Reinforce from Rogue put his writing skills to work as he wrote about why they lost at OGN, just as the team gets a coach to remedy those issues.
Rogue and EnVyUs met at the OGN Apex playoffs after Rogue selected them as their opponent. Despite visa issues and Talespin leaving nV during the tournament, Rogue fell to their selected opponent and many blame that on the new meta that was introduced with the massive patch that added Sombra. At such a high level of competition even the smallest change of damage or health can bring a hero from a niche pick to a near 100% pick rate. And so it has been with this new patch and it affected Rogue dramatically.
In response Jonathan “Reinforce” Larsson of Rogue wrote a blog post on his Medium account that addressed the loss and elaborates on what he attributed to the loss. To summarize the post he states that they were all exhausted and the new meta had messed up how they usually play. Any team that adapted to the new meta had a great chance at beating them because Reinforce couldn’t play the ultra offensive Reinhardt that he was used to, due to several new counters like Soldier: 76 seeing play. This lead to poke battles that lasted for minutes at a time (an eternity in game) and Rogue had trouble adapting to this style. Their players, while the best in the world at the flanker heavy meta, struggled with this poke, face-to-face battle where a single Roadhog pick determines the fight.
Since that tournament, Rogue has acquired Lanf3ust as their coach. This makes sense as a coach can be a great way to alleviate meta change pains as well as dealing with other challenges. A coach is responsible for recording and doing VOD reviews with the team, keeping team spirit up, and dealing with issues that players have.
Lanf3ust is looking like the right pick for this role; he is a former pro Shootmania player and manager of Team aAa. He will be responsible for helping Rogue adapt to the new meta and adapt themselves to every map, uniquely giving that edge that makes all the difference at such a high level of competition.
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