Melbourne-based eSports teams Bombers and ORDER ramping up Pro League preparations

WHILE most of Melbourne is caught up in the Australian Open this week there are two local teams with a different global sport on their screens quietly preparing for their season launch.

Melbourne eSports team Order; James Shute, Samuel Broadley, Simon Papamarkos, Victor Huang and Jake Sharwood.

MOST of Melbourne might be caught up in the Australian Open this week but there are two local teams with a different global sport on their screens quietly preparing for the launch of their own season this weekend.

We’re talking about eSports, professional video gamers who consider themselves as much athletes as the tennis stars at Melbourne Park and are similarly making names for themselves – and big money – across the world.

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Once a Sydney-centric competition, this year two Melbourne teams each consisting of five players are set to compete in the Oceanic Pro League of the computer game League of Legends.

While there is no home-and-away season yet - meaning travel to Sydney is required each week for the locals - the games are streamed live online to a potential audience of millions across a nine-week season.

Last year’s Oceanic Pro League premiers, Australia’s LG Dire Wolves.

AFL club Essendon secured a partnership with one of the teams last month, which has since rebranded from ‘Abyss’ to ‘Bombers’ and based itself out of Tullamarine.

‘ORDER’ is the second Melbourne team, which has been brought south by businessman and Leading Teams co-founder Gerard Murphy.

“I’m really into the performance side of it, the team side of it, how we can get the best out of a team. That’s what I’m really excited about it,” Murphy said.

“What we really want to be is the gaming club for the gaming community.”

Bombers have made some changes to their line-up under the new ownership, including adding two imports from French team ROG School – Christian Tiensuu and Alan Roger.

“The Australian market is getting better but we’re just a bit shallow in depth with eight teams so we’ve picked up some people from European leagues to come out here,” said Rohan Sawyer from Executive Sports and Entertainment, Essendon’s partner in the venture.

“Based on where they’re ranked overseas they look like they’ll be right up the top of the guys here in this tournament so we’re pretty excited about getting them into the mix.”

ORDER, which brought the licence of Team Regicide, has put together a whole new team headed by captain Simon ‘Swiffer’ Papamarkos, a Melbourne boy who had previously been playing for Sydney-based outfit The Chiefs.

The League of Legends world championships final in Beijing.

“Simon put together a squad of five players that we feel are elite, first to third in their positions in Australia and New Zealand,” ORDER general manager Jake Tiberi said.

“After that it’s our job to make sure they’re set up in a good environment, that they have the support staff around them to be able to take that next step to success.”

A YouGov study last November found 15 per cent or almost 4 million Australians had watched eSports, with 57 per cent of those respondents saying they tune in at least once a month.

Estimates suggest eSports as a global industry is worth in excess of $1 billion and that figure is expected to grow at least 50 per cent by 2020.

ORDER will meet Tectonic in the opening round of the Oceanic Pro League from 5pm on Saturday night, with Bombers taking on Avant Gaming from 5pm on Sunday.

Those wanting to tune in can visit oce.lolesports.com

MELBOURNE TEAMS

BOMBERS: Christian Tiensuu, Seb De Ceglie, Carlo La Civita, Alan Roger, Andrew Rose

ORDER: James Shute, Samuel Broadley, Simon Papamarkos, Victor Huang, Jake Sharwood