With Melbourne Order walking away from the inaugural Gfinity Elite Series with every piece of silverware on offer and an enormous wad of prize money – we sat down with the team’s general manager Jake Tiberi to see just how it all came about, and what he credits with his team’s unprecedented success.

The Roar: Tell us how you first heard of the Gfinity Elite Series. What were your first impressions of the competition and what made you decide it was the right move for Order to participate in?

Jake Tiberi: Yeah, that’s a really complex question because there are just so many layers to it. I guess the first thing is that Order really cares about grassroots. We are very attracted to the draft of the Gfinity Elite Series. I think we were one of the few teams that we used two out of three draftees, to lock at least two out of three draftees, or three fighter, and I think five out of six pick-up players for CS:GO, so we ran I think between nine and ten substitutes for the tournament.

We thought that that was a terrific result because we acknowledged that in esports right now, the way that you generate future stars is by giving them big grand experiences, and we thought that Gfinity was one of the leagues that really catered towards that, so that was the big attraction point for all of us.

The other thing, obviously, is that we have what we view as the best Counter-Strike team in the country, and this is just another tournament for them to be able to participate in prove that by taking it out, in the end. The third final layer is it’s a great chance at what other future games we can get involved in.

You know, the fighter game community in Australia, whilst not being the largest esports scene, is certainly very passionate – so we always had an inkling of, you know, maybe we’ll end up in that. Rocket League is such an entertaining, but family-friendly game. So we were really keen to get involved in that as well.

I think it allowed us to test markets that we maybe wouldn’t have had a chance to test otherwise.

The Roar: You used a fair few draftees – especially with your top CS:GO team overseas for the first few weeks – how did they adjust to the sort of new professional environment they found themselves in?

Jake Tiberi: Honestly, really well. You know, when you walk into Gfinity Arena, you kind of see this massive stage and there’s two hundred-odd people staring at you, there’re big lights, there are commentators just below you, there are cameramen in your face, and you’re doing photo shoots, and things like that. It can be intimidating.

It’s certainly a big experience, so I think the fact that we had a couple of veterans playing with us helped. People like Sonic and Raz really helped out people like Towski, who’s obviously pretty new to this thing.

I think they adapted really well, and I think that the fact that they were able to perform well before our main roster got back, and help us clinch that first place, is just a testament to how well these younger guys did play.

You really do have to take your hats off to them.

The Roar: How difficult was it to navigate those first few rounds with the top team off in Taiwan and in other tournaments?

Jake Tiberi: Yeah, we knew it was going to be a challenge. But, at the same time the schedule was pretty kind to us. It gave us a couple of easy teams towards the start of the season as well, teams that didn’t finish as high. So, we were confident that even though it would be a struggle, that we would be able to put up good results.

It was a season to remember for the triple-champions Melbourne Order (Photo: Gfinity Australia)

That ended up being the case. I think a little bit of good luck also went into effect that, if we had the Chiefs or something in one of the first three weeks, we probably we would’ve struggled a little bit more. But with the way the schedule worked out, it ended up doing us a couple of favours.
The Roar: Obviously, you cleaned up this year, winning all three titles. What was your realistic expectation heading into the season, in all three tournaments?

Jake Tiberi: My role as the GM of the team, is to get us as close to the finals as possible. I’m kind of the type of person that believes that if you get there, anything can happen on the day. If you’re good enough to make a final, you’re good enough to win a final. I really like that saying and it resonates really strongly with me.

So, I think what we did is, we just tried to build all season. We did a lot of roster experimentation because we knew that if we got it right, we would be a very good crack in all three. We had some good luck in [Melbourne] Avant knocking out the Chiefs in the Rocket League.

And then, in Street Fighter, we sort of played the grand final a week before when we knocked out the Chiefs as well.

So, they’re [Order vs Chiefs] the three best matches across all titles. Where, in two out of three games, we could eliminate them shows us that we were where we thought we would be by the end of it.

Realistically, we were expecting to perform well. But to say, that we’re probably going to take all three titles, maybe not so much. But, we were confident that we’d get there and, with some luck, it would be possible.

The Roar: As much as winning three championships in the same tournament, four if you include the club championship, is a massive highlight. Were there any other highlights that stood out to you over the course of the season?

Jake Tiberi: Yeah, absolutely. I think there were some massive highlights. I think, even though we didn’t win it, the 3-4 performance against the Chiefs in Rocket League was a huge highlight for me. The boys came out under a lot of pressure. The season had already had their seeding sorted and they came out and still performed very well. We nearly beat the Chiefs during the regular season [In Rocket League], and I think people do forget that.

The fact that [we won] our opening week against the Deceptors, with our Counter-Strike team all overseas, was a massive victory for us. That was a huge highlight to see the new team come out and kind of, don the Order colours and do the club very, very proud.

We were certainly stoked with that result. And then, I think that the biggest highlight, for our Street Fighter team was when ROF did take out the Chiefs’ line-up.
ROF came out at the start of it and said he was there to win it. Everyone kind of had Insomniac’s team as a favourite in the Chiefs. And that fact that we went through them to deny them a grand final meant a lot to him, and also fulfilled the promise he gave me at the start of the season when we picked him up.

ROF (centre) lead the Street Fighter team to victory. (Photo: Gfinity Australia)

We were very happy with that as well.

The Roar: Let’s talk about the Melbourne esports scene. Of all the city-based teams in the Elite Series, I think you definitely claim to be the most representative of your city. What makes Order such a ‘Melbourne’ team? Does Melbourne have the strongest esports scene in the country?

Jake Tiberi: Absolutely. I don’t think you can deny it. Order’s down in Melbourne. We have, obviously, our gaming house down there. Our captain for the Counter-Strike, Chris Rowland, emagine. He lives locally. All of the stars live locally to Melbourne. ROF, captain of the Street Fighter squad, he’s a Melbourne boy as well. But, we put a lot of stock on picking up, you know, good Melbourne talent.

The difference between Melbourne and Sydney is like the difference between, say, Los Angeles, and Boston, or New York. They’re just completely different vibes to us. The thing is, I have lived there. To me, well, a lot of people, throw a lot of shade at it. I mean, Sydney’s a nice place, but I don’t think it has the same charm as Melbourne.

I think the fact that all of our players are comfortable where they live helps. They have access to great facilities, as everyone in Melbourne does. You know, cheap public transport. Really good nightlife and a good social life around it all. It means that they’re happy in and outside of the game and I think that’s one of our biggest advantages.

We did take the risk to come down here, and it paid off, and it’s something that we’re really proud of because we do think Melbourne is the greatest city in the world. You know, if you could play video games for a living, that’s pretty great. To do that all for a living, in a city like Melbourne? Now that sounds even better to me.

The Roar: It’s fair to say, alongside the to the host of AFL teams and Melbourne Storm that, Melbourne is a city that kind of expects sporting success. How much does it mean to your team to be able to bring back this title, to not just for Order, but for the city of Melbourne?

Jake Tiberi: It means the world to be honest. We make some bold claims we come out, we say, “We’re the biggest club. We’re the best club.” And we’ve done it all, what are we in? July? Early January is when our tournaments kicked off, so in the last seven months or so a lot of work has gone into this.

For our fans, we’ve tried to legitimize the gaming community and really push that Melbourne is the new home of esports. It certainly meant a lot, so we’re hoping we can replicate that in season two but, for now, [it’s] a little bit of R&R, and make sure we’re heading towards that point.

The Roar: What do you think the next steps the Melbourne and Australia esports scenes, need to take? What do you think could be improved?

Jake Tiberi: That’s a really interesting question because, obviously different clubs have different opinions. We think the next step is really around playing mentality and player mindset. We need to give the players the freedom to do this full-time, so you know, things like salaries, how they live and how they train – they all need to improve at a rapid pace.

Order’s world-renowned CS:GO team (Photo: Gfinity Australia)

Now you’ve got facilities shooting up everywhere overseas, and I think that I’d be lying if I didn’t say I’m a little bit envious of that, you know, hoping that we’re headed in that direction as well. I think attitude and player performance is the big thing that Order will focus on.

Jake Tiberi: We try to ask to draft good player that we think have incredibly high ceilings and then we try to work with some of the best guys in the industry to realise their potential, and I think that that will stay the mission, for now.

The Roar: What do you think the next steps the Gfinity Elite Series itself, can take to improve?

Jake Tiberi: I think that anyone is overly critical of the Gfinity Elite Series. Really didn’t get into to the venue and watch it live, because the first thing I’ll say before any improvements is, “You look at that stage? That is a world-class stage.”

I have commentated in places like Madison Square Garden, Los Angeles, the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Berlin. You know, all over Shanghai, and all over Australia, so you know, I’ve seen my fair share of esports venues, and the Gfinity stage is world class. It is very, very good.

The gear there that is provided by Alienware is absolutely phenomenal. The freedom they give the players to warm up – it’s honestly best in class in Australia. I think that they have done a terrific job. Anyone that is overly critical of this system, I think they’re a little bit wrong.

I think a couple of things could be improved. I think everyone agrees best-of-one is a dangerous format to play esports just because a lot of tournaments are played over best-of-three, because performances vary so heavily based on map choice in Counter-Strike and pick order in Street Fighter.

They’ve got Rocket League perfectly fine in that regard. But, I would like to see the other games go to best-of-three.

Obviously, this is a time thing, but we want more serious clubs coming in as well. Having teams like Deceptors and Roar was great, they added a lot of diversity, but we do want to play against the best Counter-Strike talent. We do want to play against the best Rocket League talent.

That means line-ups like Tainted Minds in Counter-Strike and Rocket League and teams like Greyhounds in Counter-Strike. We need to either get their players in, or need to get the teams in as well because, while we did win all three titles, we know we didn’t necessarily go through all of the best teams – although there were a fair chunk of very good players.

But when you claim to be the best, you want to beat the best, and we want to be constantly proving ourselves against the top in each of the esports.