered the bid for OpTic Gaming.
- 05/14/2019 – EsportsInsider announces Immortals are close to purchasing OpTic Gaming
- 05/14/2019 – Kevin Hitt announces Immortals may not win the bid, and Chris Chaney and Hector Rodriguez have entered their own bid.
- 05/15/2019 – Kevin Hitt announces Hector, Infinite and Immortals are to meet to discuss potential outcomes of the sale.
- 05/17/2019 – Kevin Hitt announces “Sources confirm that
@OpTicH3CZ and@chrischaney are still in running to acquire Infinite Esports & Entertainment. Decision to be made early next week.” - 05/21/2019 – Hector tweets “he’s trying“
- 05/30/2019 – Hecz still fighting and “there will be good news no matter what happens” – YouTube
Keep in mind all of this is speculation and no official announcement has been made by the OpTic Gaming organisation or it’s parent companies.
