With only two weeks remaining in the regular season of the LPL and only three teams left to look at, spring 2020 is coming to a close. Today’s team will be Rogue Warriors, who have played 17 different players since the begging of last year.
Top: Holder
Holder has been with the Warriors organization since 2018. He bounced back and forth between the main roster and the academy team. However, coming into 2020, he moved up to the main roster, where he shares time with Crazy. Holder is more of a carry pick player, while Crazy seems to be more comfortable on tanks. With picks like Aatrox, Sett and others running rampant in the top lane, it’s no surprise that we’ve seen more of Holder. One of the two players that have lasted over a year with Rogue Warriors, it seems like it was Holder’s willingness to go to the academy team that kept him with the roster. Despite being the expected top lane, he does share time and is sometimes benched for Crazy. He has had solid performances, but with the entire team struggling, it’s not easy to shine.
Jungle: Haro
If this was done a while back, it would have been WeiYan here, instead of Haro. However, with WeiYan receiving a two-year ban due to matchmaking, back to Haro Rogue Warriors went. After spending a split and a half on EDG, Haro moved on to join Rogue Warriors. Joining the team in the Summer of last year, he has been sharing the starting spot with WeiYan ever since. With a smaller champion pool, Haro seems to specialize in aggressive, damage orientated picks. Preferring to play Nidalee, Elise, and Kindred to the like of J4 or Trundle, Haro was often benched due to WeiYan playing more team-orientated champions. Now that he stands alone as the starting jungle for The Warriors, it is unclear whether he will pick up those heroes, or if the team will adapt around him.
Middle: Ruby
The new mid laner for Rogue Warriors is Ruby. Fresh from CK, Ruby played for VSG, a team that nearly made it into LCK in both Spring and Summer last year. This is the first real chance that Ruby has to start on a team in a major region since he was a trainee on Afreeca Freecs. He’s had a decent performance on the team this split, not being a carry but not being a weight on the team either. With a preference towards late-game scaling heroes, Azir has been his most played hero, with Cass trailing behind him. If he will return in the Summer split, Ruby will need to step up more and be more of an active laner for his team.
Carry: ZWuji
The only player that has been a starter from the begging of last year to today, ZWuji has been a promising carry. Ever since joining the LPL in Spring last year, ZWuji has been the best performing member. With a mastery on champions with extreme mobility, ZWuji found himself at home amongst the other hyper-aggressive carries of the LPL. Problem is, Rogue Warriors still haven’t been able to find other players to perform on the same level. Paired with multiple Supports and multiple mid laners throughout 2019, ZWuji was unable to perform and carry the team. This year, he faces another problem, the hero pool. While he has always been great on mobile heroes, Ezreal is probably the only one still meta. Miss Fortune, Aphelios and Senna haven’t been the most comfortable picks for him. ZWuji will need to pick up more heroes for Summer split if Rogue Warriors want to leave the bottom of the table.
Support: Ley
Another new addition to this team, Ley has been playing the longest of these players. Despite that, he isn’t the oldest, and is only 22, despite starting his career in 2014. Previously on Royal Club, he spent much of his career rotating through the various iterations of academy teams that Royal Club had. Moving on to Victorious Gaming in 2018, he returned to the LPL in Spring 2019, joining Victory Five. Not playing during the Summer split, Ley has returned to play for Rogue Warriors. After not being given a chance on many of the teams he played on, being paired with ZWuji was a great break for him. While the team has been struggling so far in 2020, Ley seems to be performing well, arguably being the best performing member on the roster. With a large amount of experience and an even larger hero pool, fans hope to see more of Ley in the Summer split.
Team Review:
As previously mentioned, things haven’t been great for Rogue Warriors. The team has been on struggle street ever since their star-studded 2018 roster fell apart. Being a rotating door of players probably hasn’t helped them, as the team lacks stability and synergy. While they have made great improvements in 2020, trimming down their roster, they are yet to find a starting 5. Until that moment, the true potential of this team will remain a mystery.