The 2015 European LCS was supposed to be a redemption story, not just for Nukeduck, but for Overpow.

Relying on his wide champion pool to make the transition to the top lane, ROCCAT looked primed to pick up Overpow’s saga of surprise picks from where he left off in Spring 2014. Nukeduck’s carry style made him a contender to be the best mid laner in Europe prior to his failure to qualify for LCS on Ninjas and Pyjamas and subsequent competitive suspension.

The fact that ROCCAT, then Kiedyś Miałem Team, was the team that barred NiP from LCS, would only make the rise sweeter. With solo laners hungry for new heights to supplement ROCCAT’s already stellar support and jungler, first place was not out of the question.

It was going to be one of the greatest storylines in Europe this year.

In reality, it could well still happen. Five losses in eight games is far from a death sentence, especially considering ROCCAT’s run in Summer of 2014 where a sixth place regular season finish nearly translated into a Worlds seed in the semifinals against Fnatic.

ROCCAT has obvious strengths that should earn them wins by the end of Spring, but for now the team has three new laners that introduce unique problems in the dynamic.

From the perspective of a third party observer, I’ve narrowed down the list to three thought experiments.

Overpow’s Quest to Find Himself

In eight games this season, Overpow has brought out six different top lane champions. For those who are familiar with his mid lane play from last year, this should be unsurprising.

Overpow reminded spectators of Kayle’s continued relevance when KMT upset the favored Ninjas in Pyjamas to get into the LCS. He had a handful of fans wondering if Mordekaiser would make a comeback. He even tried to make Morgana mid a "thing."

Overpow’s swapping and versatility goes much deeper. A brief and unsuccessful stint as jungler for Anexis still saw the team to second place at IEM VII Sao Paulo in 2013 and into the IEM World Championship. He has dabbled competitively in Heroes of Newerth and Defense of the Ancients.

If Overpow didn’t show a willingness to try new things, he wouldn’t be Overpow.

This time it’s not working. Overpow’s KDA in ROCCAT’s losses is .88. His KDA in victories overall is 17.5, with two deathless games to his name.

Though ROCCAT’s eight games are hardly a significant sample size, the fact that so far none of his other teammates sport KDAs in losses below one (the closest being Woolite at 1.87), and the upside of their game scores in wins relative to losses is nowhere near as high (the closest being Nukeduck with a KDA of 10.5 in wins relative to 2.58 in losses) suggests that Overpow’s struggles could be having a massive impact.

In observing the games, Overpow has been the focus of jungle pressure from both his own team and the enemy team. His level of discomfort is clear. Laning phase dives against Overpow seem to be the preferred way of snowballing against ROCCAT. As a result, Jankos spends a lot of time hovering around his side of the map, and opponent laners take that as a free pass to hit the gas pedal.

PowerofEvil takes advantage of Jankos' appearance in Overpow's lane put the hurt on Nukeduck.

The easiest way to make Overpow comfortable might be to narrow his champion options. Two of ROCCAT’s wins have occurred with Overpow playing Gnar. Then, in the loss against Fnatic, despite Overpow receiving arguably more opponent jungle focus than he has in any other game, he came out with a scoreline of 2/6/4. His only scoreline with a higher KDA in a loss has been his Rumble game against Elements where he went 1/7/7 in a game that lasted 10 more minutes.

Because of the small sample size, it could be a coincidence. Gnar has been a very high priority pick in Europe for a reason (it’s overpow[ered]). But every game ROCCAT has won so far has also been a blue side game, and in every game ROCCAT has won, they’ve first picked Overpow’s champion.

Overpow’s comfort is important, given both the huge gap between his upside and his downside and the amount of attention he’s getting from enemy junglers. A small selection of champions to stick to isn’t the worst idea.

Nuke them in the jungle

Nukeduck spends a few moments hoping for a pick.

ROCCAT doesn’t use the jungle to find picks very often - they prefer to fight in the rivers or the lanes. Even in their closest matches of the season against Elements and Fnatic, heat map data shows that ROCCAT took very few of their kills in the jungle, even relative to their opposition.

This would be fine if not for two things:

They aren’t winning every game. Their mid laner loves to play assassins.

The best way to use an assassin mid laner is not to take a gentleman's agreement in the open lanes or the rivers, let alone in a 5v5 team fight.

Nukeduck would love to snowball off a pick in the jungle off of a couple of smartly placed wards. If one expects to find the enemy jungler harassing Overpow, the top side jungle is a good place to set up an ambush. This mechanism is also an asset from behind, where one pick can lead to an objective and turn a game.

Xerath is another champion that is both a flavor of the month and a Nukeduck favorite. He's a champion who abuses vision to snipe, or terrain to create a barrier between him and his opponents.

H2K makes better use of the jungle to take out Vander.

Nukeduck is billed as ROCCAT’s star laner. He should be set up to succeed.

Woolite who?

As with many ex-Copenhagen Wolves carries before him, the true test of Woolite’s greatness came when he was acquired by a a more successful team.

So far he hasn’t lived up to the likes of Bjergsen, but he’s been respectable. He’s done more damage than Nukeduck in half the games he has played for ROCCAT, but he hasn’t particularly stood out.

In 2014 Summer, Woolite was probably best remembered for his hyper carry Kog’Maw play, though his 1-4 LCS record on the champion is far from stellar. He actually had more success on the likes of Corki and Lucian. Regardless of what Woolite played, the Copenhagen Wolves rarely succeeded when he didn’t. Many of the Wolves’ long games extended until Woolite amassed enough gold to carry.

Woolite is not that player on ROCCAT. Even if he can outperform on occasion, he is unlikely to pull the spotlight away from Nukeduck. With Overpow finding his feet, Woolite has to be the team’s bridge. He has to be solid and reliable in the early and mid game.

With Jankos restricted to the top side of the map more often to support Overpow—a situation Woolite is not unfamiliar with from his time on the Wolves with Youngbuck and Airwaks—Woolite needs to tough it out. He won’t have the same expectation to carry the late game that he had on the Wolves, but he’ll have the early game play-making pressure of Vander. It’s no coincidence Woolite has been playing more Caitlyn and Graves than Jinx lately.

Right now, ROCCAT has a mid lane star in the making. They just need a backbone.

ROCCAT has yet to meet expectations. Their recent devastating losses to H2K and Unicorns of Love left spectators sighing. Still, a few short term fixes could yield results: find a more limited selection of champions to set Overpow practicing, set up more picks in the jungle, and let Woolite continue to develop a role that leaves him off the hyper carries and makes full use of Vander’s power.

The redemption of ROCCAT’s solo laners is far from hopeless. With Fnatic seeking more strategic development, and Elements searching for a rock to cling to, ROCCAT could get finish the EU LCS Spring split with a higher placement than they ever achieved in 2014.