Leading ORDER, Simon “Swiffer” Papamarkos joins from long-time home at Chiefs Esports Club, where he forged his reputation as the “best player Oceania has ever produced”.

 Little needs to be said about the accolades he has received over the years – Winning 4 OPL titles; representing Australia on the global stage…he even solo killed Ambition at WCG 2013. A mainstay of Oceanic League of Legends, the value Swiffer can bring to a team can be highlighted by the difficulties the Chiefs had faced while Swiffer was overseas, with Cheese filling his position until return. The Split 1 ’16 Chiefs struggled to a 5-3 record, a major deal for the near unbeatable team of the past, Swiffer returning to lead Chiefs to the OPL title, spawning the now omnipresent phrase “No Swiffer, No Clue”. Coming into the OPL in 2018 Swiffer will be against fierce competition from his opponents if he is to hold onto his position as the best mid laner in Oceania.

Also joining from the Chiefs is long-time partner in the jungle, Samuel “Spookz” Broadley to unite with his mid laner once again. Having been together since 2013 under Exile 5, being able to bring these two players under the same banner is invaluable. Spookz like many junglers in the OPL comes in off the back of an inconsistent 2017. During the season Spookz made uncharacteristic mistakes and had been targeted as a hole in an otherwise strong Chiefs line up which had seen them not only break their streak of OPL titles at 4, but saw them not win a single OPL title in 2017. Spookz will no doubt be seeking to prove his doubters wrong moving in to 2018. Spookz is an emotional leader and when he on-song he leads from the front and rallies his whole team to his call when he gets vocal. With a match up against Dire Wolves being a juicy proposition as Spookz seeks to reclaim his throne as not only the best jungler in the region but as a 2018 OPL Split 1 champion. Along with Swiffer forming a strong base to build around, it is certainly a possibility.

Joining the long-time allies is one of their long-time rivals. Former Legacy sidelane specialist James “Tally” Shute fills the top lane position off the back of a lacklustre 2017. The former OPL MVP spent last season expanding on his craft, often being made to fill a tank position for the team. As a strong mechanical player, without a doubt Tally would’ve liked to have had a flashier 2017 and in 2018 one can only hope that he returns to filling a carry position on occasion that saw his now teammates tremble at PAX 2014. With the way the meta appears to be shaping Tally will be right at home, being able to fill a flexible position playing tanks and carries with equal ease, will look to regain some lost ground to re-establish himself as the strongest top in the region.

A relative newcomer, at least compared to his teammates is AD Carry Victor “FBI” Huang, who joins from SIN Gaming. After a successful debut year, FBI has solidified himself as one of the brightest talents in Oceania bringing himself into contention for the best ADC player in the region in his rookie year. Leaving what was an on-the-rise SIN Gaming, it is of little doubt that FBI joins looking to increase his chances of securing an OPL title. As with the other players on this roster, FBI defines flexibility, while being at home on supportive champions he can play carries to just as deadly of a level. While Oceania has many strong carry players in the position, FBI is by far the most versatile; being able to play supportive champions such as Ashe in particular to a level that far exceeds his peers. It is this fact that makes me certain that FBI will not only build upon his performance in 2017 but look to create a gap between himself and his opposing numbers.

Sticking with both his 2017 bot lane partner and arguably best buddy-cop-duo of 2017 is Jake “Rogue” Sharwood who also joins from the ranks of SIN Gaming. With the departure of EGym Ali God from the competition, Rogue is a perfect position to claim the support throne. The best play making support in the region, Rogue is a deadly and decisive when it comes to engaging. In 2018, it will be interesting to see how far Rogue diversifies from this status as on SIN Gaming he often found himself as the primary source of engage, and an ever versatile ORDER roster may be filling a defensive role from time to time. An interesting point of note is that Rogue also exceeds his peers when it comes to pushing a vision line forward, a job that many a team in the OPL struggled to fulfil. However, this is not without fault as this tendency to push vision could be punished upon resetting, leaving gaps in vision that force a more defensive style upon said reset. That being said, without a doubt Rogue will come into 2018 looking to solidify his position as the top support in the region, and alongside FBI, the best bot lane.

ORDER has without a doubt, been able to build one of the best rosters that the Oceanic region has ever seen. Building a roster from scratch can be a difficult task and with the securing of familiar pairings of Swiffer and Spookz, and FBI and Rogue has led to foundations having previously been built before the rift has even been taken.

It is only appropriate that we address the retention of Brandon “Juves” Defina. The life-blood of SIN gaming, Juves brings a wealth of experience, having been the sole remaining member from not only 2017 but, since the organisations inception at the beginning of 2015. The SIN captain has seen a myriad of players come and go in this time and with a rebuild on this scale, is possibly the most important member to be retained. While he may never be held in the discussion for best jungler in the OPL, by many he may even be regarded as one of the bottom players in OPL, he certainly has a knack for coming out of seemingly nowhere to secure influential leads – after all he outsmited Levi! His value truly comes from his experience, leadership and personality, not only for the players but for the organisation as a whole. Juves has the power to bring viewers in to watch SIN games, and is one of only a handful of players in OPL to be able to do this. I have absolutely no doubt that with Juves at the helm that SIN will be able to once again foster young talent into top OPL talent in due course.

Moving down the roster, we introduce a familiar face to the OPL with Mark “Praedyth” Lewis moving from TM Gaming to join SIN. Praedyth brings a style that can be directly compared with Dhokla, setting up for almost a seamless transition for Juves to be able to play around. Known for his ability to play split pushing carries, he joins a long line of former SIN gaming top laners that have been known for this exact ability. However, while being known for this ability he struggled to execute on a struggling TM roster that went through tumultuous changes in the first split, and lacked leadership in the second. One could argue that his struggles were due to a systematic issue within the team itself, as opposed to individual – with Juves guiding his hand, it is definitely possible we see significant improvement in this area. However the primary concerns lie in his poor sense of how to engage and when. With top lane often being the primary engage tool, inside of “tank meta” it should be expected that Praedyth struggle, unless SIN look to capitalise on counter pick opportunities to allow him to play his natural style. While not the best of the free agents, SIN have certainly done a good job in filling the hole left by Dhokla with a player in a similar mould.

Continuing to the mid lane, we see our first new face to the OPL, Dimitry “Bdoink” Botov. Coming off of his 3rd split in the OCS, Bdoink returns to the organisation that gave him his taste of competitive League of Legends having played for the SIN academy roster in 2016. Originally renowned as a Yasuo one trick, his champion pool has expanded over the years being able to play a myriad of champions. However, based off of his 2017 performance, you can only rate this as a significant downgrade from Ryoma and within the role that is filled with the most talent one can only expect him to struggle, entering the OPL as one of it’s weaker mid laners. However, in the past Bdoink has shown rapid improvement when he joined the OCS in 2016, yet stagnated somewhat in 2017. Fans of SIN gaming can only hope that upon joining the OPL, Bdoink is able to once again rapidly improve upon joining the top league in Oceania.

Another new face, Ronan “Dream” Swingler (formerly known as PVA) fills the void left by FBI. Dream comes into SIN Gaming having limited experience, playing only two games in the OCS under Lynx. While the overall performance was slightly above average, and with the limited sample size it is difficult to give a true gauge on how he will perform in the OPL. However FBI joined last year with even less, and proved to be a top 3 ADC in the region without a doubt. While the sample size is limited to solo q and the two games of Ashe played in OCS it would appear that Dream does not appear as comfortable as being as source of engage as FBI did, where due to how meta was tailored in 2017 and how SIN played, FBI was able to carry despite being in a utility position. Dream will have large shoes to fill in 2017, and I’m not entirely sure if he will be able to perform to an OPL level but is definitely worth giving him a crack given the parity a majority of OCS ADC’s have shown in 2017.

Lastly, Mike “Cuden” Le makes his return to the OPL having spent the most recent split with Abyss in the OCS. While Cuden may have three splits of OPL experience, he has never truly solidified his position in a team having changed teams in each of these splits, SIN will be his fourth. Cuden is often criticised for his lack of aggression, staying true to the player he was when he joined having been known for his Soraka. This is in stark contrast to the player Rogue was, being the aggressive playmaker and possibly the best playmaker from the support position in the OPL. Cuden will have big shoes to fill being paired with the rookie Dream, and having the experience of three splits in the OPL will definitely have to fulfil a primary engage role at some point given what we already know about Praedyth. In 2018 hopefully we witness a more aggressive Cuden.

All in all, SIN were in an exceptionally difficult position to fill the voids that they were left with, while they were largely left with the scraps they have been able to pull together a roster that has a good balance of experience and new faces. While in 2018 I have this roster falling towards the bottom, they have the tools to create some upsets.

The OPL Promotion Tournament is downsizing from two relegation matches per split to one relegation match per year.

This is an excellent decision by Riot, which will assist in providing not only a more competitive league, but also create stability for players, organisations and even the fans. Riot has hit the nail on the head, and comes off the back of the most competitive season in the OPL which had seen the introduction of gaming houses being available to all teams. Reducing the number of relegations matches only assists teams in eventually becoming independent of Riot’s housing stipend, through the creation of a more stable competition?—?one where the former model would see one team relegated per split since the inception of the OPL in 2015. By creating a more stable league it opens teams to more opportunity, gain sponsorships and investors, removing the risk that the investments will be lost only a mere two to three months later. While also ensuring that leases can be more easily obtained, being secured for a calendar year

Furthermore, through league stability this ensures that players are now more easily able to foresee the future, and are able to plan in advance having secured a job for the most part of eight months of the year. This can be incredibly important when seeking to sign players that are undertaking education, whether it be high school or tertiary education.

However, the primary issue that may arise is with new found security inside of the first split. Through this security it may be seen that teams are more open to experimentation. While the incentive of events such as the Mid-Season Invitational and Rift Rivals will assist in teams wanting to succeed within the first split the premise of Worlds is far greater, and as we have so often heard “We are building to Worlds” from teams around the world. And thus to ensure competition of the first split, a circuit point structure should be followed, where the first split has a lower weighting of that of the second.

The OCS is moving to a single season format and expanding to fourteen teams, eight of which will be run by an OPL organisation.

This is where the changes get interesting and rightly so, are dominating much of the discussion around the future plans of the Oceanic region. Where many of the first thought are “But we don’t have enough talent”, and is rightfully a concern for the competitiveness of the competition, past splits of the OCS have shown that there has been a great difference between the top OCS teams, which may contend within the OPL and those towards the bottom, which have struggled for survival against the top of the teams coming from the OOL. By expanding the OCS to another six teams, these differences between the top and bottom are most probably going to be even more distinguishable, with another thirty players now being introduced into the OCS ecosystem, potentially even more with substitutes that we have frequently seen used in the OCS.

With an expanded player base required comes further competition to sign these players, ensuring that you are not left with the players at the bottom of the barrel. As an OPL team, you are looking for the very best talent to sign to your OCS team attempting to build a rapport with them giving you first access to potentially signing them in the future, or even to use as a potential substitute for your OPL team. As an OCS organisation you are looking for the best players to try promote for the OPL come relegation. With such a demand on talent that is on short supply you need to be using every tool in your arsenal to secure a signing. OPL organisations having a far greater supply, having access to sponsorship deals, OPL prestige, sub position incentives the list continues. OCS organisations which often have little funding to begin with, will rely largely on funding to draw talent away from the OPL organisations that will be funding there OPL teams. Chances are the OPL organisations will control the monopoly share of the talent and leave the scraps to the rest. This creates a problem wherein the OCS organisations don’t come into the OCS and say “Hey, we want to develop talent”, they say “We want to win” and by the OPL controlling the monopoly on talent, incentives for the OCS organisations to continue playing in the OCS are greatly diminished which once again will impact the overall competitiveness of the competition.

One of the more interesting conversations to stem off of this development, is that about support staff for the expanded league and more specifically, for those of the OPL controlled OCS teams. It is widely known that in the Oceanic region, we have a severe shortage of coaches and analysts, and those that exist aren’t necessarily of the quality that we need them to be to continue to drive the region forwards. With the addition of another five OPL controlled OCS slots not only is there more incentive to begin working as an analyst or coach, there is a strengthened system to develop those who are just starting out, working under the guidance of experience of the OPL coaches which is invaluable in being able to develop this talent for the future. It is very difficult to get relevant experience, and even harder to train yourself to a level that is satisfactory to work for teams at the top. As someone who has worked as a coach and analyst since prior to the inception of the OPL this excites me, but concerns me as well. The likelihood we will be having unexperienced coaches at least early on working with our upcoming talent can create some problems. For the coaches, it is how will they gain a rapport with the players, and will the players trust them with their development. For the players, this creates a contradiction of the intention of the change?—?which is player development, and inexperienced coaching can often hinder development and the OPL coaches aren’t going to be able to commit the time and resources to ensure a development plan.

It is with this that I am concerned about the volume of OPL teams coming into the OCS. Will they be able to supply the resources to be able to ensure that the OCS is run in the correct manor and player developments do occur, as opposed to being lax and loosely watching over the OCS team, and it is a real possibility that the OCS slot is neglected in the early phases of the “academy” like structure. This is addresses another potential issue with the structure, wherein OPL teams can possibly manipulate player choices, in order to minimise possibility that anyone is eliminated of the OPL to erase relegation from the table completely, although this is EXTREMELY unlikely to occur. “Why not just franchise?” is a question that people have asked and this would create a pseudo franchised structure where no one can be eliminated without the revenue flow. Franchising in Oceania at the current point is completely out of the question, while we are gaining investors, such as the Adelaide Crows, there is no incentive for Riot to join in partnership with the teams going off of things such as team followings and viewership numbers. While it is evident that a franchising system will occur at some point if League of Legends survives the test of time, the time for it is not now.

The Oceanic Open Ladder will be replaced with grassroots activities organised by OCS teams and third parties like ESL and Showdown.

Coinciding with the changes to the OCS, the Oceanic Open Ladder would be obsolete as a feeder into the OCS due to the volume of teams in the OCS. From experience, there have never been more than four teams outside of the OCS that have ever been competitive and vying for the top and potentially the OCS slot. If you added four teams to the previous structure that would leave you with twelve teams, the OCS will now have fourteen and because of that I do not believe running the OOL as an amateur league would be viable. However, encouraging grassroots competition is important and serves as the introduction to competitive play and what is involved. It is here where your talent begins and is your primary breeding ground outside of solo q, providing players with competitive concepts such as verbal communication that solo q does not provide. However, without a controlled system competitiveness of these tournaments will be for the most part obsolete. Too many tournaments, not enough teams, teams being spread to thin between tournaments, not enough publicity the list goes on are all concerns. While the OOL did not publicise well, it was controlled and didn’t clash with many tournaments. Hopefully tournament providers are able to coordinate with each other to help avoid complications.

All in all, next year is a very exciting time for the long term development of Esports within Oceania and even more exciting to be a part of it. It will be important to remember that these changes while affecting the short term, are all with the intention of long term growth.