ORDER was one of the teams that got a free pass into the second phase of the tournament thanks to teams pulling out of the tournament last-minute. After beating MAX for the first seed, they were drawn against Space Soldiers, Bravado and TeamOne in the second group stage.

ORDER have learned a lot from their Katowice outing

The Australian side took three out of four maps, only dropping the first one to TeamOne and was set to face Space Soldiers when we interviewed one of their star players: Jay "⁠Liazz⁠" Tregillgas.

You are obviously one of the better players in your region, but going to Katowice and playing on LAN and against the top teams is obviously not the same ball game. So what was the experience like for you personally, playing there against FaZe and NiP?

The experience was amazing, we got tremendous practice against all of the best teams in the world, because we had the bootcamp beforehand. Obviously, the result was really disappointing. In practice, I personally felt really, really good individually, I felt like I was matching against all of the top teams, all of the top players in the world. I had really good individual results in practice. But when we got to the matches, it felt like things didn't really click for us. In practice, people were giving us respect and allowing us to play our game, but when we got to our matches, it just felt like they were pushing us every round, we never developed any rounds.

Is there something you picked up personally from that event that you could use later on, or something you already added to your game?

Nah, I don't want to sound cocky but I felt that the stuff I was doing, if the round would've developed, I felt I was playing really well. I felt that, individually, I was making the right decisions, but it just came down to a matter of how much structure we had in the team, we just couldn't default any round. It felt that we had to go into every round with a set plan in mind early on, otherwise we'd just lose within 30 seconds to AWPs.

Recently, ESL's APAC league that has a slot for the EPL Finals has been announced. With that, and all the qualifiers for IEM Sydney and other things you've been getting recently, is there a feeling that you as a team have a good chance to do something right now?

It's super motivating to know that we have all these spots at international events. The experience for us is really good. I feel that we took a lot from Katowice and for the next events, we will be a lot more prepared. Obviously, here and playing with a mixed team, it's more of just getting a feel of playing against the best teams in the world. But if we qualify for some of the coming events, I really expect us to actually upset.

How do you feel in the Asian/Australian region right now? Are you one of the favorites to grab those spots?

We haven't played against TyLoo and I think a few people have been saying that TyLoo is just far and away the best team in Asia right now, at least lately. But in Australia it feels like the only competition is Tainted Minds. I don't want to say it, but lately they have been choking every final they have been in, so I feel like we have a major headspace advantage, mentality advantage. I'm just super confident against anyone, I'm not scared of anyone in our region.

Tell me about the roster you have here, with malta and BURNRUOk, how it felt playing with them?

It's a little bit tough because it's hard for BURN to fit into roles. He has been playing certain roles in his teams for years now and we've just chucked him into spots that are actually very difficult to play. So for him, it's a lot of trouble adjusting, but malta has been playing spots that he's played before. For hatz it's especially good, he's gone into primary AWP for this event, so it's a big learning curve for him and he feels like he is getting a ton of experience. I think it's very beneficial for him, while Chris (Chris "⁠emagine⁠" Rowlands) and I are just sort of filling the holes.

Can you give me a short overview of the TeamOne game, the BO2?

I feel like no one came in prepared there. Also, the PCs and monitors here actually feel really terrible, the monitor feels like there is input lag and the PCs feel choppy, it's not really playable. But the TeamOne game, their Mirage is actually well structured, they had a good gameplan coming into it and we weren't ready to adapt. We have nothing set, so it's very difficult for us. On Train everything just clicked, we played a style that everything knew and understood, a very simple style and we got away with a lot of clutches, a lot of close rounds.

The second game you played you got two very important wins over Bravado. Tell me a bit about the second map in particular and the comeback you managed there?

On Train, we're all playing spots we are very comfortable in so it just meant that everyone had a lot of freedom to do what they felt like, Chris was giving everyone freedom so it made things a lot easier, and on the CT side it felt like we couldn't do anything wrong. No matter what we called or did, the rounds just fell into our hands. On the T side we again played the simple style, got away with close rounds and it generally felt like we were winning a lot of rounds we shouldn't have won.

You are still a pretty young player, moving forward and long term, do you have anything you want to achieve as a player? What is the outlook on your CS career?

A lot of people are gunning to be the best player in the region but I really don't care about being the best player in the region. I want to be recognized as a player internationally, that's all I care about.

Does that mean that you as a team are maybe looking to move out of the region, or is it just something you have in mind? Or is that even necessary considering the qualifiers you are getting recently?

We are definitely looking to move away from Australia, but it's very difficult to find the opportunity. You have to get into a bunch of leagues to be able to move overseas. But with all the events coming towards us and allowing us to qualify, it's a great thing and maybe we can stay in Australia as a team, we will see.