Rogue : Moving on from the disappointing KOI partnership

As Rogue ended 2022 on top of European League of Legends, it was natural for the organisation not to touch too much about a roster who had proven to be suited to make a double. In spite of such a success, Rogue would swap out their toplaner Odoamne to bring Mathias “Szygenda” Jensen in.

A questionable decision to say the least : Odoamne was the de facto captain of the team, plus he has had his strongest individual year of his career, bringing a lot of versatility and reliability to Rogue. Szygenda would have the heavy burden to replace a top tier LEC toplaner, who even more so occupied a very tough role to play.

Rogue - or KOI - was one of the team who benefited the most from 2023 Winter split chaos, keeping 4 players from one season to another revealed very much efficient to keep a streak of good results. However, Rogue would from the very start show signs of weakness.

During the BO1 phase, Rogue wasn’t very far from facing elimination, as they ended 4-5 with a must-win victory against Astralis in week 3. The team’s level was hard to pinpoint, KOI had some very convincing performances - such as their VIT match where Rogue would totally dismantle the leaders of LEC at this stage - and some very worrying : KOI in fact lost their two matches against XL and FNC, the two worst team of LEC during the split.

The LEC Winter Groups saw the best of KOI, the BO3 format surely helped a team who was fighting huge consistency problems. Emil “Larssen” Larssen would particularly step up for his team, once again dominating Perkz as well as Ruby during groups. Kim “Malrang” Geun-seong, very discreet during the BO1, also had a good showing during the BO3s.

With these two wins over Heretics and Vitality, Rogue would find themselves at the LEC Winter playoffs directly into winners’ finals, guaranteeing them a third place. G2 would prove to be a step too high for Rogue as the individual gap was big between the two teams during their BO5s (3-1 for G2). More surprisingly however, MAD would also seem to dominate Rogue from an individual point of view, Larssen and Malrang, the two main carries of Rogue during groups, were beaten by Elyoya and Nisqy, while the rest of the map would also lose their respective matchups.

KOI’s third place wasn’t really seen as a disaster, the integration of Szygenda was still to be finished, plus MAD and G2 were considered very strong team, so far, KOI had only lost against the two bests in the league, not much to worry about.

But as chaos dissipated and other teams would start to improve their game, Rogue would start suffering. In Spring, Rogue’s inconsistency would still “help” them as they would once again secure 4 wins during four very strong games from them, however, the average level of Rogue seemed to have taken a hit. Most notably, Rogue’s botlane Markos "Comp" Stamkopoulos - Adrian “Trymbi” Trybus had lost a lot of habits together, alongside a Malrang evermore lost on the map, Rogue macro would take a big hit.

On the upside, Szygenda would play a much better Spring split, while the team managed to keep a little bit of reliability during key moments. In the end, Rogue would end up with the same records and the same seventh place.

However, the group stage wouldn’t go as nicely as in Winter, despite winning in a very tense match against G2, Rogue wouldn’t be able to confirm against BDS who sweeped them, consequently, they had to play a decider match against G2 - again - which they lost this time.

Rogue still showed a good face against G2, so it wasn’t all that bad, but it was clear that the team barely progressed from Winter to Spring, and even regressed on some aspects of the game. Normally, as Szygenda was stepping up, Rogue should follow along, but it wasn’t the case, Szygenda’s step up was more of a veil that hid Rogue’s slow decay.

Rogue attempted to fix the botside issues during offseason, making a deal with Fnatic who also wanted to make some changes on its botside. Hence, Fnatic would swap their support Henk "Advienne" Reijenga with Trymbi. Though change was necessary, support role wasn’t really the priority, despite not playing very well with Comp, Trymbi still was key to Rogue’s success in mid-lategame.

In addition, this trade was on paper a huge downgrade, a magnificent own-goal even, as Advienne didn’t have a very good split with Fnatic in Spring. It was more of a gift to FNC who had an awful season thus far than anything else. This roster swap seemed more motivated by opportunity rather than by thoughtful roster building process.

Summer was nothing but the continuation of Spring, Advienne’s addition simply didn’t work despite the dutch support playing a decent split. The problem lied elsewhere : Malrang was simply outclassed. Formerly best jungler in 2022, Malrang’s unique and cheesy playstyle has been learned and countered by other LEC junglers, in the end, Malrang was out of place, something Trymbi was sometimes able to compensate, but not Advienne. Many laning issues in the botlane were diminished on the other hand, once again, Rogue would improve one sector of their game to lose more elsewhere.

This led to another 4-5 run in Summer Season, an eighth place, but this time, Rogue wouldn’t win a single game in groups, 0-2 vs G2, 0-2 vs Heretics and an overall poor performance. Rogue had too many issues to deal with during the year, but failed to make the appropriate choice to fix them. Only Larssen proficiency alongside an everlasting capacity to clutch the one fight that needs to be won kept Rogue high enough to remain in relevancy, but all in all, Rogue were just average.

Despite major failure, Rogue didn’t take the path of total rebuilding and instead chose to build around what worked - or what couldn’t be improved easily.

Keeping Larssen was a nobrainer as the midlaner had little competition (outside of Caps and maybe Humanoid in Summer) in the hierarchy of LEC midlaners. With such consistency and a very developed playstyle, Larssen is the kind of player you want to build your roster around.

Szygenda’s retainment is an appreciation of his improvement this year, the former rookie is still far from the top 3 of the league but he has improved a lot and it is very likely he will keep ameliorating his gameplay this year. Although his potential isn’t as clear as - for instance - Adam when we has at his place, Szygenda has the weapons to fight for the top spots.

Finally, Comp’s choice may fall under the “couldn’t be improved easily” category. The greek adc has had his worst individual season ever (by a pretty big margin) and was widely responsible for the downfall of Rogue, however, one’s skill doesn’t vanish like that, so it is understandable that Rogue wanted to give him a second chance. Comp’s peak in 2022 put him in the strongest european botlane, during this time, he showed great laning skills alongside important versatility around the meta and the tactic set by the Malrang-Trymbi axis.

The core issue of Rogue in 2023 lied in a broken jungle-support relationship. This break mostly arrived from the side of Malrang, who had a very bad individual year and locked himself outside of his team mates. What Rogue needs for the 3 player core they’re keeping to work is a double enabling support-jungle, which they built this year bringing Mark "Markoon" van Woensel and French rookie Théo “Zoelys” Le Scornec.

Rogue’s teambuilding will allow them to keep a game structure similar to the one that made the victorious in 2022, however, Markoon and Zoelys aren’t Malrang and Trymbi, let’s see how their specificities may help Rogue in 2024.

Markoon has had to deal with very different environments throughout his LEC career, but this year with Rogue should resemble more what he had when he was playing alongside Mikyx in XL in 2022 : a side-to-mid setting up jungler.

When arriving in XL (in 2021), Markoon had to fill in a very dysfunctioning roster with players that couldn’t really work together (Kryze, Nukeduck and Patrik), his arrival made a big difference by filling the numerous gaps, and XL had a much better form with him than with Dan.

He kept this “gap-filler” playstyle in 2022 only this time he had someone else to do the job alongside him : Mikyx. Together, they would form a very strong duo-engage past midgame to set up their carries, in addition, Markoon’s ability to play selflessly in early game made Mikyx’ lack of presence in that timing less significant.

However, in SK, things were different, Doss was a support playing much more closely to his adc while sertuss handled more the job of a second enabler, transferring Markoon’s work from a side-to-mid to a mid-to-side. Markoon adapted fairly well to this gameplay, but it was clear he’d work better with hypercarry midlaners and enablers supports.

In the new Rogue roster, Markoon will have a lot of options to his disposal, but in the end, everything should conclude in midlane. Szygenda is able to provide a side to play on, Comp should also be able to do this, but his synergy with Zoelys and overall ability to bounce back after a bad year is nothing certain.

What differs from Markoon to Malrang is that the latter had an overall cheesy playstyle, paired with extreme early game aggressiveness, it disarmed a lot teams that weren’t prepared, but as junglers and teams found about Malrang’s weak pathing and overall fighting, he got countered. Markoon has on that matter a more “conservative” playstyle, meaning that in the early game, he will mostly stay on the defensive by protecting his lanes of eventual dives and freezes, rather than the other way around. Nevertheless, Markoon is an excellent skirmisher, which is a game aspect that Rogue never really enhanced - being more focused around teamfights. Markoon should be able to provide diversity and explosiveness to Rogue’s first 15 minutes of play.

Zoelys on the other hand looks like the perfect match to Markoon and to Rogue’s core strengths. The former LDLC OL support, winner of the LFL, made a name for himself on engage champs (and Renata), being one of the best fighting support of the ERLs. Overall, 2023 Spring split LDLC looked very similar than 2022 Rogue : focusing around key teamfights, playing around a strong laning midlaner with a duo-enabler jungler-support structure.

If Zoelys lives up to his expectations, he could be a melee supports version of Trymbi, who always shined more in teamfights but rather on enchanters. Zoelys won’t hesitate to be the one pulling the trigger, which is exactly what Rogue needs, as Larssen and Comp are more of the follower style. And as he is mostly an enabler support, he will work nicely with Markoon.

Rogue’s gameplay seems to remain mostly unchanged. Their strength will still remain in the key teamfights they are lots of the time able to win paired with strong laning. Markoon’s experience as a skirmisher and overall versatility should also help Rogue to bring some variety to their otherwise stereotyped gameplay.

The one doubt there is to have is on the botlane, if Comp can’t find back the shape he had in 2022, Rogue will heavily suffer from a weakened botlane. Zoelys was a good laner in the ERLs, but nothing of a particularly dominant one.

With these changes, Rogue’s ambitions should be the same as in 2023 : play for a consistent podium throughout the season. If Comp gets back in shape, while Szygenda persists in his improvement, Rogue is on paper a contender for top 4 on par with the likes of Team Vitality.

The rookies’ performance will be the deciding factor between a top 6-7 and a top 2, while surely talented, Markoon never had strong results during his career (outside of a lonely top 3 in Winter with SK), Zoelys is still on his rookie year, but as he is perfectly fit for the role, there should be little barriers to his progression.

The question for Rogue will be the eventual cap, as we mentionned previously, 2022 Rogue played a stereotyped gameplay that struggled to diversify outside of pure teamfighting. Rarely would they gain a significant lead outside of Malrang’s shenanigans and teamfights, which was enough for LEC at that time, but shouldn’t be this year. If Rogue wants to win the LEC, they will have to take more risks in addition to finding their best individual form. The new blood they brought will help, but can’t do all of this alone.

The stakes are big for Rogue as they look to erase their 2023 season of the minds, but even inside the roster the stakes are high. Szygenda needs to place himself outside of the pack in a very open toplane in LEC, another year in the middle pack could result in a bench. Markoon wants to prove that he can achieve consistent strong results after his past two seasons left dissatisfied. Comp is the back against the wall, in a must-do situation where if he doesn’t perform, his place in LEC will be heavily questioned by the evermore talented player pool in ERLs (and the free agent players, Crownshot is teamless for instance). Last but not least, Larssen may play the pivotal year of his career, as despite a strong win in 2022, he still lives in the shadow of Caps, the swedish midlaner needs to find the results to establish him once again at the top of LEC midlane.