LEC - Rogue (8/10): Building Late, Pretty Great

It was one of the sagas of this offseason: Will Rogue be in LEC next year? As previously reported by Sheep Esports, Infinite Reality, the team's parent company, has been trying to sell its spot in League of Legends' EMEA elite for the past few months. But in the end, the Summer 2022 champion will be present on the starting line this Saturday, January 18, for the start of the competition. However, this episode has naturally affected and delayed the club's recruitment process. While the team's management has never confirmed that it is selling - and has declined to comment on the matter - Tomislav “Flyy” Mihailov, the organization's General Manager in Europe, has confirmed that Rogue “started signing players really late in the offseason”.

“For different reasons, we were not allowed to make any offers, which led to us talking with a lot of players, but none of them could wait for us,” Flyy details. “We were allowed to make offers the last week of November, where we officially ended up closing the roster.” Before Rogue was able to position itself more concretely on the market, the list of players considered by the club was particularly long, and the entire roster was therefore built according to the options still available late in the offseason.

According to Sheep Esports sources, on the toplane, Rogue considered recruiting Photon or extending the adventure with Finn, for example, before signing Adam “Adam” Maanane. “Adam was a last minute decision,” Flyy reveals. “We were set to go with Finn but after different discussions, people believed that Adam brings something that can elevate us a little bit more.”

As previously reported by Sheep Esports, in the jungle as well, Rogue was interested in many profiles. KT Challengers prospect Ham “HamBak” Yoo-jin was option number 1. Rogue also considered Marcin “Jankos” Jankowski, as well as Zhou “Bo” Yang-Bo and Ganbat “Yuuji” Ulziidelger. Still, according to our information, the organization also considered Martin “Yike” Sundelin when the Swedish jungler was released by G2 Esports in mid-October. As with the previous options, however, Rogue was not yet authorized to make offers at that time, and the former Samurai quickly joined Karmine Corp. When the team was finally able to position itself, it chose among the remaining solutions to bring back Kim “Malrang” Geun-seong.

The South Korean jungler made Rogue's day three years ago. He was one of the main architects of Rogue's excellent 2022 season, notably through his ability to play around Emil “Larssen” Larsson. The midlaner, whose contract runs until 2027, is the only player from the previous roster to have retained his place - despite a catastrophic 2024 season, with two top 9 and one top 10. As in previous years, the roster has been built around the Swedish veteran. “We still believe Larssen is one of the best midlaners in Europe," says Flyy.

One of the challenges for Rogue will be to recreate the synergy that took the team to the Worlds quarter-finals. Unfortunately, the duo's 2023 season was far less convincing, and Malrang went into exile in Brazil for the 2024 season. “One of the reasons we picked up Malgrang was his close synergy with Larssen and how much we believe he opens up someone like Larssen,” Flyy explains. “We do still believe that he is a really strong player. It's his spot right now to prove everyone wrong and show them why we picked him up. He enables the whole roster.”

In the AD Carry position, according to Sheep Esports sources, Rogue considered two South Korean players in particular, Seo “deokdam” Dae-gil and former T1 botlaner Park “Teddy” Jin-seong. The organization was also interested in Tim “Keduii” Willers, who was coming off an excellent year with BDS Academy in the LFL. The German ADC had reached a verbal agreement with another French league team, BK ROG, which allowed him to break this agreement in the event of an offer in the LEC. However, this clause had expired by the time Rogue found itself in a position to make offers, and the team subsequently decided to sign up another LEC veteran: Patrik “Patrik” Jírů. After five seasons with Excel, now GIANTX, the Czech player lost his place on the roster for the next season.

“Even though everyone is doubting, he has been one of the most stable players in Europe for years”, Flyy underlines. “People ask questions but it was the same for Comp (Markos Stamkopoulos) when we got him back from Vitality, we believe in Patrick and we hope he'll prove everyone wrong and show what he can do.” It was indeed with Comp that Rogue won the title at Summer 2022. A title that is still missing from Patrik's record of achievements, who was indeed long considered one of the best in his role before two more difficult years in 2023-2024.

To assist him on the botlane, Rogue gave Lee “Execute” Jeong-hoon the opportunity to return to the LEC. The South Korean support had already played in the league at Summer 2022 as well as during the 2023 season, with Astralis and under the name JeongHoon. According to our information, Rogue considered many of his compatriots. Jeong “Moham” Jae-hun was the number one option, but Kim “Life” Jeong-min and Lee “IgNar” Dong-geun were also considered. Still, according to our sources, Rogue was mainly interested in South Korean supports, except one local player: Martin “Rekkles” Larsson, the European legend who left for T1's LCK CL academy in 2024 before joining Los Ratones this season.

According to our information, the initial roster thought up by Rogue's management should have been Adam, Hamback, Larssen, Patrick and Moham. Although the South Korean jungle-support didn't join the team in the end, the club has a very interesting roster on paper, far better than the public expected given the circumstances in which it was built. “We ended up getting a roster that we believe in,” Flyy says. “A roster that is definitely not going to be boring.”

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