A disastrous 2024 saw Rogue’s season end way back in June, leading to a complete roster revamp that only saw star mid laner Emil “Larssen” Larsson remain with the organisation. The opening week of 2025 has seen mixed results, picking up losses either side of their win over Team Heretics. We spoke to Larssen following defeat to Team BDS.
How do you evaluate the 1-2 opening week?
Larssen: Now after the BDS game, I’m a bit tilted, but that will wear off. And when I think about the week, I think it was like OK, because I was a bit worried in practise that we won’t show up on stage because we didn’t play too well in practise.
But I think on stage we played OK, it was not good, but it was not bad. The game against GIANTX was the longest game in LEC history, right? And that game we could have won like 10 times if we did something small different, like a flash or a different call.
Today I think we were in a great position as well, but we kind of failed on the macro part, and maybe the draft wasn’t too good. But I think we saw some positive signs. Obviously I would like the week to go better ’cause I think both the games were very winnable, but at least we saw some positive signs that we can build on.
I have high hopes for the team for the future ‘cause it felt pretty good on stage with the boys.
Image credit: Riot Games
Do you think part of it is teething issues given it’s an entirely new roster?
Larssen: We definitely have a lot of synergy to build on. So that’s why I’m pretty happy with the Week 1 performance because I feel like we’re kind of on the same page in the game most of the time. And yeah.
What are your thoughts on linking up with Malrang again?
Larssen: It’s really good. I think when Malrang joined in 2022, he was playing really, really, really well. 2023 obviously he didn’t play as well, as a team we struggled. But now coming back I feel like he’s 2022 Malrang again. I feel like he’s playing really well. I just feel like he’s back to his old self that I was used to. So yeah, it’s really nice.
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How have you found playing with Adam? Do you think you need to adjust at all to accommodate his playstyle?
Larssen: I don’t think there’s too much adjustment. It’s more just getting on the same point in the macro.
People think he’s a psychopath; he’s a bit of a psychopath, but he’s a guy that loves macro. I feel like the macro part of Adam is stronger than the psycho part of Adam.
In BDS they were a very slow team, like Rogue of the past, and they were a slow team that played very good macro.
That’s kind of what Adam is bringing to the team, that knowledge. So yeah, it’s really nice because he has a lot of macro ideas and it’s just nice to learn.
Lee Jones: It seemed like Rogue didn’t do much until they picked up all the free agents at the last minute.
How was the off season for you?
Larssen: It was a bit of a weird offseason, yeah. People know, right, that we were very late in the offseason. There wasn’t too many players left, but I’m still really happy with the roster we got even though it was a bit weird at some points in offseason. But even if we were that late, we still got a strong roster, you know?
Lee Jones: There was a feeling that the level of play was very low last year.
How do you rate the overall level of the LEC for this season?
Larssen: Let’s see. It was pretty bad last year, like very bad… so I don’t think it can get worse than last year. I think there are some very promising teams, like KC, for example. And I think the league will be very even.
I feel like there’s no standout team to be honest, maybe KC is honestly the standard team right now and they can approve a lot. But I’m pretty hopeful for EU. I feel like it’s stronger in scrims as well. I remember last year I was saying; “Oh my God, everyone’s so bad”, and we were still struggling, right? But everyone felt so bad and I was pretty worried. But this year I’m honestly not as worried as last year. I feel like teams just feel stronger. In scrims it feels like teams are playing better.
Lee Jones: One big move this off season was Jojopyun becoming the first ever NA to EU import.
Are you looking forward to facing him?
Larssen: Yeah, I’m really looking forward to facing him. I really want to stomp him.
I don’t think he’s too good.
From what I’ve seen from NA I don’t think he’s that good. Unfortunately I never got to scrim him when I was at Worlds so I’ve never played him actually. So I’m really happy to play him and stomp him.
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