ENDGAME: Bridesmaids

The last time Order won a major tournament was the ESL Championship in May 2017. That was also their only major win as a team, and it was while they were Athletico CAMO. The roster since those days has since disbanded after many nail biting second and third places, but they have entered Contenders Season 3 with one of the strongest renditions yet.

After a minor hiccup in Week 2 against Heist, losing 2-3 in a series many expected them to dominate, Order went back to the drawing board to make sure they didn’t feel the disappointment they had grown accustomed to in recent months. What came out the other side was an Order who has dominated Contenders Australia, and is a definite LAN favourite.

Led by two-time BlizzCon representative Andrew “Rqt” Haws as coach, the Order roster boasts World Cup players, defending champions, and the best of the best when it comes to most positions.

Clip: Jordation does a sneaky little double jump on Zarya to set up a devastating Graviton Surge against Mindfreak in their playoffs match.

Adam “Adam” Soong has been with the roster since the days of Monopoly Club, performing at the top of his class through the highs and lows of the team. Team captain Unter has tasted the recent disappointments at Contenders LANs faced by the Blank-Blue-now-Order roster and will be looking to make the third time a charm.

On the other hand, Sam “Quatz” Dennis came over from Sydney Drop Bears alongside teammate Jordation after two seasons of Contenders success. They’ve only seemed to grow in this new environment, and will be looking to turn two seasons into a year of success.

Perennial bridesmaid James “Yuki” Stanton will be looking to write the wrongs of two seasons in the shadows of Sydney Drop Bears and break his second place curse. Emerging flex support Merit made his first appearance on LAN last season with Kanga, and has improved immensely over the last few months and is ready to show the fruits of his labour.

Order’s cohesion as a unit and their individual class as players is some of the best in Contenders globally. Their style of play is methodical and dominant. The cards are falling in their favour and the train is heading into LAN at full speed. Only a couple of fights lay between them and regional success at long last.

I spoke to the young tank line Adam and Quatz, along with veteran DPS Yuki, about their bootcamp, how they bounced back from their midseason hiccups and their LAN predictions.

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How has your bootcamp gone?

Yuki: There we’re a few problems with one of our apartments on the first day of boot camp but they were solved by the end of the first day so all good. Practice has been awesome – it has been good to just be focusing only on Overwatch the week before LAN.
Adam: Yeah, once we sorted accommodation everything else just came together really well.
Quatz: I have a bed. I’m happy.

Order has come together as one of the strongest teams in Australia for Season 3, is this finally the season the curse is broken?

Quatz: I hope I don’t break my first place curse, that’s for sure, but I think we’ve really come together this season as a strong team and I’m hopeful LAN will show the results of our training.
Adam: I think we have definitely been the strongest team in Australia this season, and I think we will make the grand finals at least. We have a new roster this season, and a lot of other rosters seem weaker right now, so we have a good chance.
Yuki: Yeah, definitely feeling good about the LAN. I’ve come second way too many times, and I’m ready to win. If we lose though, it’ll be close. We have definitely come together so well as a team that I think it’s really hard for us to lose – we aren’t untouchable by any means, but we have been very consistent recently and that’s our biggest strength.

“We’ve got the two kids (Adam and Quatz), the grumpy but supportive dad (Rqt), the mum that’s just trying her hardest (Smash), Max (Unter) who is our resident running commentator, Jordy ‘the Guy’, myself ‘the Loud One’, and Merit ‘the Alpha’.”
– Yuki

There’s been a lot of hype surrounding Quatz and Adam as a tank line, how do you think you’ve worked together this season?

Adam: Absolutely terribly. I hate him. We somehow have the most fun on the team though.
Quatz: Yeah Adam is a bad player, never really liked him. [laughing]
Yuki: Adam owns and also feeds – he decides on which one he ends up doing. I’m not sure I can think of him playing poorly. For real, he’s a great player and better teammate.

Quatz is the player that no matter what you say and how chaotic comms are, he will always hear you. He’s the player I’ve synergised with most in my time playing Overwatch and I’m really happy to play with him again.
Adam: In all seriousness, Quatz has been great to play with on a team. He’s come from the Drop Bears, is incredibly talented for someone so young, and at least playing with him means I’m not the youngest on the team anymore.
Quatz: Coming over to Order has been great, especially with such a talented lineup. Everyone on the team works really hard and Adam and I get along really well.

Losing to Heist has been defined your season, as a seemingly new Order has come out after it. How much of a motivation was that?

Adam: Losing to Heist was a huge wake up call…
Quatz: …a wake up call that we sucked. We have a lot of individual talent but on the day we were too confident.
Yuki: Not to discredit them though. They played well in that game, and we knew we could play a lot better. We realised we had to start playing a lot better as a team and not just rely on our own skill. We are all so different, but we have meshed so well now.

How much of a help has Rqt been with the team, especially after his World Cup experience the last two years?

Adam: Rqt has insane game knowledge and is a very good coach.
Yuki: He’s very straight to the point, and he doesn’t beat around the bush. When we are problem solving though, he won’t just tell us the solution, but he will tell us how to think about it and then we come up with our own ways of approaching problems in game.
Quatz: He’s serious about what he does, and sometimes yells at us if we do it wrong. He’s got a very commanding presence, especially behind our backs.

leaked footage from order bootcamp pic.twitter.com/SpoF1P9ZDY

— sham (@nz_sham) January 13, 2019

Up against the veteran Athletico line up in your semi final, what are you most concerned about heading into the matchup?

Adam: Termo installing the game, probably.
Yuki: There is said to be a creature that comes out only at tournaments that happen offline. Mere mortals know him as the LAN Dragon – I know him as Termo. On a slightly more serious note, Athletico are a team where I feel they have nothing to lose.
Adam: There is most definitely a potential they pop off super hard, and we can’t let them do that.
Quatz: A lot of them are first time LAN competitors, so it might be difficult for them, but we can’t discount them.
Yuki: As long as we play our game, we will win.

Aside from yourselves, who do you think will win LAN and why?

Everyone: Order.

That is yourselves!

Adam: I think Heist have a good chance against Drop Bears, if I’m honest. They can definitely show up like they did against us in Week 2 and if they do, they will have a shot.
Quatz: Heist are a solid team. They have improved over the season and have beaten us before when we were overconfident. If the Drop Bears show up too confident, despite being favoured, it’s possible the same could happen to them.
Yuki: The Drop Bears could definitely win if this bootcamp elevates them another level, but they’ve also just had another player come in with Shoyo, but it’ll be hard for them.

Well, thanks for your insight and taking time out of bootcamp to talk, good luck at LAN!

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Will Order finally break their curse? Find out on January 20 from 1pm AEDT, when they face their first challenge in Athletico on their way to their first Contenders title. You can catch the action on the Overwatch Contenders Twitch.

You can follow Quatz, Adam, Yuki & Order on Twitter.