When the Order roster packed their bags and left the Oceanic Pro League studio, they weren’t sure if their season was over.
After securing a much-needed victory over Gravitas early on Saturday in the split-ending Super Week, they set off back to Melbourne with one result left to decide their fate – direct place rivals Gravitas up against an already second Chiefs Esports Club.
It was just the second of three straight wins for the Chiefs as they downed Gravitas, but for Order and everyone involved with the org, it meant everything.
“Everything has been a bit of a mixed feeling rollercoaster for me, in my career this is the worst regular split I’ve ever played so to get another shot at gauntlet after that is great,” Order jungler Samuel “Spookz” Broadley said of qualifying for the postseason in fifth place.
“After [the Gravitas game] it was myself, Dream, Tally and Swiffer waiting at the airport, and Tally and Dream were watching the Chiefs-Gravitas game but I’m too old and my blood pressure couldn’t handle it.
“I tuned in for just a little bit because I had to see, but as soon as I did Raes flashed over the wall and nearly inted the game, so I was just like ‘nup I can’t take this’, and that was about as much as I could handle.”
In the must-win clash with Gravitas on Saturday, Order grabbed hold of the game in the opening twenty minutes and climbed to a 2.1k gold lead 16 minutes into the contest. Gravitas weren’t going down without a fight however, and the newly founded org dragged the game back into their favour. They even clocked up a 2.6k gold lead 26 minutes in.
It was Order that would have the last laugh in the vital game however, as a game-breaking triple kill from Spookz on Jarvan IV, and the Baron Nashor secure moments later, sealed the deal for the now-fifth place outfit and gave them another lease at life.
“We were somewhat happy with how the Gravitas game went, we made a few mistakes and it should have been a relatively smooth win overall I feel,” Spookz said.
“It was nice in the end of to come out with another shot at gauntlet, so I guess it can say it all worked out in the end.” – Spookz
Another member of Order who is feeling a sense of relief after the organisation slipped into the postseason gauntlet is general manager Jake “Spawn” Tiberi, who said the Super Week results were
“I think we’re certainly better than the fifth place team in the OPL right now, and we haven’t been able to show a lot of the hard work that we’ve put in,” Spawn said after the final week wrapped up.
“I’m looking forward to going into the best of fives this weekend, I think we’re all fairly confident, and I think there’ll be a better representation of what the season has been about for us. We’ve done a really good job integrating our new bot lane into the team and now we’re looking forward from that.”
Order’s next opponent comes in the form of Mammoth, another team dripping with star power that has had a mixed run in the first split of 2019. With defending champions like Stephen “Triple” Li and Calvin “k1ng” Truong waiting for the Melbourne squad come Thursday afternoon, it’s set to be a blockbuster start to the gauntlet.
For Spawn, it’s a chance for Order to “make that special run” in the gauntlet. He wouldn’t have turned away “that nice place Bombers have got for themselves” – a description he added with a hearty laugh – but he believes his 2019 roster has what it takes to upset the odds.
“Mammoth were one of our main scrim partners this year, we triple-blocked with them a lot of nights during the season, so we know them really well,” Tiberi said.
“On top of that, all their players have been around forever and our guys like Spookz, Swiffer and Tally have been facing these guys for a very long time. Neither team will have that many aces up their sleeves because we’re a pretty straight forward team, and they are similar under Richard [Phantiks].
“We’ve beaten most every team this split – the only team we’ve not beaten is Avant – so I’m fairly confident that if we get momentum behind us in this Mammoth series we can do some serious damage like the famous Sin Gaming in 2016.”
Round Wrap
The Super Week also ended positively for a handful of other teams in the league. Bombers and Chiefs were both able to solidify their places in the top two spots, while Avant Gaming confirmed third place despite their 1-2 weekend overall.
Mammoth were able to lock fourth with a 2-1 record, just falling to Bombers on the Saturday after back-to-back wins on Friday afternoon, and Legacy Esports were able to finish their split on a high as they defeated the Dire Wolves and stayed in the clash against Avant until the very end.
For the Dire Wolves, a 0-3 weekend closed out their wooden spoon split, locking in the defending champions as the season’s cellar dwellers with a 1-20 record after defeats to Order, Legacy and the Chiefs in Super Week.
Order’s gauntlet run begins when they come up against Mammoth on Thursday evening. The OPL stream will begin on Twitch.tv and YouTube from 3pm, with the first best of five series of the postseason locked in to begin at 4pm AEDT.
