Just two weeks after being crowned Six Major champions in Berlin, Rogue announced a partnership with the burgeoning esports giants KOI. As a result of the organizations' partnership, the Rogue name is now gone and KOI has taken up the brand's legacy.
In 2022, Rogue peaked immediately after the signing of William "Spoit" Löfstedt, which helped their tema to finally affix the roles within the team. Three months after joining Rogue, the Swede was named MVP of the Six Berlin Major, which he and his teammates won.
"Spoit is cracked, is actually insane. You drone him in, and you know he will get a frag," gushed his teammate Pascal "Cryn" Alouane explained in a SiegeGG interview ahead of the Six Invitational 2023. "He has a really good mindset for his age. It's really nice to work with him."
Rogue not only pulled off their achievement in Spoit's debut stage in the EUL, but also Tom "Deapek" Pieksma's first-ever international LAN. Not only that, it marked former G2 Esports world champion Juhani "Kantoraketti" Toivonen's first LAN since his former team's disappointing end.
"It's weird, you could think we were nervous because it's a final, but nobody was nervous, we were going to the match like, 'we are winning it'. You have to need this mindset," Cryn explained.
But, besides their Stage 2 success, Rogue had a relatively modest season. Two sixth-place finishes in Stages 1 and 3 saw Rogue missing out on two of the three Six Majors played this season, which eventually ended with the team dropping out of the European League's top four on the final play day of the season.
According to Cryn, the team "had too much fun in scrims" which eventually had a deep impact on the roster's final results.
That mentality is understandable with the roster having won the Berlin Major while claiming not to have scrimmed once during it. But with it having cost them a place at the Jönköping Major, the players have tweaked that mindset.
"We play at our best if we are having fun together, we are keeping that, we have not the tightest schedule I would say, we scrim a maximum twice a day, only one time a day," explained Cryn. "We focus a little bit more in discipline and stuff, in teamplay, and coordination, since like Stage 3 it cost us a Major."
Rogue's odds of qualifying for the Jönköping Major after play day six, with just three play days left to go. (Image: Rainbow Six Esports)
"We didn't take it too seriously, we made way too many mistakes on game days, and we threw a lot of rounds. Mentally, we weren't there 100%, we didn't play like we normally did," he added.
Now, despite being Six Major champions, the team is still learning. In the past year, the squad has gone through three changes. Later on, William "Spoit" Löfstedt joined the team, quickly taking over the whole scene.
In a SiegeGG interview before the Six Berlin Major, where he finished as the tournament's MVP, the Swede briefly went through the role changes within the team, as well as how every other aspect evolved.
Cryn also recalled that "the beginning was a bit rough" after Spoit joined, with the team "switching roles a lot". Experience clashed with the talented skills of Spoit and Deapek, whose top-flight career is extremely brief compared to the rest of the members of the squad.
Different working ethics and play styles met to create what we now know as KOI, a more mature and mentally prepared roster, eight months after Spoit's signing.
The experience acquired throughout the year and the new methodologies introduced in terms of preparation are what KOI's members expect to elevate the team's results. They want to go from a one-Major-wonder to a real international powerhouse that are a title contender at every international competition.
Under KOI, the players hope to answer the team's investment with a great performance in Montreal.
"We get new fans, everybody knows KOI has a huge fan base... the fans were nothing but nice, I am pretty excited about representing KOI at SI, hopefully, we can make everyone proud by winning it!" finished an enthusiastic Cryn.