Despite having been around the scene in one form or another for quite some time, Roccat (playing under KMT at the time) was almost instantly counted out of the LCS spring qualifiers. Everyone expected Ninjas in Pyjamas to re-qualify and gave Roccat little consideration. So how does a team go from being counted out completely to tied for 1st in the EU LCS?
Not so New Faces
Despite not getting a ton of recognition the members of Roccat have been around the league scene for some time now. Xaxus, Overpow, and Celaver were together as a team for over a year, and boast some impressive results including 2nd at IEM Season VII Sao Paolo as Anexis eSports. Jungler Jankos participated in numerous Go4LoL tournaments as well as his own prior run at the LCS during the season 3 summer promotion, losing out to Team Alternate.
The current roster of Roccat, fully assembled around mid November of 2013, makes excellent use of the talent and experience in their lineup. Much like fellow top team Fnatic, Roccat's entire roster has the ability to make plays and carry for the team making Roccat difficult to ban out or shut down early.
Superb Champion Select
Roccat plays champion select as well as they play the actual game. Bans are always strong, hitting not just common "OP" champions, but also taking problematic or comfort champions out of the other team's hands.
Typically Roccat plays champion select safe, picking top, support, or jungle first, focusing champions that don't dictate the team's strategy and forcing their opponents into exposing their plan before Roccat chooses their carries. This safe picking allows Roccat to react to their opponent's strategy. In their games against NiP this picking strategy allowed Roccat to see NiP's late game focused, very mobile, relatively low CC, team comp being built and adapt with Vayne and Kayle to have their own late game strengths. Roccat has demonstrated a consistent ability to come out of champion select strong, with their own comfort champions such as Thresh which Vander has played in 8 of Roccat's 10 games so far.
Medium Risk High Reward
The strong champion select leaves Roccat able to play a more adaptive style of game. A style that doesn't necessarily result in a blatant stomp, but also doesn't require taking big risks to succeed. Jatt did an excellent job of highlighting Roccat's medium risk play style in his break down of the first meeting of Roccat and Fnatic, which is one of the best back and forth games of League of Legends I've ever seen.
We can see examples of this play style in all of Roccat games. The famous Unstoppable Skyfall from Roccat's first LCS game is a great example. They burn Pantheon's ability to split push and Malphite's hard engage, which if it failed would not turn the game, but would put them on the back foot, and from it they gain 4 kills and a Baron that essentially seals the game. Plays like this and ones highlighted in Jatt's breakdown are present in all of Roccat's games, and they're a large reason the team is so successful.
High Expectations for the Future
Potential pitfalls for Roccat are minor at worst, Kayle nerfs in the latest patch will do little to hamper Overpow's impressive champion pool, and Vander has proven he can still perform even without his heavily favored Thresh. Short of unforeseeable from the outside problems, such as team attitude changes, we're unlikely to see major issues surface for Roccat in the short term.
That low exploitable weakness along with Roccat's exquisite champion select and strong mid-late game play suggests they're a strong bet for a top 4 finish to the split. Some stumbles when their risks backfire can be expected, and we all hope that every team will get better over the split, but it's quite likely we'll see Roccat in the spring split playoffs.
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