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Easilyy: "We’re gonna focus more on our team and our strengths"

After being crowned Team USA last month we spoke to Kevin "Easilyy" Skokowski about their preparation for their next LAN - the Six Invitationals 2019.

The North American team of Rogue were known as the perpetual runners-up of North America with them finishing behind Evil Geniuses in many tournaments over the last year but, following victories over Evil Geniuses in a number of tournaments in 2018 and their victory at the final of the US Nationals tournament in Las Vegas in December, they have proved themselves to be capable of taking on EG and compete with some of the best teams around the world.

The Rogue roster after winning the US Nationals 2018 title. From left to right: Shuttle, Easilyy, VertcL, Slashug, Ranger and Ecl9pse

We spoke with Easilyy about their performance at the USN and Season 8 Finals as well as their preparations for the biggest challenge yet, the Six Invitationals 2019.

Can you introduce yourself to us?

I'm Easilyy. I play on team Rogue with Slashug, Ecl9pse, VertcL, and Shuttle and our coach is Ranger. I’ve been a pro since Year 1 Season 3 and I’ve made every single LAN since then other than Year 2 Season 2.

In Rio Rogue lost their rematch against NORA-Rengo and went out in the first round, what went wrong in this matchup?

I think our main problem with our matchup there was we kinda lost a lot of gunfights, not sure what our problem was on that end. I think our strats were fairly good compared to what they were bringing and I just feel like gunfights and split-second decision making just didn’t go our way and we just lost it. We were up 3-0 on the last map and we just threw away our lead.

Rogue vs Nora-Rengo in their first meeting at the Season 7 Finals

Shortly after this Rogue was crowned the US National Champions; what did this title victory mean for you and your team?

So right after Rio we made a roster change, brought in VertcL and then we played in the US Nationals and we actually won the event. It was a big deal, home town event for us -- Rogue’s based out of Vegas, we all live in Vegas now in our team apartments so that was like a huge victory for us and it just was unbelievable.

Rogue lifting the trophy after the Rogue vs Evil Geniuses matchup at the USN 2019

For Season 9 you replaced Supr with VertcL; what led you to chose VertcL and how is he fitting into the roster so far?

We did replace supr with VertcL; VertcL is just an amazing fragger, great aim, smart player and he’s like a soldier -- anything you ask him to do he’ll do it. If you need him to die so you can win the round he’ll just jump in and die no questions asked. He’s just a great all-around teammate. He is fitting into the roster well, we had a rough start to the Season but I think that’s more of a team issue not an issue with VertcL in particular, it’s definitely not, we’re just working out some kinks and I know for sure we’re gonna be stronger.

Their current Pro League standings after five playdays of Season 9

What are your team’s goals for 2019?

Our goals for 2019 are hopefully the same as every other team in the Pro League - win Invitational, win Pro League Finals -- first, you gotta make it so we do need to step it up -- make the Pro League Finals, win that and then qualify for the next Major.

How are you preparing for the upcoming Six Invitationals?

So what we’re doing to prepare for the Six Invite (sic) coming up in February is we’re basically scrimming every day, we have an off-day maybe like once every two weeks. We scrim every day, we watch VODs, we make strats, we kinda even scrim three times a day sometimes depending on if we can find an early scrim or not.

What are you doing differently this time compared to the 2018 Invitationals or the Paris Major that could take you to the grand finals this time?

So what we’re doing differently at this Major is I think we’re gonna focus more on our team and our strengths instead of trying to expose other team’s weaknesses. I think when you focus on your strengths and you get your team to the highest level you can play and you believe you can beat everybody, that’s how you beat everybody.

The Six Invitationals 2019 groupings. Rogue can be found in Group B.

What gameplay changes would you make to R6?

I would take out global ops such as Lion, Jackal, and Dokkaebi. I’m just not a fan of those ops, I just don’t think they have any place in the game -- Finka, too -- I just don’t think those ops have any place in the game. I would also take out shields including Blackbeard; I just think shields have no place in competitive play, I personally don’t care if they’re left in Ranked, Casual, all that, like they’re already in the game let them stay... but in competitive I just don’t think they’re very balanced and they’re a pretty hard thing to balance.

Any messages to your fans?

First of all, I want to apologise for the rough start to the season, I know we’re letting a lot of people down but trust me we’re doing everything we can to come back stronger -- we’ve been practising hard and hopefully we turn it around the second half of the split and coming into the Invitational that we come out with a W. So thank you everyone who’s still supporting us and that’s it, I’m Easilyy and thank you for listening.

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Rogue's next game is against Rise Nation tomorrow followed by the final game of the half-Season on Tuesday against Excelerate Gaming, both games can be found on the rainbow6 Twitch account. To learn more about Rogue check out our pre-Rio interview with Easilyy (and supr) right here and keep an eye out here at SiegeGG for more interviews and Rogue news.

Rogue's remaining scheduled games

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