Clayster

Clayster, also known as James Eubanks, is a professional Call of Duty player. He is a 2015 and 2019 World Champion, the 2015 World Championship MVP, and an X Games Gold Medalist from 2014. He is known previously for his time on EUnited, compLexity, OpTic Gaming, Denial eSports, and FaZe Clan. James “Clayster” Eubanks is from Winchester, Virginia and attended West Virginia University.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Watch live video from Clayster on www.twitch.tv

HISTORY

Clayster started playing competitive Call Of Duty in 2007.

	smkd
	Crowned Victorious
2010 – Nov 2010	Art of eXecution
2010 – 2010	Tva
2011 – 2011	Fly Society
	Team Obey
2011 – 2011	vVv Gaming
2012 – 2012	Team TaKeOver
2012 – 2012	OpTic Nation
2012 –	RoughNeX
– 2013	Thrust Nation
Mar 2013 – Apr 2013	UNiTE Gaming
Apr 2013 – Nov 2013	compLexity
Dec 2013 – Jan 2014	Team Kaliber
Jan 2014 – Nov 2014	OpTic Gaming
Nov 2014 – Jan 2015	Team Envy
Jan 2015 – Jun 2015	Denial Esports
Jun 2015 – Jun 2017	FaZe Clan
Jun 2017 – Oct 2019	eUnited
Oct 2019 – Present	Dallas Empire

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2010)

Clayster proved he was a top player by achieving a spot at the MLG National Championship 2009 playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 season.

Call of Duty: Black Ops (2011)

Clayster competed at both MLG Dallas as well as MLG Raleigh playing Call of Duty: Black Ops.

CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 3 (2012)

Due to his academic commitments at West Virginia University, Clayster took a while off of competitive gaming to fully focus on his education.

Call of Duty: Black Ops II (2013)

Clayster started playing competitive gaming again during the 2013 Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 season. Clayster played for OpTic Nation, RoughNeX, Thrust, and UNiTE.

After placing top 24 at the 2013 Call of Duty Championship with UNiTE, Clayster would get his biggest opportunity yet; the chance to join compLexity.

Clay joined a line up of ACHES, TeePee, and Crimsix going into the MLG Spring Championship, and the team went all the way to the Grand Finals to then face the juggernaut team, Fariko Impact.

Here, compLexity became the “Impact Killers” and started one of the most dominant dynasties in Call of Duty history.

During his time as a member of compLexity, he and his teammates experienced incredible success, winning seven of the final eight events of the Black Ops 2 season.

Call of Duty: Ghosts (2014)

After winning the first event of Call Of Duty: Ghosts, Clayster was dropped from compLexity due to personal issues within the team.

Team KaLiBeR, who had lost Goonjar to EnVyUs, took the opportunity to pick up Clayster to join Sharp, Neslo, and Theory for the Call Of Duty: Ghosts season.

Clayster’s first event with Team KaLiBeR, saw the team make it to the grand final against his old team compLexity.

Despite Clayster’s desires to beat his old team, he and the squad lost the series, going home with a 2nd place finish.

After the event, with a flurry of roster changes in the community, it was announced that Clayster had left Team KaLiBeR to join the OpTic Gaming squad alongside NaDeSHoT, Ricky, and Parasite for the remainder of the Ghosts season.

Unsurprising to many fans of competitive Call of Duty, this roster did not last; a conflict of opinions and personalities, combined with all-too-similar play-styles saw both Ricky and Parasite leave to join Curse LV.

OpTic Gaming took this opportunity to pick up MBoZe and Saints to complete the roster with NaDeSHoT and Clayster.

Saints did not last long either however, and former OpTic player, Scump, rejoined shortly after he had left. With this roster they found reasonable success placing 3rd at the 2014 Call of Duty Championship.

After the World Championship and PAX East, there was another flurry of roster changes which resulted in MBoZe becoming the new captain of the revived OpTic Nation pro team and ProoFy taking his place on OpTic Gaming alongside Clayster.

The team placed 8th at UGC Niagara, and were invited to attend the first MLG X Games Invitational.

Here, OpTic Gaming performed at a higher level, advancing all the way through their bracket to face off against Team KaLiBeR in the Grand Final.

In a Game 5 of Search and Destroy on Sovereign, Clayster secured a 6-4 win in a 1v1 with Goonjar, and cemented his place in history as one of the first Call of Duty Gold Medallist’s.

Following X Games, Clayster and OpTic Gaming were off to MLG Anaheim.

They went into this event full of confidence off the back of their 1st place finish at X Games as well as gaining the second seed after finishing second in the MLG League.

They fought off all the competition 3-0 until they faced Evil Geniuses (formerly known as compLexity) in the winners final, which they lost 3-0.

They won the losers final against TCM 3-0 to face Evil Geniuses in the Grand Final, but crashed out in the second best of 5 in the continuation match.

This left them placing a very respectable 2nd. Clayster and OpTic Gaming then travelled to London to compete at Gfinity 3.

Here, along with many other top teams, OpTic Gaming had a poor weekend finishing 5th-8th.

Clayster himself performed exceptionally well in the Sovereign Search and Destroy of their knockout match against Epsilon, but they were unable to close the win out, losing the series 3-2.

After Gfinity 3, the team were looking to bounce back at UMG Dallas, but were still unable to replicate their form from X Games and MLG Anaheim.

The team placed 4th after losing to OpTic Nation.

UMG Nashville was next up and the OpTic Gaming roster was hoping to place well in the tournament.

However, that was not the case. They ended the tournament placing 5th-6th.

With the Season 3 Playoffs steadily creeping up on them, OpTic Gaming wanted to make sure that they ended the Ghosts season strongly.

They went into the tournament seemingly off their game.

It was the last match of the night and OpTic Gaming performed poorly against Denial, losing 2-3.

The next day however, OpTic Gaming were rejuvenated, not dropping a single map the entire day against Rise and OpTic Nation.

On Championship Sunday, OpTic Gaming were looking to carry the momentum from the previous day into their match with Most Wanted.

However, Most Wanted proved they were the better team, beating OpTic Gaming 3-0, eliminating them from the tournament in 4th place at the last event of Ghosts.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (2015)

After the Ghosts Season 3 playoffs, OpTic Gaming announced that they had dropped Clayster and ProoFy.

Along with the community generally, Clayster was upset about the decision.

However, his departure was dignified, thanking the OpTic organization and the fans for their continuous support throughout his 10 month tenure on the team.

With almost every top team offering him a spot on their roster, Clayster made the decision to join EnVyUs, trading places FormaL who joined OpTic.

The decision made his fans, and EnVyUs fans, very pleased, hoping that the team could potentially be a force within the community.

Surprisingly though, the EnVyUs squad did not do as well as they would have expected at the first Advanced Warfare event, MLG Columbus, where they ended up placing 5th-6th.

Despite the poor start, EnVyUs, in only the 2nd week of playing in the league, became the first team to beat the Columbus Champions, FaZe who were yet to lose a league match.

EnVy were unable to carry this momentum forward though, and concluded with a 9-12th placing at UMG Orlando 2015.

Over the coming weeks, EnVy squad had a patchy stage in the League, moving up the leaderboard until 17th January 2015, when Clayster was traded to Denial, to play alongside JKap for ZooMaa and Saints.

Denial proved to be Clayster’s strongest team since his time in Black Ops 2 days with compLexity.

As Clayster recalls in his “RosterMania” recap video on YouTube, it all started when they decided to play some league matches together and convincingly won a number of maps against OpTic, the dominant team at the time.

He went on to explain that as the roster continued to play in league matches together, they recognized the immense potential of their roster: Clayster, Attach, Crowder, and JKap.

The team finished the first season of the MLG CoD League in 2nd place, trailing their rivals OpTic Gaming.

At the MLG Pro League Season 1 Playoffs, Denial fell first round in the Winners’ Bracket against nV. However, Clay and the team showed great resilience in the losers bracket, defeatin team after team to finally face OpTic in the Finals.

They fell to OpTic 3-0, finishing in 2nd. Denial’s run at the NA Regional Finals was similar.

They fell to Revenge 3-0 in the second round of Winners, considered one of the biggest upsets in the tournament.

Yet again, Clay lead his team through an impressive run in losers bracket, where they also won the rematch against Revenge, defeating them 3-0 this time.

They climbed to the Grand Final to face OpTic for the second time, losing 3-0 again .

This time however, they kept the series much closer, losing the Hardpoint by only 7 points, taking Search and Destroy to Round 11, and losing 2-point Uplink game.

Finally, the time came for the Call of Duty Championship 2015.

The team had a shaky start, as they fell 3-2 to Prophecy who won 3 straight maps, concluding their pool with the 2nd seed.

Things began to look even more grim when the Championship Bracket was released, and Denial was pitted to face off against none other than OpTic, in the first round.

However, Denial avoided defeat, playing exceptionally and taking the series versus OpTic with a convincing 3-1 map count.

After handing OpTic their first loss at a LAN tournament in the past 2 events, Denial gained the confidence to begin a strong performance in the Winner’s Bracket.

Bucking their usual trend of falling early in the tournament, they continued their run with a 3-0 over Team Kaliber and a 3-1 against Automatic Reload, earning a spot in the Winner’s Bracket Finals to face Revenge.

Clayster and the team won this match 3-2, before defeating Revenge again in the Grand Finals by the same scoreline.

Denial were crowned champions, winning Clayster his first ring, $100,000 and the MVP award.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 (2016)

Clayster and his team were invited to Totino’s Invitational, a single elimination tournament taking place a week and a half after the game’s release.

FaZe fell short to Team Kaliber in the first round, losing 2-0, eliminating them from the tournament with a 5th-8th finish.

Unfortunately, this set a precedent for the rest of Black Ops 3 for the team.

Next, they were invited to the Invitational CWL Stage 1 Qualifier.

Placed in group A, alongside the returning compLexity, albeit with a new roster, Happy Hour, and the former OpTic Nation roster, now simply known as Nation.

FaZe won both their matches against Happy Hour and compLexity, granting them a spot in the upcoming CWL Stage 1 NA Online League.

Clayster attended UMG South Carolina 2016, where FaZe fell victim to the single elimination Game 7, losing to a determined Team Liquid in the quarterfinals, giving Clayster another disappointing finish.

The team completed Stage 1 with a 15-7 record, securing the #3 seed for the Stage 1 Playoffs.

In the first round, they came up against compLexity yet again, sweeping them 4-0. However, FaZe’s victory was short lived, after their match up against a strong Rise Nation, where they lost 4-0, placing 3rd-4th.

The team then travelled to Paris to compete at ESWC 2016.

They finished the group stage with a flawless record, sweeping PuLse Gaming and Exertus eSports for a spot in the playoffs.

However, as they had experienced numerously already throughout the season, they fell short in the first round, losing 0-3 against an strong Splyce roster, placing 5th-8th.

At MLG Anaheim Open 2016, FaZe exited pool play with a disappointing 1-2 record, sending them to the losers bracket, where they began an almost legendary losers bracket run.

First defeating Echo Fox 3-1, then pulling off the reverse sweep against two of the best EU teams at the time, Splyce and Infused.

The outlook was positive for FaZe, but they lost 3-1 to Rise for a 4th place finish.

FaZe completed the controversial Stage 2 with a 13-9 record, securing the third seed to face Dream Team at the Stage 2 Playoffs.

However, FaZe yet again disappointed, losing to Dream Team in Game 7, for another 5th-8th finish.

At MLG Orlando Open 2016, FaZe finished pool play with another flawless 3-0 record.

However, they were beaten into the losers bracket, where they progressed until facing the in form Team EnVyUs.

Clayster personally had a very poor perfomance, notably in the game 4 Stronghold CTF, finishing the map with a kills-deaths record of 4-22.

Clayster apolgised publicly on twitter for the performance, claiming he was unaware he was playing so poorly.

The FaZe Clan qualified for the 2016 Call of Duty World League Championship – the biggest tournament ever played in Call of Duty at that time.

Clayster and the team performed excellently in pool play, not dropping a single map going into the winners bracket.

Their performances continued in bracket play, defeating Team Infused 3-0 in the first round.

The team had high expectations going into Day 3, however they were sent into the losers bracket, by eventual winners EnVyUs.

FaZe came up against Millenium, with MiRx in place of Swanny, as the latter was unable to attend the event.

FaZe won the series 3-1, to set up a match against Splyce once more.

The match went to an intense Game 5 Search and Destroy, which FaZe lost 6-2, after less than satisfactory performances from Enable (3-8) and Clayster himself (4-5).

FaZe finished the championship event in 7th-8th, netting them $50,000 in prize money.

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (2017)

FaZe started the Infinite Warfare season well, winning the PlayStation Experience Invitational.

This event was not attended by many of the top North American team’s however, such as OpTic on 2016 champs EnVyUs.

Regardless, Clayster and his teammates had shown they were comfortable with the new Call of Duty title, and their outlook for the season looked bright.

At the first major event of the year, CWL Las Vegas, the team performed well again, beating OpTic and Splyce 3-1, to reach the the semi-final against Rise Nation.

FaZe lost the match 3-1, placing them in losers bracket.

They defeated Allegiance 3-1, before ultimately falling to Cloud 9 3-2 in a close match, placing FaZe 3rd at the event.

FaZe performed worse at the next event, CWL Atlanta, only managing a 5-6th finish, after losing to OpTic Gaming for the first time in an elimination match at a LAN event since Advanced Warfare.

The team faired better at CWL Paris, reaching the final where they again faced OpTic.

The match got off to a false start, with technical issues forcing a stop to the first Hardpoint, while FaZe were up 42-13.

However after the restart, OpTic won the match with a convincing 3-0 scoreline, consigning FaZe to 2nd place.

Clayster was visibly upset during the loser interview, and was reported to have thrown his medal in frustration, although he later denied this claiming he threw it into the crowd for a fan to catch.

Call of Duty: World War 2 (2018)

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 (2019)

Clayster went 1400 days without a major win and this became a meme in the community. While with eUnited he won a double set, best of 5 series in the 2019 CWL Pro League Finals to end the drought and win the 2019 Call of Duty World League Championship.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2020)

On October 14th, 2019, Clayster announced on Twitter that he was joining the new roster for the Dallas city franchise of Call of Duty League.

Results by Game

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare			$144,195.75 From 34 Tournaments
2015-10-18	5th-6th	MLG World Finals 2015 (CoD:AW)	–	$2,500.00
2015-09-20	1st	MLG Pro League CoD AW Season 3	–	$10,000.00
2015-08-29	1st	UMG/MLG 5K Series 08-29	–	$200.00
2015-08-16	2nd	MLG 10K Series 08-16	–	$245.00
2015-08-08	1st	UMG/MLG 2K Series 08-08	–	$163.75
2015-08-02	1st	Gfinity CoD Summer Championship	–	$12,500.00
2015-07-25	2nd	UMG/MLG 2K Series 07-25	–	$84.50
2015-07-19	1st	MLG 10K Series 07-19	–	$765.00
2015-07-12	1st	UMG Dallas 2015	–	$5,000.00
2015-07-05	1st	MLG 5K Series 07-05	–	$735.00
2015-06-21	1st	MLG 5K Series 06-21	–	$380.00
2015-06-20	1st	UMG/MLG 2K Series 06-20	–	$132.50
2015-06-07	5th-6th	MLG Pro League CoD AW Season 2	–	$1,000.00
2015-05-24	2nd	MLG 5K Series 05-24	–	$185.00
2015-05-03	2nd	ESWC Zénith 2015 (CoD:AW)	–	$2,500.00
2015-04-25	3rd-4th	UMG/MLG 2K Series 04-25	–	$47.50
2015-04-18	3rd-4th	UMG/MLG 2K Series 04-18	–	$50.00
2015-04-11	2nd	UMG/MLG 2K Series 04-11	–	$111.25
2015-03-29	1st	Call of Duty Championship 2015	–	$100,000.00
2015-03-08	2nd	NA Regional Finals 2015	–	$625.00
2015-03-01	2nd	MLG 5K Series 03-01	–	$270.00
2015-02-22	2nd	MLG Pro League CoD AW Season 1	–	$3,750.00
2015-02-15	3rd-4th	MLG 5K Series 02-15	–	$130.00
2015-02-14	2nd	UMG/MLG 2K Series 02-14	–	$112.50
2015-02-01	1st	MLG Variant 250 Series 02-01	–	$101.25
2015-01-31	1st	UMG/MLG 2K Series 01-31	–	$222.50
2015-01-17	2nd	UMG/MLG 2K Series 01-17	–	$158.75
2015-01-11	2nd	MLG 5K Series 01-11	–	$310.00
2015-01-10	3rd-4th	UMG/MLG 2K Series 01-10	–	$90.00
2014-11-30	5th-6th	MLG Columbus 2014 (CoD:AW)	–	$250.00
2014-11-22	3rd-4th	UMG/MLG 2K Series 11-22	–	$120.00
2014-11-16	5th-8th	MLG 5K Series 11-16	–	$100.00
2014-11-15	1st	UMG/MLG 2K Series 11-15	–	$831.25
2014-11-09	2nd	MLG 5K Series 11-09	–	$525.00
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2			$32,292.50 From 11 Tournaments
2015-06-12	1st	MLG Black Ops II 5K Throw Back	–	$1,250.00
2013-11-03	1st	ESWC 2013 (CoD:BlOps2)	–	$2,500.00
2013-10-19	1st	MLG Fall Invitational 2013 (CoD:BlOps2)	–	$2,500.00
2013-10-13	1st	Gfinity 2 London 2013 (CoD:BlOps2)	–	$7,500.00
2013-09-14	1st	MLG 5K Series 09-14-2013	–	$362.50
2013-09-07	1st	MLG 2K Series 09-07-2013	–	$180.00
2013-09-02	2nd	PAX Prime Call of Duty Invitational	–	$625.00
2013-08-11	1st	UMG Atlanta 2013	–	$1,875.00
2013-07-14	1st	Gfinity London 2013 (CoD:BlOps2)	–	$7,500.00
2013-06-30	1st	MLG Spring Championship 2013 (CoD:BlOps2)	–	$5,000.00
2013-03-17	2nd	MLG Winter Championship 2013 (CoD:BlOps2)	–	$3,000.00
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4			$319,725.00 From 10 Tournaments
2019-08-18	1st	CWL Championship 2019	–	$160,000.00
2019-07-21	1st	CWL Pro League 2019 Finals	–	$100,000.00
2019-07-05	1st-2nd	CWL Pro League 2019	–	$17,875.00
2019-07-05	1st	CWL Pro League 2019 Player Bonuses	–	$9,000.00
2019-06-16	5th-6th	CWL Anaheim 2019	–	$3,000.00
2019-05-05	2nd	CWL London 2019	–	$16,000.00
2019-03-29	3rd	Blackout After Dark 3/29/19	–	$500.00
2018-12-14	2nd	BoomTV Code Red 2018-12-14	–	$1,250.00
2018-12-09	2nd	CWL Las Vegas Open 2018	–	$12,000.00
2018-11-12	2nd	NA CWL 2000 Series 11-11/12	–	$100.00
Call of Duty: Black Ops 3			$33,687.50 From 13 Tournaments
2016-10-16	2nd	1st Annual #Phizzurp 10K | UMG Online	–	$625.00
2016-09-04	7th-8th	Call of Duty XP Championship 2016	–	$12,500.00
2016-08-07	3rd-4th	MLG Orlando 2016	–	$2,000.00
2016-07-17	5th-8th	NA CWL Stage 2 Playoffs	–	$4,000.00
2016-06-12	4th	MLG Anaheim Open 2016 (CoD:BO3)	–	$2,000.00
2016-05-08	5th-8th	ESWC Zénith 2016 COD	–	$625.00
2016-04-03	3rd-4th	NA CWL Stage 1 Playoffs	–	$6,000.00
2016-03-13	5th-8th	ESL CWL Challenge Division Tier 2 Event 2 North America	–	$312.50
2016-03-06	1st	ESL CWL Challenge Division Tier 2 Event 1 North America	–	$2,500.00
2016-02-28	3rd-4th	UMG CWL $25K Challenge Variant #2	–	$625.00
2016-02-21	3rd-4th	UMG CWL Challenge Variant #1	–	$625.00
2016-02-14	5th-8th	UMG South Carolina 2016 (Championship Bracket)	–	$875.00
2015-11-14	5th-8th	Totino’s Invitational	–	$1,000.00
Call of Duty: Ghosts			$41,097.50 From 7 Tournaments
2014-10-26	4th	MLG CoD:Ghosts League Season 3	–	$1,500.00
2014-08-24	4th	UMG Dallas 2014	–	$500.00
2014-06-22	2nd	MLG Anaheim 2014 (CoD:Ghosts Pro)	–	$2,500.00
2014-05-11	2nd	MLG 2K Series 05-11	–	$597.50
2014-03-30	3rd	Call of Duty Championship 2014	–	$30,000.00
2014-01-05	2nd	UMG Philadelphia 2014	–	$1,000.00
2013-11-24	1st	MLG Fall Championship 2013 (CoD:Ghosts)	–	$5,000.00
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare			$84,250.00 From 12 Tournaments
2017-08-13	5th-6th	CWL Championship 2017	–	$13,750.00
2017-07-30	3rd	CWL 2017 – Global Pro League Stage 2	–	$23,125.00
2017-06-04	1st	MLG 2K Series NA 06-04	–	$500.00
2017-05-28	3rd	CWL 2017 – Global Pro League Stage 1	–	$23,125.00
2017-04-09	1st	MLG 2K Series NA 04-09	–	$500.00
2017-04-01	1st	UMG Online/2017/April/Prime $5K 4v4 Search and Destroy	–	$1,000.00
2017-03-19	3rd	CWL 2017 Dallas Open	–	$8,000.00
2017-02-19	2nd	CWL 2017 Paris Open ESWC	–	$6,000.00
2017-02-12	5th-6th	CWL 2017 Atlanta Open	–	$2,000.00
2017-02-05	2nd	MLG GameBattles/2000 Series/North America/2017-02-04	–	$250.00
2016-12-18	3rd	MLG CWL Las Vegas Open 2016	–	$4,000.00
2016-12-04	1st	Playstation Experience Invitational	–	$2,000.00
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3			$12,500.00 From 1 Tournament
2011-09-03	6th	Call of Duty XP	–	$12,500.00
Call of Duty: World War 2			$60,648.43 From 10 Tournaments
2018-08-19	4th	CWL Championship 2018	–	$20,000.00
2018-07-29	4th	2018 CWL Pro League Stage 2	–	$13,125.00
2018-04-22	3rd	2018 CWL Seattle Open	–	$8,000.00
2018-04-08	5th-6th	2018 CWL Pro League Stage 1	–	$8,125.00
2018-03-11	5th-6th	CWL Atlanta Open 2018	–	$2,000.00
2018-03-04	2nd	WGCC 2018 National Final	C$3,250.00	$2,523.43
2018-01-14	5th-6th	CWL New Orleans Open 2018	–	$2,000.00
2017-12-17	2nd	2018 CWL Northern Arena Showdown	–	$2,500.00
2017-12-10	5th-6th	CWL Dallas Open 2018	–	$2,000.00
2017-11-27	1st	NA CWL 2000 series 11-26/27	–	$375.00

References