From tied for first to struggling at the bottom of the pack, the rise and fall of ROCCAT.

Picture credit: Lolesports.com

When most of us first met Roccat (then KMT) they were complete underdogs heading into the spring promotion tournament against NiP. Instead of playing like the underdogs Roccat simply played NiP's game, but better. Roccat systematically dismantled NiP in 3 long slow games giving us the 3-0 stomp everyone expected, but for the team no one thought would qualify. Thus was Roccat ushered into the EU LCS.

ROCCAT Rising

Qualifying for LCS was only the beginning of Roccat's bag of tricks though. In their very first game Roccat broke out Pantheon mid and gave us the Unstoppable Skyfall wombo combo that would help them to a quick and decisive 31 minute victory. More than just setting Roccat off to a good start, this game also proved that they were more than the slow methodical play we had seen from them in the promotion series. Roccat would follow it up with more stellar performances and even some interesting picks like Gragas jungle and a Mordakaiser mid.

It did not take long for Roccat's strengths to shine through. They were masters of the reactive play style in both champion select and the game itself. Whether it was seeing NiP's late game team comp coming and beating them at their own game, or using SHC's aggressive push mid to create the Unstoppable Skyfall Roccat's reactive play was in a word incredible. They also backed up that strong reactive play with exquisite team fighting.

Spring split Roccat looked very much like Cloud 9 when it came to team fighting. There was no hesitation, no questioning the call, when Roccat went for a fight they all simply went in. The Unstoppable Skyfall is a great example of this. Roccat knows SHC is about to try to 5 man push mid for the outer turret. They've already seen 4 SHC members in mid lane and know Mimer is roaming down. To react Roccat pulls Xaxus down from top and Overpow up from bot. As soon as SHC make their push Overpow pulls the trigger and all of Roccat pile in, the result is a thing of beauty.

I love this gif

That first game for Roccat was such a great example of what Roccat was in the spring split. Not only do they react to SHC's play and pile in on the call to engage without hesitation, but they also show the trademark Roccat style. When this game came out Pantheon mid and Malphite top were not even close to popular. Instead of playing the established popular champions Roccat picked their own style that worked for them and executed it flawlessly, and they continued to do it for much of their strong spring performance.

Roccat were not without their weaknesses though. jungler Jankos often made questionable decisions during the early game that could put him and his team behind, some of their laning phases were below par for the EU LCS, and their vision game was never the strongest. All of that meant teams with powerful early games, like the spring incarnation of Copenhagen Wolves, could get a strong enough lead early to leave Roccat with no good options. This happened more often as teams like SK and Alliance hit their stride but Roccat was still able to end the regular season in 4th and defeat Gambit for 3rd place playoff finish. So how did Roccat go from a top 4 team to barely managing to defeat a squad of last minute substitutes?

Collapse of Confidence

Roccat has lost confidence in themselves and their play. We can see it in their sloppy pick ban phase against SK today where they were caught having to decide which of two very strong Jesiz champions, Kayle and Kassadin, was okay to let through. We can see it in their hesitation to commit to fights and objectives like the game against MIL at Wembley with the dragon dance that just wouldn't end. The most telling sign though is in their picks this split, half way through the season and they've not broken free from the popular tier of picks even once.

Last split Roccat was a team that would bring Gragas jungle or Mordakaiser mid to the table and crush with it because they were playing their own style of game. Now they play everyone else's style, they play the same standard champions as everyone else, and they are afraid of taking the risks that scored them so many victories in spring.

A team once praised for their reactive play style, Roccat has become risk averse. Roccat hesitate when they opportunity to take chances occur, like in champion select against SK where they could have left Kassadin and Kayle both open to put SK on the back food, and they hesitate when they should be forcing fights and objectives like the MIL dragon that dance that never ends.

Each time the hesitation appears, even for an instant, Roccat suffers immensely for it. Whether against the best or the worst of the EU LCS, hesitation has cost Roccat fights, leads, and in many cases entire games. To make matters even worse, none of Roccat's issues from last split have been solved. Their laning phase is still nothing special, they're still making questionable decisions early game, and their vision play has actually gotten worse.

Road to Recovery

Unfortunately while noticing and pointing out these problems is easy, there's no magic cure to solve a team no longer trusting calls. If someone could figure out the secret of convincing teams to blindly trust calls they could make a pretty penny selling it to League teams. Until then however Roccat will have to put in the hard work to solve their problems. There is a small hope that having their coach Veggie back, he was unable to be in the team house until recently, will help fix Roccat's problems.

Even if they struggle to solve the confidence problem Roccat can still make themselves more competitive by solving some of the issues that have plagued them from their entry into the LCS. Better early game and stronger vision control would go a long way towards bringing the team much needed wins. With wins might come some of that confidence they once had and maybe a bit less of the hesitation we see now.