Last place in the LEC Winter Split, Rogue is once again NAVIgating a challenging Spring. Soundly defeated by Fnatic on Saturday, the Summer 2022 champions had no margin for error heading into their seventh regular season match on Monday, against SK Gaming. Rogue ultimately secured the win but still sits in ninth place in the standings, with two victories and five losses.

The team thus maintains a slim hope of reaching the top six — the cutoff for playoff qualification — but will face two do-or-die matches against Karmine Corp and KOI. All of this unfolds in a particularly uncertain context, as Rogue may be playing its final games in the league ahead of a potential sale of its LEC slot. Rogue’s long-standing head coach, Simon "fredy122" Payne, who has been at the helm since 2018, reflects on the stakes of the current split and shares insight into his enduring journey with the organization.

You had a tough series against Fnatic, and then a do-or-die match against SK. As the head coach, how did you experience this intense week?

Simon "fredy122" Payne: "Hard week, because if we lost both games, we would have been out. There was a lot of pressure and we played pretty badly against Fnatic. We were really disappointed. We had one day between the two matches to reflect a bit more. Today, even if we had lost, we come out, draft a bit more aggressively, and play a bit more aggressively. That was the main change for us between the series, and was lucked out today, eventually.

Did you have a specific strategy going into these series? For example, Adam "Adam" Maanane played Galio for the first time in his career—was that part of a planned approach?

fredy122: Yeah, a little bit of what I just said is we wanted to play more aggressively, especially target the botlane a bit, that's why Kalista came out. We thought that if we beat them in botlane, we could have had a kind of good time. In every draft, we tried to focus on doing what was best for our botlane rather than other roles. That's kind of why the Galio happened as well, we just needed an answer pick versus Rumble.

From now on, each match will be like a final, with Karmine Corp and Movistar KOI coming up—two strong teams. How confident are you heading into those games?

fredy122: Yeah, the KOI one is really important. Honestly, it's hard to say if I'm confident or not. There are ways we can win. We need to work hard in the next two weeks. We need to have a really solid plan. And when we're playing, we just need to be loose and not think about consequences or anything like that. Mindset is gonna be really important for us going into these games. Now we have a week off as well, that's going to help us because we can reset a bit. But yeah, I think the mindset going into these games is going to be the most important, and making sure that we do everything we can to prepare ourselves.

Speaking of that week off, is it good timing for the team?

fredy122: It's weird. If we were in a better spot, I would say yes. If we had four wins or something and things were looking good, I would say this week off is good. Maybe it will be good for us anyway. We can take two or three days to just reflect and not scrim for a bit, and then we still have a lot of time to practice. So, to be honest, I'm happy we have this week off. It's just really weird, like, I understand the roadshows, but it's odd to have a week off. But we will use it, so it could be a good thing for us.

You mentioned the roadshows. Are you disappointed not to be playing during the KOI and Karmine Corp events in the upcoming weeks?

fredy122: Yeah, I'm disappointed that we don't get to play either of them. I understand it. In terms of branding, we're not great right now, and performance-wise, we're not doing great either. So why should we be at these events? That's just on us. I'm sure if we did better in Winter, then we would have been invited to at least one of them. That's just reality. I would love to do it, though, because it's always nice traveling and playing somewhere new. It's so good for a team. It's like you get that old esports feeling. It's another benefit, you will remember traveling and playing in these arenas. So it's a shame. I'm disappointed we're not playing, that's for sure.

When you're in a do-or-die situation like against SK, or in the upcoming matches against KC and KOI, do you give your players more freedom in drafts?

fredy122: We tried to balance it because, especially from drafts perspective, we had a lot of different requests. Overall, people wanted to play more aggressively, with more aggressive drafts. So that means some people have to pick for the team, and some people have a bit more freedom. So, for sure, a bit more. Especially by the time you get to game 3, you need to have a solid plan from the coaching staff. Of course, as you get to the later stages of the draft, you have to rely on your players a bit to know what they want to do. And I think we did that very well today. Everything was very planned out, even to the later stages.

You faced a succession of mixed results in the last three years. How do you maintain confidence in your coaching methods and stay motivated in this role despite the results?

fredy122: It is hard. I went from being top two or three for three years in a row to where we are now. It's been really hard. I can't say there haven't been times when I doubt myself after having such bad results for such a long time. I tried to remind myself of everything I was doing when we were winning, and when we were a top team. I'm still trying to do the same things. I believe we're drafting well, usually, for example. So I have to look at the positives, keep trying to reflect on the negatives, and keep thinking about what we can do better. It's hard to lose that much, but I do really still enjoy everything about this job, you know, even in this spot.

One of the keys to your success in 2022 was the synergy between Emil "Larssen" Larsson and Kim "Malrang" Geun-seong. How important was it to rebuild that connection, and how would you assess it today?

fredy122: I think it's going okay. We're definitely making a lot of mistakes, but not so many in early game. Sometimes, some random things happen in the early game, but that can be Malrang's style — it's his strength too. But yeah, I think the synergy is going quite well. Often in scrims we have good leads, and we are throwing them later on. It's not really a synergy issue for us.

You and Larssen have been working together for six years now. You've experienced both the highs and lows. How would you describe the relationship you’ve built with him over time?

fredy122: It’s probably a unique relationship between a player and a coach in esports. At this point, we kind of talk to each other like people who know each other really well, because, as you said, we've been at the highs and the lows together. I think we can be really open with each other quite easily. Obviously, we have arguments and stuff still, but we're friendly towards each other, especially outside the game.. It’s been very good working with someone for six years in esports.

BDS used to give many responsibilities to Adam when he was playing with them. Did you try to adapt your playstyle around him, considering you lately decided to replace Finn "Finn" Wiestål with him before the season started?

fredy122: Yeah, that was one of our concepts when we were building the roster. We knew that Adam was a very vocal player. And when a vocal player is good in the game, he can offer a lot to the team. He can carry on communication, so it's definitely something we thought about during the year, like, how can we put Adam in good spots in games and drafts? We're being a bit more balanced now, honestly. Now that the season is going on, we're also focusing on the botlane a bit more. But this is something we've thought about and still consider.

We leaked that Rogue might sell its LEC slot to NAVI for the Summer Split. How do you feel about your future in that context?

fredy122: Basically, we're all in a spot where, if the deal goes through, there's nothing we can do about it. We have no power. This is just the business side of it and reality. We just have to do the best we can performance-wise, and then we have to see what happens from there after the split. If the deal goes through, I'm sure we'll be talking to the new org or whatever. We just have to see. But our focus has to be on ourselves."