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OCE Power Rankings

February 8th, 2022
Written By: Aucksey
OCE Power Rankings news article photo
Oceania isn’t the most talked about region, and to me, doesn’t get nearly enough respect. The third region to ever compete in RLCS, with some legendary players for so many different reasons. Their playstyles may differ from the methodical blitzes from EU or the sit-back-and-miss playlstyle from NA you’re used to, but you have to admit, they have some serious talent.
They have legacies, icons and with the new twitch channel dedicated to OCE Rocket League, they have more eyes on them than ever. Opinions are an integral part of RLEsports, so here are mine for the top teams of the Oceania region.
Aucksey’s Oceania Power Rankings
1st. Renegades
(CJCJ, Kamii, Fever, (c) LBP)

I feel like this choice may not be contested too much. The top of OCE is starting to blossom, and competition is fierce, but this team is simply too strong. Winning the first two consecutive regionals, both with upsets and record setting series. Renegades were expecting a top 2 position this season, and they’re gunning for first through and through. Their pretty much only stutter this season was in Fall’s Regional 3, but kept up speed at the Major, both taking down Endpoint and being a single series away from making the playoffs. This team is also legendary. CJCJ is one of, if not the most loved figures in the community. His personality shines head and shoulders above everyone else, and his Sweden content whilst quarantining for the Major was a delight to see every single day. He is also a genuinely incredible player, despite what people may think, but content is his forte, so he will continue to be underrated now and forever. Kamii is also an OCE legend, as he’s made every single RLCS LAN since his region was first eligible to compete in RLCS. He hasn’t always been the best player in the region, but given the lack of spots available at LAN for them, it’s still an incredible feat to be able to do it. The third player to complete this trio is Fever, who turned 17 the day before the Major started (that’s right, he was the most mechanical and simultaneously best defender in the region at the age of 16). I should also give a shout out to their coach LBP, who is always credited for being an incredible part of this roster, and the glue that elevates them to the highs they achieve. They’ve been to 3 grand finals this season, and taken home gold at every single one Side note, both Kamii and CJ are called Cameron, and both Fever and LBP are called Lachlan, making for an interesting looking Liquipedia page.
2nd. Forkidden - hopefully not for long, seriously someone sign them
(Superlachie, Bananahead, Scrub, (c) String)

This may be a bit more of a surprise placing, not only because Forkidden haven’t won a regional (yet), but because they’re above teams that have. I can tell you firsthand that this team is on the cusp of greatness, being to the tied-most grand finals in the region (Renegades also have 3) but are yet to come away with a first place, losing to Ground Zero, Dire Wolves and Renegades 3 regionals in a row, as well as top 8s in the first two regionals this season. They don’t have any incredibly above and beyond players, instead they use pace and a great grasp on rotations and positional awareness to maintain pressure on their opponents, opting to pepper their box with shots, which leads to greatly consistent form against lower level teams, as they simply outclass their ability to do the fundamentals. As much as they are yet to bag themselves a regional, they’re a consistent top 2 side, and with time running out for other teams to make a move, i favour them to make it to the Major (whether or not they perform well… eh, that’s not important).
3rd. Dire Wolves
(Fiberr, Misty, Walcott, (c) Vive)

Dire Wolves and Forkidden are on very even footing, and despite how close they are, Wolves edged them out ever so slightly in the Winter Regional 1 finals. Being behind them by only 29 points for the season, it’s not like they’re out of the question at all. I think that on paper, I favour the Dire Wolves players ever so slightly. I’ve casted and analysed some of the top OCE teams during various RLCS events, and this team has insane popoff potential from all 3 players. On his day, Misty is a top 3 player in the region, and the same could be said for Walcott. Just like his namesake, Walcott is deadly fast, and genuinely scary to see in offence. The mechanics on this team are there, but working as an offensive trio is where I feel they excel the most. This is where Fiberr comes in, giving them that extra edge that means they can outperform most teams by simply having three more than capable strikers that also know how to keep the ball in the opponent's half, leading to minutes of continuous pressure. Given their regional win, they are a great shoe-in for making the major, and in a region that only sends two representatives, that extra point they received will be incredibly helpful. If they outplace Forkidden by a single place, they’ll be above them in the standings, so don’t count them out.
4th. Ground Zero Gaming
(Amphis, Torsos, Express, (c) Jimmah)

Torsos is the only other player to have attended all LANs with OCE teams, and is deserving of it. Despite the abysmal Major performance (from him solely, not the team as a whole), he’s always been a charismatic, energetic pillar of this team. He may not have been the star player, but was once again that player making the plays to open up the field for his team. If we’re talking about the best player on this team, we definitely have to talk about Amphis. He was the OCE MVP for season X, and deservedly so. GZ haven’t been able to replicate that success quite so accurately, but have still bagged themselves a regional win. A disappointing performance in Winter Regional 1 is the outlier, but apart from that have still looked, once again, phenomenal. I do need to mention Express too, who is the veteran on the team, and with that comes the ability to simply oversee the pitch, playing as the reliable rotator to let the other two on the team go absolutely insane. They’re likely going to struggle to make the Winter Major, but will still be rated very highly and might be able to snag a top 2 spot (as long as they pull something out the bag in regional 3).
5th. R!OT Gaming
(Finn, Tango, Kaka)

Going into this season, and after the first few events, myself and a lot of the fans thought that Riot were the 3rd best team in the region, and could potentially dethrone GZ or Renegades for a stab at a Major at the very least (by the way, I’m not spelling it R!OT every time-you know what i mean anway). As you can see, they’ve fallen a couple places, but that’s not entirely indicative of their performance. If teams 1-3 on this list are S tier, it’s between Riot and GZG to battle for the top of A. If it wasn’t for the dominance of Renegades (who they matched up with on numerous occasions earlier in the season), they may have more points, but it’s not about hypotheticals and instead. Unfortunately for them, they simply don’t have that ice to close out a series or crucial game. Individual players most definitely have great games, but I feel that we’re truly yet to see them all work together to secure a major upset against any of the big dogs of the region. Oceania is established enough that the top teams can pounce on any ground you give them, and defend a lead for as long as needs be. Aspirations will be high for this team, but I still have to rate them so low because of the levels that other teams are playing at right now.
6th. Juiced Bandits
(Spratt, Hawk, Zayd)

When talking about teams that have achieved greatness individually, but struggle as a team to replicate that, I will always bring this roster up. They’ve had amazing showings in past regionals and majors, but just seem to be unable to ever really crack into that top 4. Out of the 5 regionals they’ve partaken in so far, they’ve landed in the 4th+ once, and 5-8th 4 times. They’re definitely consistent, which is of course what you’re looking for in a team, but without a coach or an evidently decisive player on the team, it’s hard to see them rocketing up the standings, especially with the level of play we’re seeing from their competitors as of late. Hawk is, without a doubt, the player on this team with the biggest ceiling. I can’t count the number of times I've seen him score 2 goals in 20 seconds or less to go from behind to winning in the dying moments of the game. He had a 1.3+ rating during the Winter Regional 1, which is genuinely scary to think about. Spratt is the best Kiwi too, and like his CoD counterpart, has the sharpshooting to match it. The issue for this team (at least in my eyes) is their inability to do anything better than their opponents. It sounds harsh, but they always seem to be about 5% slower than their opponents, shots are 5% weaker etc. If they managed to accelerate in a single area and focused on directing the game towards that, they’d be a real threat.
7th. Team Bliss
(Vortex, Cobbo, Zen)

Team Bliss are a roster on the cusp of breaking through, but have only have one result that shows they have the potential. Getting a 4th place finish in Winter Regional 1 showed that they have potential, taking out Bandits, Wildcard and bagging themselves two games off of Forkidden. I want to say the potential is there, but every single regional this season they’ve been eliminated by a team from the elites of OCE, namely Riot, Dire Wolves and Forkidden this season. Failing that, they actually failed to make it out of the group stage in two different regionals last split, which is, to put it lightly, abysmal for a team that is attempting to push for credibility as a top 4/6 team. It’s genuinely hard to critique this team, as they don’t seem to be doing anything too wrong, and instead have various instances of just failing to meet the benchmark they’ve set themselves at a consistent level. Vortex and Cobbo are without too many amazing results, but have always been hovering around the 5-8th finish mark in practically every single event. Zen on the other hand, has been on practically every single OCE team and org, with Team Bliss being his 21st listed team. Back in 2020, and going into early 2021, he managed to pull out some promising results, but it’s been about a year since anything too high level from him. He’s known for team hopping, and to me that’s potentially a sign of an ego, assuming that he is too good for his teammates and either leaving as soon as a contract is up or terminating it early. He’s good no doubt, but he’s only 19, and has been making these same ‘join a team then leave 3 to 6 months later’ plays since 2016, when he was 14/15.
8th. Antic Esports
(delusioN, SSteve, Zukoe)

Antic are head and shoulders above every single team below them. They’ve had some close series before with various rosters, but are my bet to take Wildcard’s spot

Quickfire 9th-16th power rankings

9th. 1620 Kings

Not only do they have some great names in Jaffa and Baked Potato, they take surprise series off of some top dogs
10th. Big Goose

Best team name, best player name (Schmoopernator), best logo and some excellent Rocket League with the best read on the game from any 9th-16th team in OCE
11th. Eclipse Esports

Shoe hits more top corner shots than anyone else, plus Chilli and Juck pull out wonder mechanics every now and again. If they learned to defend properly I’d rate them equal to Antic
12th. Physicists

Against this team, you don’t realise you’re 0-4 down until there are 10 seconds left. Rotations are very easy to exploit if you know how to counterattack properly
13th. Wazooo

When you have Tom playing a fennec with the Dignitas decal, it might as well be Joreuz. Shooting as a unit isn’t the most effective, and they prefer to use the backboard a lot, so it’s pretty easy to shut them down.
14th. Deft (ex-Clarity)

At this point you’re looking at regular SSL players. They’re very good, but it’s hard to distinguish particular flair from certain players. One thing Deft do really well is centering their attack and gameplan around one player on the day/per round depending on who is on form, and having the other two play superb support roles.
15th. Trident Esports

They only managed to get a singular win in the main event. Despite qualifying for 3 of the 5, always managing to scrape a win or just end up becoming the pity squad that gets decimated by a top 4 seed first round every time without fail.
16th. Team Eros