Despite ORDER breaking away from the meta in an effort to find their first win at the 2022 Mid-Season Invitational, picks like Vanye, Urgot, Evelyn and Zed could not save them from another pair of losses against Evil Geniuses and G2 Esports.
ORDER came into the 2022 Mid-Season Invitational as one of the biggest underdogs. When they landed in Group C alongside G2 Esports and Evil Geniuses, some saw it as a double-edged sword. On one hand, they dodged the two tournament favorites, Royal Never Give Up and T1. On the other hand, they landed against the two next best teams. And so far, despite their best efforts, ORDER weren’t close to a win in either of their first games against Evil Geniuses of G2 at MSI 2022.
So, the League of Legends Circuit Oceania representatives decided to spice things up the second time around. In the first game of Day 3, against EG, ORDER locked in Vayne and Urgot. In the second game, they picked Evelyn and Zed. Both games ended just like the others with ORDER coming up short.
The picks were indeed obscure. According to Gol.gg, Vayne, specifically, has only a 2% presence across all levels of pro play. That means that including picks and bans, Vayne has only appeared in champ select 2% of the time.
ORDER’s bot laner, Nathan “Puma” Puma does have experience on the champion in Season 12. In fact, he was undefeated in three games on the champion heading into ORDER’s Day 3 match against EG.
Still, the match was not close at all. Puma’s Vayne had zero impact as ORDER fell flat in a 24-minute loss. In that game, ORDER’s top laner Brandon “BioPanther” Alexander also locked in Urgot. But just like Shunsuke “Evi” Murase on Day 2, the pick didn’t work out. Urgot is now 0-2 at MSI 2022.
With no time to reset, ORDER jumped right back onto the rift in the second game of Day 3 as they went up against G2. Although Vayne and Urgot didn’t work, ORDER dug deeper into their champion pools and brought out two crazier champion picks.
Like Vayne, Zed and Evelyn also only had a 2% presence rate worldwide in 2022. Also similar to the Vayne pick, Evelyn is a comfort pick for ORDER’s jungler, Shane “Kevy” Allen. Kevy has said Evelyn has done super well in scrims and, in the three games he has played the champion in 2022, he was also undefeated heading into the G2 match. But again, the pick proved to be ineffective as ORDER lost even harder against G2 than they did against EG. ORDER finished the first half of the MSI 2022 group stage at 0-4.
The meta picks aren’t working and neither are the pocket picks. Still, ORDER will have another two games against both G2 and EG on Saturday to figure out what might get them an international win.
