Rogue is a professional
esports
Esports (), short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, played individually or as teams. ...
organization with teams competing across several different titles in Europe and the United States. It has two ''
League of Legends
''League of Legends'' (''LoL'', commonly referred to as ''League'', is a multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Riot Games. Inspired by ''Defense of the Ancients'', a Mod (video games), custom map for ''Warcraf ...
'' teams based in Europe: a main team that participates in the
League of Legends European Championship
The ''League of Legends'' EMEA Championship (LEC) is the professional ''League of Legends'' esports league run by Riot Games in the EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) region, in which ten teams compete. Each annual season is divided into ...
(LEC),
and an academy team that participates in the
Ultraliga.
Team Rogue was founded by Franklin Villarreal, Derek Nelson and Carson Knuth in 2016, and acquired by now parent and management company ReKTGlobal and its partners in 2018. ReKTGlobal also owns the
Call of Duty League
The Call of Duty League (CDL) is a professional esports league for the video game series ''Call of Duty'', produced by its publisher Activision. The Call of Duty League follows the model of the Overwatch League as well as other traditional Nort ...
team, the
Carolina Royal Ravens. The organization is co-owned by prominent DJ
Steve Aoki
Steven Hiroyuki Aoki ( , ; born November 30, 1977) is an American DJ and record producer. In 2012, Pollstar designated Aoki as the highest-grossing electronic dance music artist in North America from tours. In 2024, Gold House recognized him as ...
and YouTuber
Vikram "Vikkstar123" Barn. Other Investors include
Imagine Dragons
Imagine Dragons are an American pop rock band formed in 2008, based in Las Vegas, Nevada. The band currently consists of lead singer Dan Reynolds, guitarist Wayne Sermon, and bassist Ben McKee. They first gained exposure with the release of ...
,
Rudy Gobert
Rudy Gobert-Bourgarel ( , ; born June 26, 1992) is a French professional basketball player for the Minnesota Timberwolves of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He previously played for the Utah Jazz who acquired him during the 2013 NBA d ...
,
Nicky Romero
Nick Rotteveel (; born 6 January 1989), professionally known as Nicky Romero or Monocule, is a Dutch DJ, record producer and remixer from Amerongen, Utrecht Province. He has worked with, and received support from DJs, such as Tiësto, Fedde l ...
,
Nick Gross and
Landon Collins.
On October 6, 2022, Rogue announced a merger with
KOI, an esports organisation owned by
Ibai Llanos and
Gerard Piqué
Gerard Piqué Bernabeu (born 2 February 1987) is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a centre-back. He is considered to be one of the best defenders of his generation.
Initially a talented student athlete at Barcelona's La ...
. This will result in the existing Rogue teams rebranding to KOI. Following Infinite Reality's split with KOI in 2023, the team was reestablished.
''League of Legends''
On November 20, 2018,
Riot Games
Riot Games, Inc. is an American video game developer, publisher, and esports tournament organizer based in Los Angeles. It was founded in September 2006 by Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill to develop ''League of Legends'' and went on to develop ...
announced that Rogue would be one of ten franchise partners participating in the newly rebranded
League of Legends European Championship
The ''League of Legends'' EMEA Championship (LEC) is the professional ''League of Legends'' esports league run by Riot Games in the EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) region, in which ten teams compete. Each annual season is divided into ...
(LEC).
For the 2019 LEC Spring Split, Rogue signed Kim "Profit" Jun-hyung, Mateusz "Kikis" Szkudlarek, Chres "Sencux" Laursen, Martin "HeaQ" Kordmaa and Kim "Wadid" Bae-in. On December 21, 2019, Rogue announced a partnership with Polish esports organization x-kom AGO in the Ultraliga, with Rogue remaining responsible for the team itself and x-kom AGO responsible for "establish(ing) a training presence in Warsaw and a dedicated marketing approach."
Following a 10th place finish in their first split, Rogue promoted a majority of their academy team players for the
2019 LEC Summer split. This resulted in significant improvement, going from a 2–16 record in their first split to 7–11 in their second and qualifying for playoffs, where they lost a 1–3 game against
Schalke 04 Esports. Building on this improvement,
Hans Sama was brought in to replace Woolite. This saw the team compete for the top spot for the first time, notably placing first in the
2020 LEC Summer regular season. Despite a 2–3 loss against
G2 Esports
G2 Esports (or simply G2) is a European esports organization headquartered in Berlin, Germany, with players competing in ''League of Legends'', ''Valorant'', ''Counter-Strike 2'', ''Hearthstone (video game), Hearthstone'', ''Rocket League'', '' ...
, Rogue qualified for the
2020 World Championship, where they finished 13–16th with just a single win in their group, against
PSG Talon.
Ahead of 2021, Rogue saw several changes to their roster. Odoamne was signed from
Schalke 04 Esports, while Trymbi was promoted from the academy team. This resulted in the team climbing up the ladder in the region, finishing second in the
2021 LEC Spring Split, losing against MAD Lions in the grand finals by being reverse swept in the finals. With the same roster for Summer, Rogue finished 3rd following a 1–3 loss against Fnatic, handing them the third seed at the
2021 League of Legends World Championship. They were put in the group along
DWG KIA,
FunPlus Phoenix
FunPlus Phoenix (FPX) is a Chinese professional esports organization owned by video game developer FunPlus. It has teams competing in ''League of Legends'', ''Valorant'', '' Counter-Strike: Global Offensive'', ''Fortnite Battle Royale'' and ''Pl ...
, and
Cloud9
Cloud9 Esports, Inc., or simply Cloud9 (C9), is an American professional esports company based in Santa Monica, California. The company was originally founded as a professional ''League of Legends'' team by Jack and Paullie Etienne in May 2013 ...
, where they finished third and were eliminated following a tiebreaker loss against Cloud9.
Inspired left the team in the off-season, joining North American side
Evil Geniuses
Evil Geniuses (EG) is an American esports organization based in Seattle, Washington (state), Washington. Founded in 1999, the organization has fielded players in various fighting games, ''Call of Duty (series), Call of Duty'', ''Counter-Strike ...
. French botlaner
Hans Sama was acquired by
Team Liquid
Team Liquid is a multi-regional professional esports organization based in the Netherlands that was founded in 2000. They signed their first professional players with the release of '' StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty''.
In 2012, Team Liquid acq ...
. Joining as their replacements were Malrang from DWG KIA and Comp from
Team Vitality. This roster would start off the season without losses in the first round robin stage but would place second in playoffs following an 0–3 loss against G2 Esports. In Summer, the team performed less strong in the regular season by placing 3rd, but managed to win their first LEC title by beating G2 Esports. They became the only Western team to make it to the
2022 League of Legends World Championship Knockout Stage, where they fell against
JD Gaming to finish 5–8th in their final event.
Current roster
''Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege''
On August 24, 2017, Rogue signed the former roster of Vertical Gaming:
John "Avian" Ackerly, Tyler "Ecl9pse" McMullin, George "KingGeorge" Kassa, Spencer "Slashug" Oliver, Austin "Yung" Trexler, and Tristan "Ranger" Perhson. Four days later, Yung left Rogue to return to Continuum; he was replaced with Bryan "Bryan" Agema on September 12. Kevin "Easilyy" Skokowski joined on December 22 after KingGeorge benched himself and eventually left due to family issues.
On March 19, 2018, Emilio "Geo" Leynez Cuevas joined the team to replace Avian. On September 3, Geo and Bryan both left Rogue and were later replaced by Aaron "Shuttle" Dugger and Seth "supr" Hoffman, though supr would leave two months later. Franklyn "VertcL" Cordero replaced Supr on November 28, three days after the latter left.
Rogue finished first at Dreamhack Valencia 2019 and qualified for the Six Major Raleigh 2019. At the Six Major 2019, Rogue placed ninth to twelfth after defeating Cyclops Athlete Gaming while losing to
Team Secret
Team Secret is an esports team based in Europe formed in 2014, best known for their ''Dota 2'' team.
In March 2016, Team Secret picked up an international female '' Counter-Strike: Global Offensive'' team. In April 2016, Team Secret expanded int ...
twice in the group stage. After disappointing results at the Six Major Raleigh 2019, Ranger left the team and was replaced by the team's analyst, Eric "Reaper" Nohl. Taylor "Redeemer" Mayeur, an ex-
Spacestation Gaming player, joined the team as a coach on October 9, 2019.
After the team was relegated to Challenger League, Ecl9pse, VertcL, and Slashug all left and joined different teams and causing the disbanding of the team.
This left Rogue without a spot in Challenger League due to the rule requiring 3/5 players to retain a spot.
Shortly after though, on January 6, 2020, Rogue announced their buy out of the
Vodafone Giants roster and the release of the remaining members of the North American roster. The buy out of the new roster had given them a spot in the European Rainbow 6 Pro League Season XI and the Six Invitational 2020. The team placed last at the Six Invitational 2020 after losing to
Natus Vincere
Natus Vincere (Latin for "born to win"), commonly referred as abbreviated name NAVI (formerly Na`Vi), is a Ukrainian esports organization based in Kyiv. Founded in 2009, the organization has teams and players competing in various games, such as ...
and eventual champions, Spacestation Gaming.
In 2021, with the add of Prano they avoided relegations by placing fourth in EUL Stage 3 and they qualified for the Six Sweden Major.
The victory over Team oNe in the quarterfinals gave Rogue a spot for the upcoming S.I. In August 2022 Rogue won against Faze Clan in the Six Major Berlin grand final, earning the EU region its first international Trophy since 2019.
References
External links
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2016 establishments in the United States
Counter-Strike teams
Esports teams based in Germany
Esports teams established in 2016
FIFA (video game series) teams
League of Legends EMEA Championship teams
Rocket League teams
Super Smash Bros. player sponsors
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege teams