Throughout the 2021 League of Legends European Championship season, no team has been as consistent as Rogue. The squad enjoyed a top 2 finish in the Spring Split and its first finals appearance in the Spring Playoffs against MAD Lions, and has now followed up its silver medal in spring by once again qualifying for the post-season. Rogue is currently in sole possession of 1st place with a 11-4 record.

Rogue support Adrian "Trymbi" Trybus spoke to Inven Global about Rogue's success in context of the LEC and his thoughts on his rookie season at the highest level of play.

How do you feel about your team's progress from Spring to Summer relative to the rest of the LEC?

A lot of teams made changes for the Summer Split, so most of the teams tried to find themselves and how they wanted to play. We stayed with the same roster. It's not like we got insanely better and everyone else is bad or something. It's just that everyone tries to get along with each other in other teams, and for some teams, it works, and for others, it doesn't.

I do think we have improved from what we were doing in the Spring Split, but it's not like we're playing perfectly. There is still room to improve and we are trying to get there.

Who do you think will be the last team to qualify for the 2021 LEC Summer Playoffs?

Vitality looked pretty strong at the start of the split, so I was thinking they might be one of the teams that made changes and became a top contender, but for now, they're not looking insanely good. Obviously, I still think they will make it, but I think XL is another team that looks strong after their changes. They look like a completely different team than they were before, so I think either Vitality or XL will get it.

I would also say SK is looking better and better, and they did this last split to make a run at the Spring Playoffs. They deserved it, so maybe they will do the SK miracle run again now. Who knows? [...] It's going to be a fun battle, that's for sure.

As a support, how do picks like Ziggs coming into the bot lane meta change the way you approach the game in context of your role?

The first thing is that we can't play as aggressively as we used to if we have a mage, even if we tried. It's not as easy to go in on a guy when he trolls. With a mage like Ziggs, you don't want to all-in ever unless you poke the guy early on. That's how mages work, so you try to play for lane and get the CS advantage if you can, though I think it's difficult to get a CS advantage with mages. This is especially true for Ziggs because he's not as insanely oppressive in his first levels as he is later on in the game.

However, the playstyle changes in a way where I'm not needed to be in bot lane that much, even though it is nice to stay there for the experience and try to hit level 6. I can easily get Boots of Mobility, roam and see what happens on the other side of the map. I try to be more creative on the map when I'm with Ziggs. 

Overall, how would you say your rookie LEC season has gone compared to your initial expectations?

My confidence in what I can do on the LEC stage is huge. Even though I don't think I lacked that before, it still feels good to get the LEC experience on stage and see how I play.

I've grown as a player quite a lot because I came to understand things I didn't really know before or I didn't have the tools to learn before. With my team, I can do much more stuff and I can think about more detailed stuff instead of thinking about stuff that is more team-based because of the way that our team works. Everyone basically knows what to do, though sometimes I get into trouble where I haven't experienced a situation before and I don't have the best plan possible. 

However, due to the players I have as teammates, I can always rely on them. It's kind of gotten to the point where I can make plays myself without questioning whether it is a good or bad play. I always feel like it's a good play, and if it's going to turn badly, you can move on and see what happened in the game and if it was actually good or not later. I can just focus on what my instincts say and see if that's actually good or not.

I do see an improvement, but I still think we have a lot of room to improve, so I don't really like to talk about it that much.