LEC 2019: Going Rogue

Breaking down the fully-announced roster of one of the new organizations in the League of Legends European Championships, Rogue.

Franchising has hit Europe and with it we have four new teams joining the League of Legends European Championship (LEC). One of our new entrants is Rogue, an esports organization based in Las Vegas and co-owned by esports services agency ReKTGlobal and EDM musician Steve Aoki. Rogue recently announced their full roster for the Spring 2019 split and here we will take a brief look at the players and what we can expect from them.

Rogue seems to have acquired the bones of the ROCCAT organization who will be leaving the top division of European League of Legends as they were not approved for franchising. This includes their general manager Tomislav “flyy” Mihailov, head coach Simon “fredy122” Payne, two of their former players and most importantly their popular Reddit PR guy.

In a very ROCCAT-esque move, Rogue has opted for a cheaper roster but one packed with potential. ROCCAT was famously the talent farm of the European League Championship Series and as their last act, they may have passed on a bit of quality to their successors.

The roster of Kim “Profit” Jun-hyung, Mateusz “Kikis” Szkudlarek, Chres “Sencux” Laursen, Martin “HeaQ” Kordmaa and Kim “Wadid” Bae-in have plenty of skill in their ranks and importantly have a lot of room for both individual and team growth. Which members have the most potential to shine in 2019?

Profit

Profit is part of a long line of substitutes who never really broke into the SK Telecom T1 roster as he played second fiddle to Heo “Huni” Seung-hoon during his tenure there. He does technically hold an LCK title as he played nine games in SKT’s dominant 2017 Spring split, however, none of these games were in the playoffs. Sensing he may never break into the starting team of the Korean powerhouse, Profit made a move to Europe where he was picked up by Ninjas in Pyjamas.

Profit’s time on NiP was a travesty as the team completely failed to synergize, eventually finishing dead last in their group before being relegated by consecutive losses to GIANTS and Schalke 04. However, it was clear to see that Profit was the bright light in this underwhelming team. He had just 19.9% of his team’s deaths, the lowest among top laners in the league, while staying in the top half in GD10 and XPD10 despite his team’s poor performance. Not to mention placing second in DMG%.

Following NiP’s relegation, Profit wound up on team ROCCAT with NiP teammate HeaQ. He largely remained as consistent as he was on NiP, but owing to the fact that he had stronger teammates ROCCAT managed a brief playoff run in 2018 Spring and narrowly missed out on playoffs with a similar record in Summer. His relatively high XPD10 and CSD10 in Summer, as well as high DPM and DMG%, shows that he may have the potential to rise above the middle of the pack top laner position he currently inhabits.

Profit will likely remain as consistent as he’s always been, though that may not be enough to secure Rogue a playoff place. Someone on this team will have to raise their gameplay a level and if Profit isn’t the one to do it, who will?

Kikis

The ‘Kikis Effect’ was in full display last split as the Polish jungler came into a struggling Vitality side and propelled them from 7th place to 2nd place in just four weeks. It was clear that upon Kikis being subbed in, Vitality’s macro game improved immensely. His former teammates on Vitality credit this rapid growth to Kikis and his knowledge of both laning and the jungle.

This is good news for Rogue, they’ve picked up a player that can act as their primary voice in-game. It’s not just his voice that makes Kikis a great asset, however, his statistics are a testament to his skill also.

In 2018, he ranked second among junglers during the regular split in CSD10, XPD10 and GD10, as well having a respectable 50% first blood percentage. He matched the aggression of his predecessor Erberk “Gillius” Demir but complemented this with intelligent pathing allowing him to farm efficiently also.

However, will Kikis be able to perform as effectively with arguably inferior teammates? It is not the explosive Daniele “Jiizuke” di Mauro in the mid lane anymore, but instead Sencux who has never been famed for an assertive playstyle.

It is possible that Kikis may be punished more by his opposition jungler now that his laners will likely exert less pressure on the map. Having said this, Kikis is an adaptable player and if something isn’t working he is likely to find an alternative way of playing. I can’t imagine Kikis will let this lineup down, he has proven himself too consistent over the years.

Sencux

The Danish mid laner is coming off a poor split with Misfits where he especially was singled out for poor performances. He was not exactly in the bottom tier of mid laners statistically speaking but he was on a top team where his teammates were among the best in Europe so his shortcomings were more pronounced. A limited champion pool and regular mechanical misplays were among the problems for Sencux.

Statistically speaking, aside from one particularly strong Summer split in 2017, Sencux has always trended towards the bottom in XP10, CSD10, and GD10 among mid laners. Even in Splyce’s best split where they finished second in 2016 Summer, Sencux ranked dead last in both CSD10 and DMG% in his role.

He ended up being a poor replacement for Tristan “PowerOfEvil” Schrage on Misfits, remaining near the bottom of his role but perhaps under the guidance of Kiks and with a strong solo lane partner in Profit, Sencux may be able to rise to the occasion.

HeaQ

HeaQ, who hails from Estonia, has always been a solid AD carry, though he’s never been considered good enough for teams that are firm playoff contenders. In fact, besides the competent ROCCAT roster mentioned earlier, HeaQ has unfortunately been on last-place teams in both NiP and GIANTS.

His stats were poor across the board during his split on GIANTS but he improved dramatically after transferring to NiP despite the team’s abysmal performance. Much like his teammate Profit, he remained in the top half of the league in his role in the metrics of XPD10 and GD10 and was the highest among AD carries in first blood percentage. It’s clear that ROCCAT scouted well and took the two best components of NiP for their 2018 season.

Upon transferring to ROCCAT, HeaQ’s performance remained solid but not exceptional. Perhaps with the skillful Wadid HeaQ will improve his game, though Tore “Norskeren” Hoel Eilertsen was also a talented support and HeaQ largely maintained his level of play alongside him. I believe HeaQ will continue to fill his role adequately but I don’t expect him to rise to the upper echelons of AD carries in the LEC.

Wadid

The former G2 esports support and Worlds semifinalist is the highest-profile pickup of this Rogue lineup. Many speculated Wadid would return to his country of birth after raising his profile in Europe but Wadid firmly committed himself to the LEC in a twitter post earlier this month.

Wadid is capable of dazzling on playmaking champions like Rakan and Alistar but his defensive Tahm Kench play in particular earned him renown on the Worlds stage. He has proven to be a very versatile support and if Zdravets “Hylissang” Illiev Galabov did not exist then he would be a strong contender for the best support in Europe. We have yet to see how he will perform now that he’s been separated from his longtime lane partner Petter “Hjarnan” Freyschuss but I believe he’ll adapt well to playing with HeaQ who has a similar playstyle to Hjarnan.

By adding his voice to Kikis’ I think Rogue will start the LEC with a strong macro gameplan that will net them early upset victories. However, teams of this caliber often start to deteriorate once their opposition starts to catch up. Wadid needs to use the experience he gained on G2 to keep Rogue innovative.

LEC 2019: The New Misfits Gaming. dark. Next

Prediction

I think Rogue will finish between seventh and fifth. The team has sufficient quality and experience to be in the conversation for a playoff spot but each player will have to step up to make it a reality. Kikis will need to take advantage of a strong topside early game and coordinate with his playmaking support in the mid-game to ensure advantages.

Unfortunately, I don’t see Sencux and HeaQ being more than role players and even if it works in the short term, we have seen that not having top tier carries will always be a detriment eventually. Though, if Kikis, Wadid, and Profit pick up the slack then Rogue may be able to become a force in the LEC.

What do you think? Can Rogue surprise LEC fans in 2019?

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