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Romeo “Thien” Tran has subbed in for the Chiefs a couple of times in the split, and he’s held up his own well for a rookie. Stepping into the shoes of Brandon “Swip3rR” Holland is hard for even the most experienced players in the Oceanic Pro League, but Thien is proving to be a more-than-apt substitute.
Thien got to flex his muscles against Legacy Esports this week in the OPL though, and went to town on one of his signature picks, Riven. A solo queue favorite of Thien’s, Riven was drafted into a heavy splitpush composition from Legacy, and Thien styled on the cellar-dwellers of the OPL.
An early one-vs-two against the Legacy top-jungle duo of Daniel “Papryze” Francis and Eldin “Guts” Skenderović set the tone for the game. After Guts’ Elise attempted to dive Thien under his tower, Thien turned the fight around. Papryze came in to try and clean up the kill, but Thien used all of Riven’s mobility perfectly to edge out a smooth two-for-zero and double buffs.
Thien then snowballed this lead into the mid-game as Legacy couldn’t match his sidelane power. In a last-ditch attempt to stem the bleeding, Legacy sent three members down to the bot lane at 19 minutes to claim Thien’s shut down. Thien had other plans though.
The Riven danced around Jesse “Chazz” Mahoney’s Camille, William “Crayzee” Dobie’s Pyke, and Guts perfectly to secure another two kills for himself and escaping with his life. Dodging everything besides the Elise cocoon, Thien was able to absorb plenty of pressure for the Chiefs, allowing the rest of the team to punish Legacy across the map.
The Chiefs went on to clean through Legacy in 23 minutes, with Thien racking up a stellar scoreline of 8/0/6. As he gets more playtime on stage, Thien is making himself look like one of Oceania’s best future prospects, cementing him a spot in the OPL for years to come.
