Just moments ago Origen, a team that was free falling down the EU LCS standings, just 2-0’d Roccat. The games were close, but not close enough. Origen was able to utilize superior map movements and take advantage of edges earned through laning phase to finally close out the series clinching a 50+ minute game.
Roccat has been a frustrating team to watch for a while now. This is a team that seems to find a way to compete at various points of the game, but never for long enough to secure a victory. At one point mid laner Betsy and former jungler Airwaks, who has since been benched, looked to be players capable of carrying Roccat out of the early game with an advantage. Now the team relies solely on Steelback.
Steelback’s Rising Stock
Steelback has gone through an interesting career progression over his time as a competitive ADC. After being the weak link on a Fnatic team in its prime, Steelback left Europe to bounce around the North American Challenger Series. Just 6 months later Steelback would make his return to Europe, this time in a Unicorns of Love jersey.
The Unicorns of Spring looked like a rag-tag group of misfit players that their former organization were unwilling to re-sign. The team delivered; ending the split in 5th place, 1 spot above Fnatic. During the off-season Steelback and the Unicorns were unable to come to agreement on a contract. Steelback would be moving on to another team, again.
Enter the current Roccat era. After losing Jankos and Vander Roccat was left to rebuild their organization from the ground up. Steelback would be a piece of the second post-Jankos/Vander iteration. Roccat was coming off of a disappointing Spring split where they couldn’t seem to close out games despite building early gold leads. Adding Steelback would certainly improve this team.
Light At the End of the Tunnel
It has to be a frustrating split for Steelback. There are many moments during Roccat games in which a member of the team is caught a long ways away from safe territory. Solo queue type stuff. Despite this, Steelback has found a way to consistently show just how much he’s improved since his Fnatic days.
Steelback has almost HALF the deaths of his fellow Roccat teammates in his 28 games played this split. Steelback currently has 54 deaths to his name. Raise, his support, has 102 deaths, and Betsy, Roccat’s mid laner, has 99 deaths. Other stats of note: Steelback leads all AD carries in the EU LCS with 77.4% KP, and is 4th in Average Damage to Champions per Minute among EU AD carries with 20+ games played.
Steelback has proven his performance on Unicorns of Love was not a fluke. From this point on his goal should be to continue to be the bright spot on a bad team. The AD carry pool in Europe is drying up. Forg1ven is on his way out and Freeze is under performing. At the end of the year there is going to be a top end team disappointed with their playoff run, and they’re going to be forced to consider signing Steelback.
Unless Roccat plans to rebuild the team around Steelback, it’s time the remarkably consistent ADC starts counting down the days until his contract with his current team is up. Steelback will be the best free agent ADC this off-season. Who will be the lucky team that signs him?