In a very surprising Tweet made by Brett “Naded” Leonard yesterday, it was announced that he would be leaving OpTic Gaming due to personal reasons, with more details on his departure given through a link to a forum post on the Team Beyond forums.

"Hello everyone! I have a couple things I would like to announce.

First off, I would like to thank everyone for wishing me a Happy Birthday today, yes I have just turned 26 years old so I'm definitely going to be celebrating that later tonight and of course celebrating my Warriors getting back to the NBA Finals! LETS GO! But...

On to what I wanted to announce about my current team situation. I'm going to just get straight to the point and then explain a little reasoning behind the decision. I will be stepping down from competing with OpTic for this season and they will be finding a new 4th to play with. Now you may ask, why?

To kind of give a little back story, after getting 2nd/MVP at worlds I was forced to come to a very tough decision since all of my teammates went separate ways. I could of either stopped competing, join OpTic/another team with known players, or make my own team. I couldn't really decide what to do and it was stressing me out a lot. I was considering taking a break from competing but I had numerous talks with friends, they all said I shouldn't quit competing and continue to play.

I finally decided to join OpTic and try to help revive the Halo team there. I knowingly, going into joining, knew we were going to have a lot of work ahead of us to be a top team and was not expecting to win games consistently anytime soon but was hoping things would change with hard work. Shortly after I joined Flamesword let me know that he is possibly considering retirement, which kind of threw me off a little considering I thought we all were going to be in it for the long run but now we might eventually have a team change soon (which happened after PAX). When the PAX tournament was announced it upset me/stressed me out more that the Pro League spot that my team earned is gone and now I have to fly across the country for one day to compete for the spot with only like a week of practice with the new team.

After PAX we had to quickly find a new 4th (Str8 Sick) before the next tournament which was like a week away. Keep in mind, this entire time after PAX until Burbank and even after Burbank, I was really just overall stressed out that things were not going the way I thought it would with the team as far as practice is concerned but I still stayed strong and practiced hard everyday. We then ended up making the pro league in the last spot available during the LCQ which was great. During this time I felt the two big problems with our team: 1. We didn't really practice as much as I thought we would as a team. 2. I felt the chemistry just wasn't there in game or out of game for me, which I am sure many people including my teammates would agree with.

That is a little of the reasoning to why I have decided it will be best to step down from competing this season so they can pick up another 4th that better fits them and also be able to relieve a lot of stress off my shoulders so I can focus on other aspects of my life (health, streaming, family to name a few) because this past month or so has been so hectic for me. This is NOT at all me leaving on bad terms with anyone from the team, this is just a decision I felt would not only be best for me but best for the team as well. I may continue to compete in the next season so DO NOT think of this is as a "retirement" but as of now I'm going to be focusing on other things rather than competing/practicing with a team all the time. Hey, after 10 years of competing in every Halo since Halo 2 at the top level without a break, I think a break is deserved haha !


With that being said I really did enjoy my time on OpTic and wish them the best of luck! I'm SO incredibly happy I was able to help OpTic get a Pro League spot. As expected, the #GreenWall was amazing with the amount of support you guys showed and I thank you all for supporting my decision as it will be best for everyone! Also, huge thank you to all my fans as well for being so supportive and I will be seeing you on stream! Love you guys!

- Brett "Naded"

Unfortunately, this leaves OpTic with only two days to find a replacement before the HCS Pro League season begins, though they do have some options; Former Team Liquid member Bradley “APG” Laws and Richie “Heinz” Heinz are a couple of names that have fair chances at getting their spot.

source: beyond, RUL