After ROCCAT announced their acquisition of Rasmus "MrRalleZ" Skinneholm as their new starting AD Carry on Tuesday, I stalked the LCS Fantasy website until he appeared for trade. Ultimately, I thought better of it, but with ROCCAT facing Elements and SK, the temptation lingers.

MrRalleZ stood out as a solid choice for Fantasy eSports in 2014. In losses, he minimized his deaths. In wins, he scored multikills in cleanup. This changed drastically in 2015 when Supa Hot Crew signed with Meet Your Makers. MrRalleZ still minimized his deaths, he averaged only 1.8 per game while his team averaged 13.9, but he didn't rack up as many kills — mainly because MYM tended to lose so quickly and so often.

Losing quickly isn't ROCCAT's style. In six games, they've averaged a game length of around 40 minutes, the longest game length in the European LCS so far.

During this time, ROCCAT's starting AD Carry, Paweł "Woolite" Pruski, has been responsible for many of his team's deaths. In six games, he's died more than any other player in the European LCS with the exception of: the entire SK Gaming squad, ROCCAT's top laner Etienne "Steve" Michels, and Gambit Gaming's jungler Danil "Diamondprox" Reshetnikov.

Steven, ROCCAT's green top laner

In the past, MrRalleZ's behavior in longer games has been staggeringly different to Woolite's. Woolite takes more risks from behind, and is sometimes caught out of position, while MrRalleZ is more likely to play scared. In a long game, that can make the difference between a terrible fantasy choice and a solid one.

This article isn't about Fantasy LCS, which is good because aside from the basics, I'm terrible at it. It's about how a serviceable Fantasy LCS AD Carry is exactly what ROCCAT needs.

In Spring 2014, two AD Carries emerged as surprise additions that gave their projected to be bottom tier teams an initial boost through the standings. The first, Konstantinos "FORG1VENGRE" Tzortziou, finished the split as a hard carry with staggering gold per minute values despite Copenhagen Wolves' sixth place in the standings.

MrRalleZ joined Supa Hot Crew as a last minute addition during the emergency Play-In that qualified them for the LCS after the Lemondogs paperwork debacle. He finished the split with the third highest kill participation in the league and several internet jokes referencing his height.

MrRalleZ as a carry in line with FORG1VENGRE was always a fantasy, and this became increasingly apparent as the year progressed. Both had a penchant for Lucian and Caitlyn and both struggled as stars on lower tier teams. FORG1VENGRE was comfortable taking on the resources, risks, and responsibility for his team's victory.

MrRalleZ had above average positioning and skill for a professional AD Carry in the European LCS, but he couldn't carry on his own. A lot of his apparent success came from his ability to utilize a front line and synergize well with Mimer's Renekton and Dr. Mundo picks.

Supa Hot Crew needed another star. They picked up Marcin "Selfie" Wolski, now referred to as Kori, and MrRalleZ enjoyed his breathing room for the second half of 2014.

If nothing else, he's really tall.

Disaster struck in Spring of 2015. MrRalleZ and Cho "H0R0" Jae-hwan became the only staples of the re-branded Meet Your Makers roster. Organizational turmoil and an apparent lack of player motivation plagued the team. Several roster changes later, and a seemingly rejuvenated MYM finished with five wins, enough to contest Giants Gaming to avoid auto-relegation, but they lost the tie-breaker.

MrRalleZ existed as mostly a foot note in MYM's time of woe. He didn't falter enough to stand out as a player in need of replacing, but he didn't step up to carry either. It's entirely possible he couldn't shake the cloud over the team.

In team fights, MrRalleZ's positioning is smart for Europe's current meta game. He doesn't typically auto attack at the start of the fight and plays exceedingly safe and off to the side while his team debilitates most of the front line. With much of the cooldowns blown, he swoops in to unload his own damage.

During the 2014 European LCS Summer Split, MrRalleZ heavily favored Corki and judging by Denial Esports' qualification matches into the European Challenger Series, he's gone back to that champion. It works well for his playstyle, letting him position safely and provide up front burst in the middle of a fight.

Woolite is not MrRalleZ. Like FORG1VENGRE, Woolite comes from the school of Copenhagen Wolves AD Carries. He received the Wolves' resources from gold to peel, and they expected him to put the game on his shoulders.

ROCCAT's mid laner, Erlend "Nukeduck" Våtevik Holm, has the pressure and responsibility of carrying games for the team. Until recently, he's been shirking his responsibilities. Last split, Woolite attempted to assume the mantel with mixed results.

ROCCAT's conflict centers around the all-or-nothing style of their carries.

Like MrRalleZ, Woolite isn't FORG1VENGRE. The difference is that Woolite tries to carry anyway. He over-extends in team fights in order to get that extra bit of damage, often resulting in his untimely demise. Woolite also has had a penchant for roaming on his own for picks on champions like Lucian, a tendency the Unicorns specifically targeted with their top lane Nocturne. It's doubtful their strategy would have worked against a less reckless AD Carry.

Nukeduck has broadened his stubborn Leblanc-centric champion pool from the previous split and has an intimidating 32 KDA on the flavor-of-the-month Azir in three games. He has also tried his hand at Cassiopeia and even an unfortunate Irelia mid pick.

ROCCAT had two options available to them. They could have forced Nukeduck to play more support oriented peel champions like Lulu and gone all-in on Woolite. Due to his needy positioning, ROCCAT cannot succeed without providing him as much peel as possible.

Their other option was to increase the pressure on Nukeduck. With a safer AD Carry, Nukeduck will have no choice but to accept more responsibility to carry the team. A consistent AD Carry less likely to get caught out gives him more room to pull jungle pressure mid, demolish his lane, and run off with the game. MrRalleZ's quality as a safe fantasy pick makes him a strong candidate for a Nukeduck-centric ROCCAT that last split seemed like a mere fantasy.

With the MrRalleZ acquisition, ROCCAT have gone for the second option. The question now becomes whether Nukeduck will accept the call to arms. At the moment, he is in discussion as a bottom three mid laner in Europe, but that's not what Nukeduck fans remember from Lemondogs. That's not the Nukeduck that demanded camping from Marcel "dexter" Feldcamp and thought he could win the game off his own advantages.

At least for now, ROCCAT is all-in on Nukeduck. Steve, who many expected would bring consistency to the roster, hasn't done that. As a veteran of the EU LCS, MrRalleZ has shown again and again that he can.

With that being said, one caveat remains. MrRalleZ hasn't always been just a safe, serviceable AD Carry. Once upon a time, MrRalleZ was the primary carry of Supa Hot Crew. He wouldn't always meet expectations, but his intelligent team fight positioning gave him the option staying in brawls longer if he had enough range.

As a result, MrRalleZ's best champion isn't Lucian. It isn't Corki. It isn't even Caitlyn. MrRalleZ's best champion is Woolite's signature Kog'Maw. Of seven Kog'Maw games played in the European LCS, MrRalleZ has only lost one. In the EU LCS Summer Split, he had a KDA of 19.5 in six games in the regular season and Playoffs with high damage output.

In the single game MrRalleZ played Kog'Maw against Gambit in Week 8 of the 2015 European LCS this spring, he looked like his old self — only with fewer auto-attacks. In the end, Kori's Viktor did 8,000 more damage to champions than MrRalleZ did as Kog'Maw. Both champions can demolish teams in a 42 minute game, so the discrepancy came as some surprise.

Based on that single game and MrRalleZ's ultra-safe positioning lately, Woolite is the better Kog'Maw player in concept, but he has a lower ceiling. If MrRalleZ can find his, ROCCAT have a backup plan that won't detract from Nukeduck stealing the limelight.

At the moment, ROCCAT has a lot of "if"s. If Steve can learn to lane under pressure from the enemy jungler — if Nukeduck remembers the player he used to be — if MrRalleZ can overcome the post traumatic stress from the last split of LCS on MYM —

Those are too many "if"s for me to expect greatness, but ROCCAT's roster changes reveal that they hold a clear vision for the team. They have the right kinds of pieces this time around to form the squad they should have been this spring. At this point, it all come down to execution.

Kelsey Moser is a staff write for theScore eSports. You can follow her on Twitter.