With the 2022 League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational on the Horizon, the League of Legends Circuit Oceania’s ORDER are one of 11 regional champions from around the world that are getting ready for the biggest international event of the spring. While MSI 2022 isn’t the final stop for the season, the tournament is key for seeing where each region stands in the global hierarchy.
After a Cinderella run in the LCO 2022 split 1 playoffs, ORDER are making their first-ever international appearance. With an entirely domestic roster, ORDER look to do the Oceania region proud and continue their incredible streak into MSI.
ORDER (LCO) MSI 2022 starting roster breakdown:
Top: Brandon “BioPanther” Alexander | Signed in January 2022. Formerly a member of Pentanet.GG
Jungle: Shane “Kevy” Allen | Signed in June 2021. Formerly a member of PEACE
Mid: Ronald “Kisee” Vo | Signed in January 2022. Formerly a member of Chiefs Esports Club
Bot: Nathan “Puma” Puma| Signed in February 2021. Formerly a member of Gravitas
Support: Ian “Corporal” Pearse| Signed in January 2022. Formerly a member of SoftBank HAWKS
How they got here
In 2021, ORDER were a team that hung around the top half of the LCO standings. In fact, in the summer split, ORDER actually finished second in the regular season. They were just one game behind the team that represented Oceania at MSI that year, Pentanet.GG.
In the playoffs, however, ORDER saw their run end prematurely at the hands of the eventual LCO champions, PEACE. Although they had a disappointing season, they took away a lot of positives in the process.
For starters, the MVP of the entire LCO went to ORDER’s jungler, Kevy, during his first full time season. He previously played for Dire Wolves and PEACE in the spring season of 2021, but once ORDER picked Kevy up, he blossomed. While the rest of the team was so-so heading into 2022, ORDER had the best player in the league to build around. And they did just that.
The team kept their bot laner, Puma, but replaced everyone else. To compliment Kevy, ORDER brought in the best top laner in the region, BioPanther, to create the strongest top side synergy in the region. The team also went out and acquired another young player in LCO 2022 Split 1 top rookie, Kisee from Chiefs Esports Club.
To round out the roster, the team looked overseas and brought in Corporal from the League of Legends Japan League. In his four-year career, he spent two seasons in Oceania and two seasons in Japan. ORDER were geared for success heading into the 2022 season.
Still, the LCO 2022 Split 1 did not go as planned for ORDER. The team struggled immensely to find their footing. In fact, the team never peaked above third in the standings at any point in the season. But due to how top-heavy the league is, the team easily clinched a playoff spot even with a 11-10 record.
With the fifth seed, ORDER found themselves fighting their first round in the playoffs already in the losers bracket. And despite playing against better teams throughout, ORDER did not drop a game until the final. They 3-0’d every team that defeated them in 2021 in succession. They beat Dire Wolves, then they beat PEACE and, in the losers finals, they beat Pentanet.GG.
With a 9-0 record in the playoffs leading up to the final, ORDER faced the final boss in the 19-2 Chiefs Esports Club. With the five-game series going back and forth, ORDER clutched out the win and, in the process completed their Cinderella run to earn their first-ever MSI appearance.
Players to watch
Over the course of the 2022 spring season, Puma stepped up big time and showed why he deserved to be held onto heading into ORDER’s 2022 rebuild. In the regular season, Puma led all ORDER players in player of the game honors and did it again in the playoffs, with two series MVPs in their four series run.
However, the obvious two-star players on the roster outside of Puma are BioPanther and Kevy. BioPanther was named the finals MVP while Kevy picked up series MVP in the losers finals. BioPanther has international experience before as he was on the Pentanet.GG roster that made it MSI last year and was a member of Dire Wolves at Worlds 2018.
How ORDER can succeed at MSI 2022
ORDER had the double-edged sword draw of being placed into Group C. They dodged both T1 and RNG, the tournament favorites, but are faced with the tall task of needing to upset one of the two other major region teams — G2 Esports and Evil Geniuses.
For ORDER to make it into the Rumble stage like Pentanet.GG did last year, they are going to need to play even better than they did in the LCO 2022 Split 1 final. However, this team has been on a massive hot streak and is improving at an insane rate. Considering they still haven’t hit their ceiling, all it takes is one of the two teams in their group to play poorly while they themselves play at their peak. It’s unlikely, but crazier things have happened.
Published: Apr 29, 2022 06:53 pm