League of Legends: LEC Summer Playoffs Preview: Splyce vs. Rogue
Rogue: Point to Prove
The redemption arc of finishing 10th place in the Spring Split to qualifying for playoffs in Summer is over, now Rogue are looking to forge a new path toward the 2019 World Championship.
A 5th place finish in the regular season is often an achievement for a European team heading into playoffs, as they’ve managed to topple the strong rosters around them to rank amongst the best in the region. 2019 Summer, on the other hand, is a completely different story, as only four teams should really be happy with their work so far in the split.
Rogue and Team Vitality scraped through to the LEC playoffs on the final day of Week 9, despite only picking up 7 wins each. Both teams not only have a point to prove in Round 1, they also have a steep mountain to climb, as Splyce and Schalke both own 2-0 head-to-heads in the regular season against their opponents.
Ultimately when your team only picked up seven victories in the season, it’s tough to build an identity for yourself, but one thing we can say about Rogue is that they have a promising top half of the map. Rookies Inspired and Larssen have transformed the disappointing Spring roster into challengers in the Summer Split via strong mid lane 2v2s, roaming around the map to create advantages for both side lanes.
On top of that, Profit and Finn offer a unique option in the playoff best-of-fives as no other top six team has two capable players to sub in if things aren’t going their way. Profit will probably start the series as he is a consistent rock in the top lane able to offer huge team fight utility, but if things aren’t going Rogue’s way, expect to see Finn substituted in to offer a diverse champion pool and challenge Vizicsacsi in the top lane.
It will be an uphill struggle for Rogue in this match-up, but after progressing from 10th to 5th in the first half of 2019, the sky could be the limit for this young, exciting roster.
One to Watch: Emil “Larssen” Larsson
You’d expect a mid-table roster to field a mid-table mid laner, but not in Rogue’s case. In terms of stats, Larssen challenges the likes of Caps, Nemesis, and Humanoid, with a strong damage share (28.2%, 2nd), CSD@15 (11, 1st), and KDA (4.1, 3rd). While a lot of this boils down to his partnership with jungler Inspired, plenty of credit should go to the Swedish mid laner for stepping up in his debut split on the LEC stage.
Although he’s only picked up one Player of the Game award in the Summer Split so far, it cannot be denied that Larssen is a key cog in the Rogue machine. Rogue find their wins through early aggression aimed towards the middle lane which is then transferred to the bottom lane thanks to smart roaming from mid-jungle, as well as TP flanks from Profit.
Up against Humanoid in Round 1’s series, Larssen has a difficult task on his hands. With an extra six months of LEC experience under his belt, and a jungler capable of tracking his opponent to the pixel, Humanoid will feel confident heading into Friday’s match-up. However, on occasion Larssen has proven a challenge for even the strongest mid laners in the league, picking up 5 solo kills in the regular season.
If you were to pick one lane to highlight heading into Splyce vs. Rogue, mid would be the one to watch.
LEC Summer Playoffs Round 1 Prediction: Splyce 3 – 1 Rogue
Everyone knows Splyce are favourites. Everyone knows Rogue will find it difficult to find an opening in the early game to break down the immovable object set up in front of them. Everyone might even go for a 3-0. But ultimately Splyce’s playstyle lends itself to slip-ups and is liable to drop games in a Bo5 due to the perfect building blocks required for a 35-minute game to go to plan.
Games one and two will go to Splyce in Splyce fashion. Xerxe will control the early game, Humanoid will impress on a carry, Kobbe will carry teamfights. Game three will be Rogue’s as they finally fashion a gold lead early on and snowball it out of Splyce’s hands, which will act as a wake-up call to Splyce who will close out the series in game four.
It would be an understatement to say that a Rogue win would be a shock. They’ve been unconvincing in the Summer Split, while Splyce are knocking on G2’s door and EU’s third spot at Worlds is theirs to lose. If anything, this Round 1 match-up acts as a warm-up for the exciting games coming up in Round 2.
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