How to use term_group for ordering subcategories in WordPress?

I’m looking to customize the order for subcategories listed in a navigation bar in WordPress. The codex makes it clear that there are five ways to do this: http://codex.wordpress.org/Template_Tags/wp_list_categories#Parameters. I am limited to two: 1) prefixing each category with a number and 2) using term_group. The problem is that the Codex seems to be pretty vague as to how to make use of term_group as it only describes it as a group of terms. I know that a category containing the word, “video,” always needs to be placed first, a category containing the word, “roster,” always must come second, etc. Is there a way to achieve this without prefixing the slug and possibly using term_group?