Rogue won first game of LEC Summer Split thanks to mindblowing steal

Rogue surprised League of Legends fans with a last-second elder drake steal, leading them to their first victory of the LEC Summer Split. Their match against Mad Lions concluded the first week of the regular season, leaving the fans astonished and anticipating next week’s matches. 

The several LEC finals between the two have cemented the rivalry between Mad Lions and Rogue. The Mad Lions wished they could have won their first meeting of this split against Rogue, but that wasn’t to be. Even though Mad Lions executed their game plan to perfection, it was Rogue who destroyed the opponent’s Nexus at the end of the game.

Due to the new meta, the early minutes of the game were not filled with deciding actions or sudden aggression. Rather, both teams cultivated and gained the experience necessary to level up quickly in preparation for the battles in the mid-to-late game. The first blood was obtained only after ten minutes by Mad Lions, who set up a textbook gank in the top lane where Nisquy’s addition was crucial to the outcome.

MAD continued to execute their strategies flawlessly, repeatedly getting every neutral objective on the map. As much as Rogue tried to fill the gold gap between the two teams by pressuring the bot lane, Mad Lions only managed to distance themselves from them with every kill they obtained on the top side of the map. At 23 minutes, Mad Lions set up to get the infernal soul flawlessly, and if Rogue couldn’t fight for the first three dragons, they were obliged to at least try to stop the opponents from obtaining the fourth. However, there was no contest, the Mad Lions got the infernal soul at the cost of losing their top laner and part of their life bars, forcing them to return to base.

This prompted Rogue to move towards the first Baron of the game, and as the whole team was on the verge of gaining the buff, Elyoya suddenly jumped into the lair of the objective and stole it from Rogue’s hands. 

At 25 minutes into the game, the Mad Lions had all the means necessary to close the match and thus began to press all the lanes to enter Rogue’s base. As the Baron’s buff expired, Mad Lions attacked the already spawned Elder Drake and slashed his health bar without restraint. With only 32 life points left, however, it was Comp who stole the team buff for Rogue, thanks to Ezreal’s ultimate.

With the acquired Elder Drake buff, Rogue began to chase down and execute all Mad Lions, thus regaining the upper hand. With the respawn timers now high for Mad Lions, Rogue didn’t think twice, heading directly for the opponents’ base and destroying it almost unopposed.

While Mad Lions honed their advantages for twenty-five minutes, it took Rogue only five to win the game. In the post-game interview, Rogue’s support Adrian “Trymbi” Trybus said that Mad Lions “were in the driving seat” during the whole game, but Rogue was “calm and prepared until the final moments.”

Rogue claimed their first win of the split and inflicted the first defeat on Mad Lions, leaving only G2 Esports undefeated at the end of the first week of the LEC Summer Split. To make up for this far from perfect split start, Rogue will have to clash and win against Misfits and Astralis in the coming week.