Rogue’s strengths going into the LEC Winter Split 2025

Rogue has seen it all in the past few years, from LEC champions to trying to sell their slot in the league the year after. KOI even partially acquired their slot in 2023 before the Spanish org turned back on their decision to merge with MAD Lions in 2024. Rogue has had some ups and downs during its time in the EMEA Tier 1, but recently, it has been more about downs. 

A sticky recent history for Rogue

In 2022, Rogue found themselves on the podium all year long but finally achieved to win their first title in Summer 2023. This same roster was also the last in the LEC to reach Worlds’ quarter-finals. The team began its descent into hell under the Ibai Llanos banner the following year. From their fifth consecutive podium finish in Winter to the 6th place in Spring and finally the 8th place in Summer. This year they touched the bottom, as they were sent on vacation after three weeks during each split. Rogue even finished in last place during the summer, after just 9 weeks of competition for the whole of 2024.

Then, during the off-season rumors spread that they were actively looking to sell their slot in the league again. Other rumors confirmed that NAVI and some Saudi organizations were interested but with the conflict in Eastern Europe and Riot restrictions, no deal was found in time, before the teams had to be locked. And here we go again, Rogue is off for a new season they didn’t want in the first place. However, despite being the last to confirm their 2025 roster, they took the off-season seriously and put together a team that looks decent on paper.

Old formula to save the day?

Even though they said farewell to Markos “Comp” Stamkopoulos after three years of loyal service, Rogue decided to keep the same core which has been Simon “fredy122” Payne as their Head coach and Emil “Larssen” Larsson as their midlaner.

I personally feel like both have made their time, at least within Rogue. It’s always hard to reboot the machine by recycling the same formula over and over when it just doesn’t work anymore. But it even becomes impossible within an org that won’t help you that much because you’re not their priority anymore and all they want is to move on.

Above all, I feel that Larssen, despite being in the league’s top 3 minimum at one point, hasn’t been able to prove that he can be that good on his own. He was among the best when Kacper “Inspired” Słoma was by his side, or when Kim “Malrang” Geun-seong dedicated 80% of all his early games to him. Since both were gone, he just became the shadow of his former self and never achieved to raise the level of his team, which we could’ve expected from a player that was so dominant.

Maybe that’s part of the reason why Rogue decided to bring back Malrang this year.

Malrang comes back from a small journey in the CBLOL that was not convincing at all. In a league that is supposedly way worse than LEC, he finished 5th-6th along with KaBuM! Esports, and even got benched for the second split.

Even though he was part of Rogue success in 2022, let’s not forget that he was also part of their downfall in 2023. For me, Malrang/Larssen dominant duo is long gone now, and I don’t expect them to save the team at all. However, on the brighter side, the new patch places much greater emphasis on aggression in the early game with the apparition of Feats of Strength, and that’s where Malrang can become a real threat.

Adam and Patrik – Newcomers on a Boat Adrift

Another threat in early, also known for putting high rhythm – for better or worse – in the laning phase is Adam. He was the big question mark in this off-season, as according to him he hasn’t been considered by any LEC teams and even hesitated to join the LTA for 2025, before Rogue started their mercato and eventually reached out.

I was a big fan of the careless Adam, from Fnatic, who was displaying his mechanics and always played the 1v1 to the limits in 2021. This made his reputation of the solobolo king we all know, as he registered 28 solokills in his rookie split. But he has grown a lot since then, has become much more mature, and is now a very versatile player who kinda lost his past identity. His bad reputation within a group of players has also undoubtedly served him poorly.

I can’t wait to see if he can close a few mouths, because for me he can be one of the best toplaner in Europe if his teammates truly put their trust on him.

In the botlane, nothing much to say about Patrik which I think has shown his glass ceiling since a long time ago. His statistics from last year with GX speak for himself, as he was among the three worst ADCs of the league in Gold/Min (408.98), DMG/Min (596.15), CS/Min (8.90) and KDA (3.48).

His previous team has been consistently in the second half of the standings since 2020 – except once. The last time I remember him really impressing me was when the best European support was by his side (Mihael “Mikyx” Mehle) in an enchanter meta which doesn’t seem to be coming back any time soon.

My Final Thoughts

Overall, I feel like the roster looks decent and could easily create a surprise by finishing among the first half of the standings in a new meta that encourages high-tempo games from the early stages…But two problems are quite obvious to me and should most likely prevent it to happen. All these players must be lacking a lot of confidence after either their recent results that were not encouraging or even their offseason where some felt kinda rejected. In such an environment, led by a coach who must also lack confidence after two bad years and an org that will most likely not be as supportive because of their will to quit the league. I just see them collapse more time than I see them create the surprise, as this situation can’t lead to a good household in my mind. But if I had to bet a penny on an upsetting team for Winter only, I would’ve placed it on them. And even if they look fine in Winter, I see no Multiverse where they stay consistent for the rest of the year in such an environment.