A few months ago, a new team entered the Australian esports scene in Order. In a short while, they’ve established themselves as genuine title contenders and have now opened up expressions of interest in crowdfunding – an industry first.

We sat down with the team’s general manager, Jake Tiberi, to discuss the team’s history, future and what it means to be a list manager in the esports world.

The Roar: What is your position within Order and what is it exactly that you do?

Jake Tiberi: Cool, so within Order, I am the General Manager of our esports teams. So what I do with the coaches and Gerard [Murphy] is put together both lineups of who will be on these specific teams but also how they’re training, what their goals are, making sure that Order has the infrastructure and the training regimes around that, to be able to help them achieve those goals.

So, if I was just going to summarise it briefly, I’m in charge of the performance of the esports teams.

The Roar: What about your history within gaming and esports? You were in commentary before this, weren’t you?

Jake Tiberi: So, I still am in commentary. I am a commentator for the Oceanic Pro League, which is a broadcast of Australian and New Zealand’s pro league, League of Legends. I still do that.

I also worked at [League of Legends developer] Riot previous to this role. I was head of their league infrastructure. Which is kind of like head of operations for a normal sporting event. So, in charge of strategy and things like that.

The Roar: Is this role you’ve got now something you ever envisioned yourself doing?

Jake Tiberi: Yeah, I think as soon as I got into esports. I initially got into esports as a very bad player and then as a coach. So I think as soon as I was evolved as a coach at an organization level, I dreamed about one day being able to select my own squad and be able to try and put Oceania and Australia on the map.

So, this has always been one of the things I’ve wanted to be able to do and now things lined up this year with Order and I’ve able to pursue it.

The Roar: That’s great. So, tell us about the history of Order? I understand it came from an old team called Regicide?

Jake Tiberi: Yup, so Regicide was a team within the OPL that finished the season seventh and then placed sixth after qualifiers and they were a team that up for sale so Gerard purchased that team.

I was leaving Riot at the time, myself and my partner had recently had a baby so I was looking to come back home to Melbourne.

So, in doing that I was kind of moving toward freelance commentary role and just looking for other opportunities and Gerard reached out and said that he was looking to create an esports team and I was incredibly intrigued.

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That was the birth of Order. So we went from being Regicide to being Order. We picked up our League of Legends squad late last year in November and then a Counter-Strike team in the beginning of this year in February. Since then, we have the top of the table League of Legends team as well as the best Counter-Strike team.

Both of our captains are Melbourne boys, so we really do stick to that Melbourne vibe.

The Roar: You compete currently in League of Legends and CS:GO, but what are the games you intend to get into?

Jake Tiberi: I think in the future the Call of Duty scene is something that both Gerard and I are incredibly interested by. Console gaming diversifies us a little bit, as well as the fact that the Call of Duty player base is absolutely massive. It’s going to be something that we’ll have a look at.

Obviously, Rocket League is an up and coming esport. Which, you it’s car soccer, everyone understands. It’s one of those esports that lowers the barrier of entry as opposed to things like Counter-Strike and League of Legends.

And then Street Fighter is another one those games that I grew up with. I used to play my brother’s Street Fighter II and I think that the fighting game community, right now, is a little bit more underground, it’s a little bit more niche but once again it’s an esport that would be very interesting.

The Roar: For sure. What would you say have been the Order’s biggest highlights so far?

Jake Tiberi: I think the highlights so far would certainly qualify IEM Katowice, which is the IEM World Championship. The ability to be able to bring Tally [James Shute] onto the team, I think, four days before the tournament and then be able to beat Tainted Minds with a reverse sweep from the lower bracket, so we were down 2-0 in a best of five, and it was pretty spectacular and a great credit to kind of show the fighting spirit of the boys and their potential.

The Roar: So Order will be one of the first crowdfunded esports organisations in the world, what made you decide to have that sort of approach and what did you expect to happen as far as crowdfunding went?

Jake Tiberi: I think that crowdfunding is a really unique opportunity because we’re seeing major players like AFL teams and, internationally, NBA teams starting to invest in esports and, while there are similarities between sports and esports, I think that the community aspect is very different.

So we what saw was an opportunity to open Order’s ownership to gamers and to give them a voice in how they think this thing should be run.

Obviously, there’s going to be a board and they will steer the company in the best way that they can but also it gives us a unique opportunity to have shareholders that are incredibly invested in the team and will have a big opinion.

I just think that craft is so important and integral because we recognise that esports has gotten this big and this far and there’s a reason people want to get into it now on the mainstream.

But also, it was the video game players and the esports fanatics that really kick this off so we’ve got to be able to stay true to them at the same time.

The Roar: I think in the NFL the Green Bay Packers are technically owned by the residents of Green Bay so that makes sense. I’m just backtracking a bit, but you said you found the community aspect of esports to be quite different to traditional sports, what do you mean by that exactly?

Jake Tiberi: So, traditional sports have always taken place in the real world – that’s the easiest way to put it. As much as people stay home and watch sports on TV, the real communities of esports have been built up by platforms like Twitch.

Where you weren’t able to physically go there, online platforms create these very unique online communities and create a kind of different culture around what esports is viewed as.

Esports is kind of without borders, as an Oceanic fan there’s nothing stopping me from going onto Twitch and watching a North American team play or a Korean team play.

I think that just adds a little bit more nuance as opposed to, well I’m an Essendon fan because grew up in Melbourne so I support that football team.

The Roar: Fair enough. How much have you had to do with [Port Adelaide consultant] Gerard Murphy, what insights has he given you in your current role?

Jake Tiberi: Well, I guess Gerard’s my boss. He knows the majority of the team, so we have a fair amount to do with each other.

Gerard’s been great because what Gerard wants is high performance and how to get the team on the right track and how to set culture and training and all those things you need to bring a young group of men, in this case, but young people in general in order to be able to compete at a higher level.

So, Gerard and I have worked really closely together. Obviously, my specialty is knowing the game to a high degree that’s why paid as a commentator and his specialty is making people good at stuff – whether it’s in the corporate world or in the sporting world – so together we kind of have the unique skills that we think really takes the team to the next level.

The Roar: You’re doing quite well in the OPL at the moment. What can you tell us about your current roster and how would you find building a roster similar to building traditional sporting list as far as recruitment goes and all that?

Jake Tiberi: It’s really interesting because everyone becomes a free agent on the same day in the OPL, they all hit at the same time every year, free agency, and then it’s a mad dash to be able to bring the players into an organisation.

So, we have a core of Simon “Swiffer” Papamarkos, who’s our captain, and he had a ton of input into who he wanted involved in the team. For context, Simon has won four out of six OPL titles and is probably the most successful individual in Oceanic esports for League of Legends, so we went out, and we approached Simon – he’s a Melbourne boy, from Hawthorn originally.

From there we kind of identified people that were really good at what they do so – don’t get me wrong, they’re all great League of Legends players – but we were very selective with how we wanted to preserve the culture.

We wanted a team of selfless individuals that would be willing to sacrifice individual game play and potentially all those things you need to be able to win.

Simeon hadn’t won last year in 2017, so we called in Sam [“Spookz” Broadley], who was Sam’s teammate at Chiefs Esports Club and is kind of in a similar boat. They’re the two veterans of the team.

Then we brought in the most dynamic duo on the bottom lane in FBI [Victor Huang] and Rogue [Jake Sharwood]. They really bring the x-factor or the highlight reel, they’re a lane that, in esports terms, can pop off or really, they’re clutch players, I guess, in a sporting term?

And then, James, who’s ‘Tally’, was the vice captain of Adelaide and he is a really level-headed, solid guy. He can just play everything. He’s kind of the swingman. He really is one of the members of the spine of the team.

So, we think that we got a really talented group that is really selfless, they really believe in what we’re trying to do here and I think that means that they’re playing for each other and they’re playing for them, which is a good spot to be in.

The Roar: Absolutely, that’s a solid list. Moving on to esports in general, how well do you think esports is recognised in Australia? What needs to change and what changes have you noticed?

Jake Tiberi: I’ve been involved in esports for about five years now so it existed before I was involved, but it was very small? I think the biggest thing what we’ve seen change is media and sporting teams are now taking keen interest into the demographic.

So far, what that’s meant is there’s a lot more spotlight is being shown on these guys and a lot more opportunities are being presented to them. Which is fantastic. We’re all for things in esports getting better.

Companies like Riot games and Blizzard have also come into Oceania and both have a presence here now. They’ve done a fantastic job of leveling up infrastructure and guaranteeing player contracts.

In Riot’s case there are minimum salaries and giving [the players] an area to be able to play because really whether it’s esports or sport, as long as you have two teams that are willing to go head to head, and a full cast that’s willing to cover it, people will come because people obviously take part in these activities and, therefore, wanna see the best play them.

So, I think that’s what we really see within Australia lately is the opportunities to watch it get better. It’s no longer people out of their bedrooms streaming these games, there’s professional broadcasts and with people like Gfinity and ESL now coming further into the esports scene, this is only leveling up.

I think as the broadcast levels up, as the players continue to get better, the money and the infrastructure around the team continues to improve and increase, then that’s when you can really start treating this as a full-time gig and become successful at it.

The Roar: What, at its core, do you think makes esports a compelling viewing experience?

Jake Tiberi: I think it’s the players. I think the same with everything, to be honest. What you wanna see – and I’m a massive sports nut as well – I think when you’re interested in the activity, you wanna see the dudes that are able to do that the best, or the person that is able to do that the best.

Once you see what they can do you kind of think, “Why can they do that?” And you get interested in their personal story and I think that’s were fandom truly comes from, when you can scratch beneath the surface and find out what kind of person is a star player is.

Maybe you start wearing the same footy boots as them, so you can kick the ball just as well, or you start using the same mouse and keyboard because he got good in the first place.

I think that’s what’s really intriguing. As that happens, as they go up against each other because it’s competition, that’s when the drama of sports starts coming out and I think that’s what really hooks people in.

The individuals striving to be the best and watching them succeed and fail. I think that’s really addictive as far as life goes and I think it’s entertaining.