League of Legends: Rogue Esports sweep G2 3-0 to win their first LEC title

It seems to be the Summer of the underdogs in League of Legends (LoL), with another team claiming their first-ever title this season.

Rogue Esports finally overcame their demons and swept G2 Esports 3-0 to win the 2022 LoL European Championship (LEC) Summer Split on Sunday (11 September).

This also marks Andrei "Odoamne" Pascu’s first-ever championship title after playing for seven years in the LEC.

Rogue, the team that were always missing out

Rogue were always known as the team that had never won a title, plagued with second and third place finishes, and always falling against the eventual champions in a domestic final.

With a fresh roster that included former DAMWON KIA substitute jungler, Kim "Malrang" Geun-seong, and Markos "Comp" Stamkopoulos, an AD Carry that had been benched for a year, Rogue took a long and hard journey to the LEC title, finishing the regular season in third place with an 11-7 record.

That allowed them to start at the upper bracket semifinals in the Playoffs, where they outlasted the MAD Lions in a 3-2 series before getting swept by G2 Esports in their first encounter of the Playoffs at the upper bracket finals.

After getting dropped to the lower bracket finals, Rogue shocked LEC fans by defeating another European powerhouse, Fnatic, in a 3-1 rout, to earn a rematch with G2 in the grand finals.

Rogue's daring draft

In the first game of the finals, Rogue banked on a draft that fans were not used to, pairing Kallista with Soraka in the bot lane while having Le Blanc in the mid lane.

Malrang executed ganks cleanly in the early game, allowing Odoamne's Ornn to scale well.

Meanwhile, the Kallista-Soraka combination in the bot lane dominated the laning phase, with Adrian "Trymbi" Trybus keeping Comp’s Kallista pick alive and fed.

As G2 tried to take the first Dragon, Malrang found an opening and stole the Dragon from Jankos. Following up with an Ornn-Soraka-Kallista combination, Rogue aced G2 in the river.

Rogue continued to push their advantage, cutting off isolated G2 members and increasing their gold lead to 6,000.

Facing a fed Kallista, a Soraka that kept everyone alive, and an Ornn that could tank all the damage, G2 struggled to win trades across the map.

And after a thirty-minute slaughter, a pentakill for Comp, and a 17-2 kill lead, Rogue destroyed G2’s base to take their first win of the finals.

Rogue force G2 into a less mobile duo

In a tense game two, Rogue opted for a Caitlyn-Tahm Kench combination and forced G2 to take a less mobile Sivir-Karma duo in the bot lane.

Both teams played more cautiously, with G2 trying to find opportunities to outplay Rogue but proving unsuccessful as the latter claimed first blood.

In a fight for the dragon, G2 took the upper hand as they chased Rogue out of the jungle. However, things went sideways when they chased too deep into the jungle, as Rogue found an opportunity that decimated most of G2 instead.

G2 still tried to find ways back into the game and keep the gold even despite being behind in map objectives.

Rogue once again nearly aced G2 in the river while contesting another drake. This allowed them to take the Dragon, push G2’s tier 2 turrets, and get close to G2’s base.

However, G2 and caPs found a miracle fight that allowed his team to push one more fight that nearly destroyed Rogue’s nexus.

Malrang put up a stubborn defence of Rogue's base, forcing G2 to reset. With both bases open, Rogue found an opportunity when Comp took out Jankos in the mid lane.

With G2’s jungler gone, Rogue freely took the Baron and finished the game after a lengthy 43-minute encounter with a 19-7 kill lead.

G2 undone by Rogue's patience

With Rogue holding a commanding 2-0 series lead, G2 desperately tried to find ways to get ahead in the pivotal game three.

However, Rogue responded with patience, as they farmed and waited for opportunities to come.

In the mid-game, Malrang rotated through the map, executing clean flanks and allowing his team to take kills and snowball their lead.

Rogue methodically peeled through G2’s turrets until they ended the game in 29 minutes with a 12-3 kill lead to complete the 3-0 series sweep and claim the LEC Summer championship as well as the grand prize of €80,000 (or US$79,999.68).

Comp notably took the LEC Summer Finals MVP, as he scored a Pentakill and finished all three games with zero deaths.

Meanwhile, G2 Esports settled for second place with €50,000 (or $49,999.80) in consolation.

Rogue and G2 have qualified as the first and second seeds of the LEC for the League of Legends World Championship 2022.

They will be joined by third seed Fnatic and fourth seed MAD Lions and will face 20 other teams from 11 regions in an attempt to win the Summoner’s Cup for the LEC region.

Anna is a freelance writer and photographer. She is a gamer who loves RPGs and platformers, and is a League of Legends geek. She's also a food enthusiast who loves a good cup of black coffee.

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