Five weeks into LCO 2021 Split 2, and Order are still keeping pace with the league’s heavyhitters. They may be the season’s surprise package, but Maximus “Maximize” Yaremenko tells Snowball Esports it’s no shock.
Maximize is certainly happy where his team is more than a month in; Order currently boasts a 7–5 record, and sit in third place ahead of Super Week 3.
It’s made the whole team “optimistic,” Yaremenko says.
“Every game we’ve played on stage has been winnable, and games we lost generally came down to easily fixable mistakes that we’ve gone on to sort out after the fact,” the 2021 rookie told Snowball. “Individually, I think I was in a bit of a slump the first two weeks, but I’ve been making a return to my split 1 form recently.”
Last week, Order crowned their strong start to Split 2 with a win over league leaders the Chiefs Esports Club. It, more than any other win, has sparked a confidence that Order are drawing on to “go further than Split 1.”
Max said: “I’m very confident in the second round robin and beyond.
“We’ve been improving steadily over the offseason, especially during the first round robin, and the gap between the top teams has become so minuscule that anyone can win depending on who shows up better on the day.
“Our Split 1 performance was really underwhelming, and I’m confident this split we will go much further than that first-round exit.”
That said, there’s tough competition across the Rift in the LCO this season. The Chiefs (9–3) and Pentanet.GG (8–4) are out in front by a couple of wins, and that leaves Order with their work cut out for them.
Maximize sees three teams as Order’s true rivals.
“There are four teams I think can really contest the title; that being us, Chiefs, Peace, and PGG,” the young top laner claimed.
“Chiefs have definitely improved a lot since Split 1, and I think their off-meta way of drafting and playing the game can catch teams off guard, but I do think they will not be as good once the meta becomes more defined.
“Peace are looking strong as well and I think it will be interesting to see how much the Tally/Babip duo can add consistency to their team. PGG are really rusty since the Mid-Season Invitational, and I think they will pick up later in the split when they are more adjusted back to the Australian lifestyle.”
No matter where Order eventually lands, however, Maximize says he’s already enjoyed a fun League of Legends Circuit Oceania split. That enjoyment, the Order star explained, is due to how “fun” top lane has been recently.
“The most fun top laners to play against, in my opinion, are Api and BioPanther. They are able to challenge in-lane, given the right circumstances,” he said, before adding that there’s another end to the spectrum too: “Lived gets the “least fun top laner to play against” award. He’s always taking some really cringe counterpick.”
Then there’s returning LCS Academy star Tally, who made his LCO debut after more than half a year in North America in 2021. James Shute left Australia as an OPL champion, and comes back Down Under as a top lane juggernaut.
“It will be interesting to see how much Tally has improved since returning from NA, from my experience he seems quite consistent,” Maximise said. “I look forward to learning from his macro game.”
Expect Max to “spice up” top lane as LCO rolls on too.
“I’ve played so many games of Lee Sin and Nocturne,” he admitted.
“It feels like every game I play there’s a 70% chance I will be playing one of these two, so I’m really keen to branch out and play some more split-push oriented champs that are more capable of solo-carrying games, as opposed to being a facilitator for Puma to farm DoorDash Player That Delivered vouchers.”
