FaZe Vegas Beat OpTic Texas 5-2 to Win the Call of Duty Championship

FaZe Vegas beat OpTic Texas 5-2 in the grand final of the Call of Duty League Championship on July 19, closing out the 2026 season at the Michelob ULTRA Arena at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. The win denied OpTic Texas a third straight Call of Duty League title and gave FaZe Vegas's Simp his third Championship ring, tying him with Crimsix, Clayster, Karma and Shotzzy as the league's most decorated players.

The best-of-nine grand final carried a $2 million total purse, with FaZe Vegas earning $800,000 for the win and OpTic Texas taking $480,000 as runner-up. Riyadh Falcons finished third for $320,000, rounding out the top of the Championship's payout structure.

Results and prize figures reported by Dot Esports and Gaming Trend, Las Vegas, July 19-20, 2026.

A final decided in overtime rounds

FaZe Vegas's win leaned heavily on close finishes rather than one-sided maps. The team won three separate Search and Destroy maps that went to Round 11, the format's equivalent of overtime, a stretch of the series one recap described as showing "illogical fortitude" under pressure. OpTic Texas opened the series by winning the first Hardpoint map 250-216, but FaZe took the next three maps in a row, a Search and Destroy on Raid, an Overload on Scar and a Hardpoint on Scar, before OpTic won Overload on Den to stay alive. FaZe closed out the series by winning Search and Destroy maps on both Den and Hacienda, the final two maps of the set.

One moment from the back half of the series stood out in the recaps: FaZe's Abuzah beat OpTic's Mercules in a 1-versus-1 situation that one outlet described as sealing FaZe's title chances, a sequence that came during the run of overtime-decided Search and Destroy maps that ultimately swung the series.

Simp ties the league's record for Championship rings

Simp's MVP performance in the grand final gave him his third Call of Duty Championship ring, a total that ties him with four of the league's most decorated former players, Crimsix, Clayster, Karma and Shotzzy, for the most Championship titles won by an individual player. Unlike a regular-season MVP award, the Championship MVP is decided by performance across the LAN event itself, and Simp's selection followed a grand final in which FaZe's closing run through three overtime-decided Search and Destroy maps leaned heavily on his play in the deciding rounds.

FaZe Vegas's road through the bracket

FaZe Vegas reached the grand final by beating G2 Minnesota 3-1, Riyadh Falcons 3-0, and OpTic Texas itself 3-2 in the winners final, a result that meant OpTic had to beat FaZe twice to retain its title, including once in the same best-of-nine format the grand final itself would use. The roster of Simp, Drazah, Abuzah and 04 had already won one Major earlier in the season, at DreamHack Birmingham in March, giving the Championship win a second trophy for the organization across the year rather than a single standout result.

The win was also the second Call of Duty Championship for the Vegas-based franchise's lineage, following a 2021 world title won by the same organization competing as Atlanta FaZe. For Abuzah and 04 specifically, the Las Vegas trophy was their first Championship ring, while Drazah picked up a second and Simp a third.

What the loss means for OpTic Texas

OpTic Texas had won the previous two Call of Duty League titles, in the Modern Warfare 3 and Black Ops 6 seasons, and came into Las Vegas looking for a third straight Championship. The 5-2 loss ends that bid and leaves the organization with a single Major win, from Paris in June, as its best result of the Black Ops 7 season rather than the Championship itself.

The result also closes a Black Ops 7 campaign in which OpTic reached three of the season's five biggest finals, the first two Majors and the Championship, without converting any of them into the top prize until its Major 4 win in Paris in June. That pattern, strong across the regular season and repeated final appearances without matching trophies for most of the year, defined much of how OpTic's 2026 season was discussed heading into its final event.

A season-closing event with a large audience

The Championship drew more than 5 million minutes watched and nearly 340,000 viewers for the grand final itself, figures that come from the event's own viewership reporting rather than a single network's broadcast numbers. That audience closed out a Black Ops 7 season that had already produced four different Major champions, Paris Gentle Mates, FaZe Vegas, LA Thieves and OpTic Texas, before FaZe Vegas's win in Las Vegas made it the only organization to add a second trophy, a Major and the Championship, to its season total.

The regular season OpTic led but did not close out

Through the final full standings update before the Championship, on June 28, OpTic Texas led the Call of Duty League's points table with 575 points and a 40-12 series record across the season, with LA Thieves second at 500 points and a 38-15 record and FaZe Vegas third at 440 points and 33-21. That gap between OpTic's season-long consistency and FaZe Vegas's lower points total is part of what made the Championship result notable: the team that had led the standings for most of the year still finished the season as runner-up at its biggest event, while the third-place team in the regular-season table walked away with the trophy.

A season of four different Major champions before one repeat winner

The Championship closed out a Black Ops 7 season in which the year's four regular Majors had produced four different winners: Paris Gentle Mates in Dallas, FaZe Vegas in Birmingham, LA Thieves at Major 3, and OpTic Texas in Paris at Major 4. FaZe Vegas's Las Vegas win made the organization the only one of the four Major champions to add the season-closing Championship to its total, turning a Birmingham trophy from March into a two-title season by the time the Black Ops 7 campaign ended in July.

That double meant FaZe Vegas's roster of Simp, Drazah, Abuzah and 04 went from a team that had gone almost a year without a trophy before Birmingham to the season's most decorated organization by its final event, while OpTic Texas, despite leading the regular-season standings for much of the year and winning Major 4 in Paris, finished the year with the Championship as the one trophy it wanted most and did not get.

How the bracket set up the rematch

FaZe Vegas's run through the winners side of the Championship bracket, past G2 Minnesota and Riyadh Falcons before a 3-2 win over OpTic Texas itself in the winners final, meant OpTic had to beat FaZe twice across the event to retain its title. OpTic did not get that second win: after dropping to the lower bracket, the two sides met again in the best-of-nine grand final, where the Round 11 overtime maps and Abuzah's 1-versus-1 win over Mercules decided the outcome in FaZe's favor for the second time in the event.

Riyadh Falcons close out the podium

Riyadh Falcons' third-place finish and $320,000 payout gave the organization its best publicly reported result of the Black Ops 7 season at the Championship itself, a placement that came without the Falcons reaching either of the season's final two Majors as a finalist. It is the clearest high point of the Riyadh franchise's year inside the results confirmed for this Championship.

What comes next

The Call of Duty League's 2026 season ends with FaZe Vegas as Black Ops 7 world champion, closing out a year built around four regular Majors and this Championship event. The league has already signaled a shift into a new game cycle built around Modern Warfare 4, with changes to format and franchise structure expected to follow before the next competitive season begins. For now, FaZe Vegas's roster closes the year with two trophies to its name, while OpTic Texas, Riyadh Falcons and the rest of the league's twelve franchises turn their attention to how their rosters are built for the game the league moves to next.

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