Week 7 Snapshot: Team ROCCAT

This article was originally published on GameSpot's sister site onGamers.com, which was dedicated to esports coverage.

The story so far

Even since their triumphant entrance into the LCS, the ROCCAT team has had a very interesting storyline. When many called their win over NiP in the promotion series a fluke, they quickly silences critics with a 3-1 Super Week performance and were tied for second place much to the surprise of both fans and peers. The team then proceeded to stay in the top 3 for the rest of the split. Their consistency rivaled only that of SK Gaming in terms of steady performances. Although boasting quite a few international achievements, the abilities and skill of Overpow, Vander and Jankos were brought into the mainstream and some even awarded MVP for their outstanding effort. Continuing the trend of early game dominance, the Poles made quick work of Gambit in the playoff phase, making history and dealing a fatal loss to the Russian squad – their worst tournament performance to date. A narrow loss to SK Gaming saw them in the 3rd/4th place match against Alliance and against all odds, the Polish bunch went home victorious and claimed the title of Europe’s third best team.

Many accepted the squad as a contender, but the cracks in their lines were visible – inconsistencies started to show and in general, some attributed their strong form to other teams not living up to their true standards. Just as in the SK case, many questions were left unanswered and everyone looked with curiosity and determination to the Summer Split.

Unfortunately for ROCCAT, the Summer has brought only hardships thus far. To contrast their almost beastly consistency in the Spring, now they have been in the last two spots in 5 out of 7 weeks. They have now barely started to regain momentum and were on a winning streak, but there is still a long road ahead of them with little time to spare. What is interesting is that while their play style did not suffer any changes, their confidence is simply not there. The once fearless Jankos would rarely make the same play, Xaxus has entered the shadows and Overpow does not pack the same punch as before. To make matters worse, week 8 will be one of the toughest weeks they have had with matches against SK Gaming and Alliance.

Week 8 and the darkest of times

The first clash will prove to be “easier” for the Poles as SK is not known for deciding the game with relentless lane aggression, but rather an objective-based, “slow but steady” approach. So far, ROCCAT has lost both matches to SK and unless they deal a serious blow to the SK lines, I fear the same fate will be upon them for the third time in a row. As for the match against Alliance, only one team can go against them at this point and unfortunately, this is not ROCCAT. A win against any competitor would put them in a decent spot and would let retain 6th place as both Gambit and the Wolves are too far behind to contest.

The future, however, looks bright. Should ROCCAT score a victory this week, it could serve as a much-needed confidence boost as week 9 serves them two direct competitors in the leaderboard – Supa Hot Crew and Millenium. Regardless of how grim things look for the squad, there is always hope as all they need to secure a place in playoffs is a placing above 6th. With the current form of Gambit and Copenhagen Wolves, this is more than doable and should prove easy for the Polish bunch.

Team ROCCAT opens week 8 with a game against SK Gaming on Thursday and are also first in line on Friday to fight the mighty Alliance. Follow all the action on lolesports.com and make sure to regularly check onGamers.com for all the news, updates and interviews from the LCS.