Gamers and staff looking for answers following sudden closure of e-sport monolith ORDER

Professional gamers once earning six figures at glam e-sports outfit ORDER were blindsided by its abrupt demise and are now considering legal action.

Former professional gamer Jordan Bajic represented ORDER, which recently entered into administration. Picture: Jane Dempster

Professional players earning six figures at one of Australia’s glam esports teams had no idea the company was about to fold.

Jordan Bajic was enjoying a lucrative career as a professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player for ORDER, training for 10 hours a day in a trendy Collingwood warehouse.

The 24-year-old, better known as Hartz to the online community, has now moved back to Sydney to live with family and is one of several top players left chasing new jobs with little information from the firm’s bosses.

At the start of August, he suddenly found himself delisted from the team.

He was told ORDER was making pragmatic changes ahead of regional qualifiers for Counter-Strike world cup equivalent The Majors, and believed he had fallen foul of the natural life cycle of professional athletes.

Less than a week later, Mr Rajic’s former teammates Simon Williams (Sico), Alistair Johnston (aliStair), Joshua Potter (INS) and Jay Tregillgas (Liazz) also found themselves cut loose when ORDER entered voluntary administration, as first reported by The Australian. 

ORDER chief executive Marc Edwards deactivated all his social media accounts and showed staff and gamers the door, mere weeks before the busiest period of the Counter-Strike season.

Order CEO Marc Edwards. Source: Supplied.

The Australian understands some former staff members are seeking unpaid wages, and are considering their legal options against the company.

Now Mr Bajic and his “devastated” old team want answers on what went wrong.

“It would have been professional to hear (from Mr Edwards) in advance about this, and to know what the next plans for the company were before news of the closure broke publicly,” he said.

“When I met him you could tell he was a bit out of his depth in this industry.

“He didn’t seem to have too much information or understanding of the actual gaming world itself – he just gave his opinions on certain things and was working closer to the higher-ups – there wasn’t much communication with the gamers themselves.”

The announcement of the closure sent shockwaves through the gaming industry, with e-sports journalist Nicholas Taifalos describing the company at the “jewel in the Australian crown”.

“From the front it looked like they were doing really well – ORDER seemed to have it all together as far as a gaming company went,” Mr Taifalos said.

“Some observers were sceptical when big shot CEOs and corporates began to get involved, but we never expected things to get so dire at the back end of the things.”

Former ORDER player Jay "Liazz" Tregillgas.

The company had maintained a glitzy, up-market image across its social media platforms in the weeks leading up to the closure, with team jerseys, hoodies and fashionable gaming warehouses provided to competitors, as well as strength and conditioning coaches, mindfulness experts, dietitians, apparel managers and AV content creators.

Sources close to ORDER said that in addition to renting game spaces and content creation studios, gamers were paid up to six figures per annum for their work, with $500,000 set aside for the Counter-Strike GO team alone.

In addition to Counter Strike the company fielded teams in League Of Legends, Valorant, FIFA and Fortnite tournaments. It was also looking at establishing a lifestyle brand as part of an aggressive expansion plan.

However ORDER was unable to secure adequate funding from investors by the close of the financial year, with the project decommissioned at the start of July, and eight staff made redundant. A further 12 staff were stood down last week, with all contracted players and administrators.

Mr Bajic’s out-of-work former teammates are expected to remain together as a squad to compete in the Oceanic qualifier for The Major on Saturday.

Alistair "aliStair" Johnston

The winner of that event will take part in the Asia-Pacific regional qualifier, to be held in Melbourne next month, with the top two teams awarded a spot at The Major proper, which kicks off on October 31 in Rio de Janeiro and boasts a prize pool of over $1m.

It is unclear if the team will continue to compete under the ORDER moniker.

Bond University’s associate professor of computer games James Birt said ORDER’s collapse served as a warning to the local e-sports industry, and that Australia did not punch above its weight in e-sports in the same way it does traditional sports.

“Top e-sports players consistently leave our region, moving on to develop their careers in more established regions against stronger competition,” he said. ”This was most recently seen at ORDER when they lost their star League of Legends player (Shane ‘Kevey’ Allen), to CLG Academy in the US right after their 2022 MSI Summer appearance.

“Without an athletic pathway for e-sports, Australia will never be competitive at the elite international level and with the 2032 Brisbane Olympics just 10 years away, campaigns need to begin now to encourage young people into the e-sports high performance pathways.”

Mr Bajic has moved back to Sydney to live with his parents, and said he was looking forward to a break.

“I want to compete still – I’m really motivated, and I’m doing some coaching on the side – but for now I’m just enjoying my break and spending time with my family. I’m focused on getting back to enjoying the game.“