Full disclaimer, I am first and foremost a play-by-play monkey. I talk about all the things that happen when they happen. If you asked me how or why my first instinct would be to shout ‘Spawn! This guy has a question for smart people.’ (Never EGym though, that guy feeds in every solo Q game I get.) Since joining the LPL team, I have not been able to keep up with every game played in the OPL. But I have been able to watch quite a few matches before the LPL broadcasts.

Top: Brandon “Swip3rr” Holland
I had the pleasure of working with Big Swips during the League of Legends: State of Origin tournament. Well known for his tank play, the Armoured Titan has been able to show that he can play carry oriented champions too. With Gangplank nerfs and the resurgence of tanks like Sion in the top lane, Big Swips will be a force to be reckoned with in the Top Lane.

The man has an incredible work ethic. He is always looking to see how he can improve himself, on and off the rift.

Honourable Mention: Jackson “Pabu” Pavone
The young gun who was hyped up for a long time as a mechanical genius now has one full professional split under his belt. This will be an important split to track Pabu’s performance to see how much of the hype he had leading up to his professional career follows through.

Jungle: Brandon “Juves” Defina
While casting the OPL, Juves and Carbon stuck out as the ultimate ‘leaders’ for a team. Constantly looking to mentor younger players and constantly allowing them to grow. They always made sure to provide the emotional backbone, leadership and support their teams needed.

Carbon’s ‘old man hands’ as he likes to call them means we now see him sitting down on the couch – more talking about the OPL than actually playing. (I am upset that there is no VB in his hands when doing so.) This leaves Juves as the last of the two major leaders in the League.

His ability to mentor talent has a proven track record as the likes of FBI & Rogue started with SIN Gaming. Ryoma had a great split with the team before moving back to the Chiefs, where he came from as a substitute for Swiffer.

Split 1 2018 has been rough for SIN, especially in comparison to the multiple “Sinderella” Runs and Rift Rivals performance that we saw from the squad last year. All eyes will be on the veteran Juves to turn things around.

Honourable Mention: Leo “Babip” Romer
Every Legacy game last split, I would wonder “Is this the week we will see Babip step in for Carbon and start his professional career with Legacy?” Babip was mentored by Carbon and a star player for their OCS team. Now starting for the Chiefs rebuilt roster, it will be interesting to watch how much of an impact Babip provides in The Chiefs climb back to the top.

Mid: Stephen “Triple” Li and Tommy “Ryoma” Le
There is no honourable mention here; these are my players to watch in the Mid lane. They were the underdogs in 2017, in the shadows of the likes of Phantiks, Swiffer and Claire. Now it’s their time in the spotlight. Both have helped their team to the top of the table halfway through split one.

Triple has made his way to the Dire Wolves and had big shoes to fill. Phantiks finished 2017 as the best player in the OPL. So far, Triple has adapted to the Dire Wolves well and the pack has yet to drop a set in the OPL. One of the mean reasons Triple did not make an appearance at Origin was due to Ryoma being able to provide synergy with FBI.

Ryoma had a large impact in the performance that Sin had during 2017 as well as the 2nd place finish for NSW in Origin last year. He is quiet in comparison to other Mids in the league, often providing only crucial information to the team, but is attentive and listens to calls. He is flanked by the vocal Destiny and Swip3rR this split which will allow him to do what he does best, listen to the team, focus on the mid lane and destroy his opponents.

Bottom Lane: Victor “FBI” Huang & Jake “Rogue” Sharwood
Last split, I was very vocal in thinking that this was hands down the best bottom lane in the league. Which was a bold statement to make when the likes of Lost & Cupcake, Raes & EGym, Blinky & Jayke and King & Destiny were around in 2017. Their synergy is unmatched, both FBI and Rogue are incredibly skilled when it comes to mechanics and have been working together for a few splits now.

Although FBI made a few critical errors last split, he seems to have honed in on his decision making for 2018. Rogue just gets better and better with each split. It was a tough choice to not pick him up for Origin 2017, instead going for EGym for the synergy with Coach Jish and Swip3rR. (Big mistake, EGym’s Tahm Kench cost me 20 Elo. Should have benched him and let Tgun play.)

Order now sit top of the Table and have only dropped a single set. Impressive for an organisation’s first split in the OPL. A lot of their power comes from this bottom lane duo and I believe that will continue.

Honourable Mention: Myles “Blinky” Irvine & Jayke “Jayke” Paulsen
The Bash Bros are still at it and are the only other bottom lane pairing left from 2017. They started 2017 strong but didn’t end the year well. They have had a decent showing so far in 2018. Tracking their performance to see if they can reverse the trend from last year will definitely impact Avant’s performance.

These are the people I think will be interesting to watch in 2018. Why Snowball trusted a washed up dyslexic play-by-play shoutcaster from the LPL to write this? I don’t know. But at least I don’t feed in Solo Q.  Which EGym is great at.

• Coach of the Chiefs
• OPL and LPL colour caster which includes being involved in the Worlds Finals coverage
• LPL Product Lead
• Head of League Infrastructure (OPL)
• GM of ORDER

I’ve been fortunate enough to interview Spawn about his experiences as a professional in the Oceanic Esports landscape and how he has been so successful and adaptive in these roles.

Read the full interview below!

Firstly – I’m sure you get this question a lot but to all the aspiring readers out there who want to get involved in esports, how can they?

This is a question that I always find difficult to answer, as it’s like saying how do I get into a job. Really there are so many different roles an esports organization requires. They need administrators, sales people for sponsorship, players, coaches, support staff, social media, and artists so really my advice is find something you are really passionate about and then try to figure out how it relates to esports. Make yourself useful and find people that need that skill then keep doing it. If you are good and your skill is needed you will get a role and can turn it into a job.

While casting has been your mainstay, you’ve also been involved in a lot of other roles in esports, how does this come about?

Before I was a shout caster I worked in an admin role within insurance. From there I managed people within the same role, before also managing an offshore team. I also was always interested in money and numbers, and therefore when I was doing my DFP (Diploma of Financial Planning), I started to take a keen interest in sales roles within the company. I think this made me very well rounded and kind of a jack of all trades.

When I joined Riot it was to actually level up the other casters as a manager, I got very lucky that I had a talented group, but I think that I was quite successful at this. Later they needed someone with an administrative mind that could plan out the long-term strategy of the league, and this was a role I was well-suited to do. Riot is pretty flexible to allow you to work where you want. Now I am a GM, a job I have wanted to do since I first played video games, I get to help out on all areas of the team and I am in charge of performance overall it’s a pretty good fit for me. Obviously I have loved casting, however it has never really been the main thing I do, so while I do still cast (pretty well at times I hope) I am more passionate about the behind the scenes work.

Oceania has produced an incredible amount of broadcast talent, what do you attribute this to?

This is a tough one, so let’s go through the people we have sent overseas I guess:

Pastrytime, Papasmithy and Atlus: These three I cannot claim any part to their success they were amazing before I met them and continue to be elite in the field. These three are the trailblazers that probably made it possible for the next wave.

Rusty, Dom, Froskurinn, Raz, Fish, Pulse, Myself. I think the success of this team was the diversity we had within it. We all had covered multiple regions, most of us had played or coached, and we all were incredibly passionate. I think we saw ourselves as the second tier of casters from a second tier region which meant if we didn’t work twice as hard as everyone else we would fail. It meant that we worked our asses off. We also had raw number of games on our side. I think at one point we had 4 bo3 for the OPL and 10 bo3 for the LPL in a week. It meant that we got to play and experiment a lot with our craft.

You left what some would consider a safe position at Riot Games Oceania, was this a hard decision? How did you get involved with ORDER?

Honestly the decision had nothing to do with work at all. Jenna and I were expecting Jasper to arrive in November, and Sydney was never home. The decision was either figure out how to move Riot to Melbourne, or to leave. Whilst I love my work, I love the rest of my life more, so it was a no brainer for me. I was lucky enough that Riot was happy for me to fly in fly out as a freelancer to cast but regardless I was always going to be in Melbourne.

I talked to a tonne of people as I was leaving, from AFL teams, to current owners and was lucky enough to be put in touch with Gerard (Murphy, owner of ORDER). Once I’d left he sat me down and told me the vision of the team. I am a sucker for Melbourne, its culture, the lifestyle, the sports; really the state is everything I love. So I agreed to come on board and try to help him build it. We have been very lucky, we have the top CS:GO team in the region going to IEM Katowice, and a very good League of Legends outfit that I am obviously very excited about but we also worked hard to make sure we are ready when opportunities present themselves.

You’re now based in Melbourne, why?

It’s all about the coffee! Really I couldn’t stand dirt water that Sydney sells for $4.50 any longer. But honestly Melbourne is home, I’m a sentimental guy and this is where Jenna and I wanted to have a family.

You’ve covered the OPL for a long time, if you had to create your OCE All-time All-stars, who would it feature?

I love this question. I have covered the OPL for as long as there has been an OPL and it’s a really tough one to answer. 

Coach: Nick “Inero” Smith

The one that got away, I only got to meet and talk to Inero for a few months before he went back to the states but by far and away the best mind OCE esports has ever had, big loss for the region he left.

Top: Richard “Phantiks” Su

The most dominating top laner we have ever seen. 2015 Dire Wolves were so close to taking down The Chiefs at their pinnacle and most of that was based on how good he was top. Sure, he is a legendary mid too but I was always a fan of Perfection.

Jungle: Sam “Spookz” Broadley

He has more titles than anyone in the league. He at his best is the most dominant jungler and he’s a leader. I think Sam is slept on in the OPL (maybe my fault as I meme him a lot) but we saw in the gauntlet run how good he is still. Even with Shern now starting to dominate the OPL for the last year, Sam’s legacy and ability to still take over a game makes him the choice here.

Mid: Simon “Swiffer” Papamarkos

I always say that Swiffer is the best player OCE has produced and I still think so. In his prime in 2015 he was untouchable. Still a classy player now I think he has a few years left in him ?

ADC: Derek “Raydere” Trang

Derek was the best ADC in the region, the best player for 2013 / 2014, studied full-time, hit the gym and was an all-round good guy. This is an undisputed player on my list.

Support: Bryce “EGym” Paule

Bryce who now casts with me is the no brainer for this role. 2014/2015/2016 (NADA not included) he was the support player. Unrivaled in his role, he is a large part of both Legacy and The Chiefs success. He also probably retired a year too early as somehow I still think he has some KM’s in the tank.

Sub: Shern “Shernfire” Tai

The man who killed the kings. Shern’s entrance into the OPL has shaken the scene to its core. The perfect foil of all the good guys in the scenes, Shern and the Dire Wolves were able to win back to titles and look pretty damn good still. Only having spent two splits in the OPL it is hard to make the starting five, but he’s earned the sub spot.

We’d like to thank Jake for his time and for everything he’s done and continues to do for Oceanic esports. You can find him on twitter @spawnlol – or his Facebook fan page, or casting the OPL every weekend from 2PM AEDT on twitch.tv/opl

Without further adieu, check out how our panel of experts see the teams shaping up heading into Week 1!*

(* Bencel’s rankings are based on tiers rather than a strict 1-8. As such, his 4-team Tier 4 has been listed alphabetically. Avant/Bombers/Legacy/Sin)

A quick note on power rankings: Power Rankings are different to how one would traditionally rank teams. Normal rankings are a bit more based on ability than results. In a traditional ranking if one team beat another you could still rank them lower if you thought they were still worse than the team they beat. Power Rankings are by definition recency-biased and results-focused and are more of a snapshot of how a team looks right now than how they have looked throughout the year or how they project overall. A bad loss may see a team drop below a team most would see them as being better than. A string of losses can see a team tumble down the rankings. For Pre-Week 1 they are reflective of how we each view the teams as they stand right now.

	Andrew Wray	Reece Perry	Callum Matthews	Swifty	Bencel *	EGym
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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.

Here is what we have so far!

Follow @snowballesports on twitter to follow further movements or tweet us your initial roster thoughts!

Abyss: What a big week it has been for these guys, after announcing they had investment from the Essendon Bombers, the roster is close to being finalised with 3 players being retained and two new imports. I expect this roster to be competitive but I’m really struggling to place where it’ll finish without knowing much about the two imports. This rosters story will be great to follow as the season goes on.

In: Sleeping, Tiger, 
Out: Pabu, Raid

Avant Garde: The organisation has done very well in stemming the bleeding, with the higher teams having players leaving it is natural to look at AV’s talent as a target. Having lost their top half of the map they have really done well to secure Pabu who would have been among the more sought-after options in the top lane.

In: Pabu, Only, Frae
Out: Ceres, Sybol, Triple

Chiefs: This season could mark an end of an era for the chiefs, EGym has confirmed he’s leaving the organisation to seek out a casting position with Riot. There hasn’t been any confirmation from the organisation on the 2018 roster, I personally would not be surprised if there is a shake up in the organisation after an agonising 2017. Chiefs so far haven’t shown any penchant for importing, so retaining one of the three good tops in the region in Swip3rr was an important start. We have our eye on putting this power roster of laners in the hands of OPL rookie and Tim Wendel understudy in Babip, what an opportunity for the youngster!

In: Destiny, Ryoma, Babip
Out: EGym, Swiffer, Spookz

Dire Wolves: Very strong roster – whilst there are still plenty of unconfirmed rosters, this is a championship contending playing group. Both Phantiks and Destiny will be missed sorely but they’ve done well with picking up Triple and Cupcake as replacements.

In: Triple, Cupcake
Out: Phantiks, Destiny

Legacy: I said to watch this roster closely – boy has it delivered. Sybol might be one of the best replacements Legacy could have hoped for without importing. Along with obtaining a Korean import for the top lane should hopefully minimise the hole Tally will no doubt leave. Considering the casualties, Legacy have done well to recover. I’ve got questions on how this bot lane might perform against the more dominant bot lanes but definitely a competitive roster that everyone will be watching closely. Ceres has been signed, either as a sub or possible VISA coverage for Mimic.

In: Mimic, Sybol, Raid, Decoy, Ceres
Out: Tally, Carbon, Lost, Cupcake, Babip

Order: This roster is a monster. Check out our news piece here for more.

In: Tally, Spookz, Swiffer, FBI, Rogue, 
Out: ZZZ, Yaelay, Siuman, Chenyboy, Chenxuan

Sin Gaming: This roster has been gutted. They’ve elected to rebuild through Praedyth and Bdoink in the solo lanes and added veteran presence in the bottom lane to ease the leadership burden on Juves but it is hard to project them anywhere other than relegations. Last year’s Regicide coach Vicarius leads this squad and acquitted himself well as a developer of the young Regicide talent so they’re not without hope, however faint.

In: Praedyth, Bdoink, PVA, Cuden
Out: Dhokla, Ryoma, FBI, Rogue

Tectonic: Tectonic retained their New Zealanders and turned over the rest of their roster. Their botlane is about as talented as it was last split and they turn one promising young top laner into another. As TM Gaming in split 2 their young roster was not appreciably better when they left the split that they were coming into it so putting a young roster back into Saiclone’s hands is a decision to keep an eye on.

In: Papryze, Swathe, tilting
Out: Only, tgun, Praedyth