ORDER reign supreme in the Men Expert Valorant Invitational

Nicholas Taifalos
November 10, 2020

ORDER have emerged as champions of The Chiefs Men Expert Invitational Valorant tournament last week, downing fierce rivals EXO Clan 3-2 (1-0, 15-13, 13-11, 11-13, 13-11) to take home the AUD $6,000 first prize purse.


In one of the closest finals in the esports’ short history, ORDER overcame a map disadvantage from the lower bracket to win the best-of-five against EXO Clan, at a tournament that saw many of Oceania’s top esports organisations enter the Valorant scene for the first time.


Tyler ‘tucks’ Reilly (240 ACS, 86-73, 135.9 ADR) was red hot in the best-of-five final, rolling back the years to deliver ORDER, formerly Team Launch, their maiden Valorant trophy under their new organisation.


Tucks, Matthew ‘Texta’ O’Rourke & Oliver ‘DickStacy’ Tierney joined ORDER in mid-October, with Cameron ‘disk0’ Mac & Kale ‘Autumn’ Dunne from Ground Zero Gaming replacing Team Launch’s veteran CS:GO duo Fergus ‘ferg’ Stephenson—who joined Legacy Esports—and Travis ‘wizard’ Richardson.

Tyler "tucks" Reilly of ORDER Valorant (Source: The Chiefs)


Despite the loss, Chris ‘pl1xx’ Li (253.2 ACS, 254-196, 169.2 ADR) of EXO Clan claimed the event MVP and with it, an Intel custom PC provided by TAG Mods. Each member of the winning ORDER lineup also received an Intel PC alongside their share of the AUD $6,000 winner’s prize.


ORDER were the only squad to survive the group stage undefeated, with EXO Clan, RipNTear and Notick finishing 2-1 to join the eventual champions in the best-of-three double elimination bracket.


There, ORDER made quick work of RipNTear 2-0 (14-12, 13-6) but fell to EXO Clan in the winner’s bracket final 1-2 (13-11, 10-13, 11-13) with both pl1xx (256 ACS, 60-50, 176.2 ADR) and DickStacy (246 ACS, 61-49, 175.5 ADR) inseparable on the server.


Notick’s 2-0 (13-5, 13-5) win over RipNTear meant a rematch against ORDER but once again, the underdogs were unable to capitalise on a first half comeback on Ascent, eventually dropping the series 0-2 (11-13, 9-13) to ORDER.


ORDER and EXO Clan had already met twice in the regions’ previous major finals at the ORDER Oceanic Open and Rise of Valour, with the teams coming away with a tournament victory each. 


Previously at Fortress’ Rise of Valour, EXO Clan made quick work of then-Team Launch 3-0 (1-0, 13-9, 13-6) but it was ORDER who struck first in the final, dispatching of EXO Clan’s upper bracket advantage in a 15-13 overtime win, tying the series 1-1.

Matthew "texta" O'Rourke of ORDER Valorant (Source: HLTV)


ORDER went one better on Split in map three; leading 7-5 on attack, the two-round buffer proved to be the difference in the second half as Autumn and tucks led the squad to a 2-1 lead in the final, taking the map 13-11.


Threatened with a grand final sweep, EXO Clan were not going to bow out without a fight, and it came in the form of a ridiculous Kyran ‘dizzyLife’ Crombie performance (279 ACS, 27-9, 216.7 ADR) as EXO held their 8-5 lead to win Ascent 13-11, once again tying the series 2-2.


EXO’s dream of back-to-back tournament wins would end on Haven, however; ORDER came from behind both at the end of the opening half, then facing an 8-11 deficit to put on five straight rounds on defence, finishing the series in regulation 13-11.


Next up in the region is this weekend’s Rise of Valour — 32 teams will battle through a Swiss bracket, with the top eight locked-in for December’s First Strike and a shot at the lion’s share of the AUD $20,000 prize pool. Stay tuned to Here’s The Thing for the latest on Valorant news, results and more.

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