Rogue gained sole possession of first place in the 2022 LEC Spring Split today after decimating Fnatic.
Both teams came into this highly-anticipated League of Legends match with a 5-0 record against the same five opponents. As the only two undefeated teams left in the LEC, the battle between Rogue and Fnatic was a test to see who is the team to beat in Europe.
Pegged as the underdogs going into today’s match, Rogue have become the team to beat in the 2022 LEC Spring Split after defeating Fnatic, who many perceived to be the best team in the LEC.
The game began with a battle between the two junglers for early-game pressure. And in the first six minutes of the game, Rogue jungler Malrang collected two kills on Viego. This led to an early-game snowball where Rogue were up 4-0 in kills before eight minutes.
While the Fnatic duo lane held an early-game advantage against Rogue’s bot lane, Rogue had complete control of the top side of the map. An overly aggressive play from Malrang resulted in Fnatic being able to grab their first kill of the game onto Fnatic mid laner Humanoid. But Rogue continued to apply early-game pressure onto Fnatic, taking a skirmish at every possible moment.
Still, even with the kills 10-3 in favor of Rogue, their gold advantage was less than 1,000 at the 15-minute mark. Every minute of the early to mid game was filled with skirmishes and equal trades from both sides, with Fnatic holding a slight tempo advantage over Rogue.
But then, at the 25-minute mark, Malrang found a tide-shifting engage onto Fnatic support Hylissang, resulting in three Fnatic players being sent to the gray screen. From there, Rogue turned to the Baron nearly uncontested by Fnatic.
Following this Baron play, the gold lead began to match Rogue’s kill lead and they used the buff to apply pressure in both the mid and bot lanes. Rogue turned this pressure into an engage onto Fnatic, killing both Wunder and Razork while they pushed into the base. Malrang and crew ended the game at the 29-minute mark.
Rogue (6-0) are now the only team in the LEC without a loss, while Fnatic drop to 5-1 in the regular season. For Rogue, this was an impressive showing from jungler Malrang, who was instrumental in many of the early-game skirmishes that ended up resulting in the pick that ultimately broke the game wide open in their favor.Â
After a momentous victory against Fnatic, Rogue will look to extend their winning streak to seven games when they play the revitalized Vitality tomorrow, Jan. 29.
