MonteCristo predicts Rogue as “heavy favorites” heading into LEC playoffs

With the LEC playoffs kicking off on March 26, the cast of Dexerto’s The Jungle got together to talk expectations for who will be crowned Europe’s Spring 2022 champion. 

Playoffs season is upon us once again, and the fight for a spot at the 2022 Mid-Season Invitational is kicking off across the globe. Christopher ‘MonteCristo’ Mykkles, Christian ‘IWDominate’ Rivera, and host Daniel ‘DGon’ Gonzales had some surprising predictions on this week’s episode of The Jungle for who will be representing their region at this year’s first international tournament.

It’s always hard to predict what a team’s performance will be in a playoff format. Especially in regions like the LEC, which use best-of-ones throughout the regular season, as the introduction of multi-game series can significantly throw a team’s performance off.

A best-of-five allows for more draft innovation, more creative champion picks, and more opportunities for upsets. And more importantly, the LEC’s teams will be coming into the playoffs on the back of a three-week break, allowing the teams ample time to hone their strategies and prepare surprise picks for the opening round of the playoffs.

Rogue more stable than ever?

This assertion from Christopher ‘MonteCristo’ Mykkles might not sound too surprising. Rogue finished the regular season in first place, why wouldn’t they be the favorites to take home the Spring Championship title?

That is, until you remember Rogue’s troubled past. They’ve notoriously struggled with best-of-five formats, only making it to a single playoff final despite being one of the strongest teams in the LEC on paper. But MonteCristo is confident they’ll match up well into second-place finishers Fnatic, who are looking like their primary opponents for the title.

“Even though Fnatic looked strong coming into the end of the split, and even won their last matchup versus Rogue, I’m still confident that Rogue will be extremely stable and favorable in this meta. I think they’ll be able to dial in on some of Fnatic’s strengths if they end up facing them in the final.”

Rogue have elected to face off against Misfits in the first round of the playoffs. Misfits have looked surprisingly strong this split, with their star mid laner Vincent ‘Vetheo’ Berrié making it as the All-Pro mid laner in the LEC’s All-Pro 2022 Spring roster.

• Read more: LEC announce 2022 Spring All-Pro team

But they’re currently 0-2 versus Rogue, losing both of their spring split matches against the team.