NRG Rogue the super sub helps ESA win Super League title

NRG Rogue further staked his claim to be picked up by a competitive team standing in for ESA. The 26-year-old is looking to return to competitive. His strong results with TSM, Torrent, and ESA show he has what it takes.

ESA saw off Rogue's former team, Team Liquid, and his current organization's team NRG to take the title.

This high-quality lobby, comprised of qualifiers from January and February's events, contained 8 of the 10 teams that are headed to LAN to represent North America. All 6 matches were played on Storm Point.

Pro League Champions ESA came into the Super League finals in fine form. They dominated all split long, and are playing incredible Apex on both Storm Point and Worlds Edge. They started the Super League as they left off. NRG Rogue, Skittlecakes, and Dooplex threw down a huge 16 kills on their way to third place. Their use of Horizon on Storm Point proved especially effective in the opening game.

The frustration that could be heard from the team after that game shows the winning mentality of ESA. Despite their huge kill total placing them first, there was a negative atmosphere in the team. They were disappointed that Dooplex dropped too early onto the low ground, and they did not manage to win the game. While some Twitch chatters raised their eyebrows at this, ESA is at the very top of the scene and nothing less than perfection is good enough. This attitude will serve them well at LAN.

NRG Rogue was in fine form all day, showing ESA what they could've had if they had stuck with him as their replacement for Verhulst. There are clearly no hard feelings over the decision, and Knoqd has performed fantastically all split. But, today's performance will not have hurt Rogue's chances of finding a team.

NRG Rogue told the Super League broadcast that he had to adapt to ESA's "unique style" in order to help them maintain their dominance. He added that the way that Skittlecakes and Dooplex lead the team makes his role, and Knoqd easy. It's as simple as listening, following orders, and shooting your gun.

This lobby had 8 out of the 10 NA teams headed to Sweden for the ALGS playoff LAN. Rogue said that his lobby was "a little bit more loose" than in some of the bigger tournament lobbies.

Elsewhere, NRG were clearly in full LAN preparation mode. Taking advantage of the 6 Storm Point matches, they experimented with Bangalore instead of Gibraltar. They had some mixed results and did eventually swap back to the fortified legend. Gibraltar has been very dominant in Apex competitive, but more and more teams are looking away from him on Storm Point.

NRG landed 4th place and they will be pleased with the experience. LAN is in less than 1 month time and there is limited opportunity to practice, making smaller tournaments like this valuable experience. With Storm Point being so much newer to the competitive scene, lots of teams are still experimenting and finding their perfect balance.

Team Liquid, the former home of NRG Rogue, are in fantastic form. They have been one of the best Storm Point teams and benefitted from all 6 games being on the jungle-themed map.

Team Liquid locked in their LAN place with an unbelievable final day of the Pro League. Coach Hodsic said that this was Liquid in their true form, and that carried over today.

They use Loba on Storm Point. This could be seen as a defensive choice. Many teams use Loba to rotate early, hold a strong position and slurp loot as teams fight and die nearby. However Team Liquid are still managing to pick up kills. They averaged 5.5 kills per game today, which is a very healthy total.

Team Liquid are in a fantastic position heading into Sweden. Their knowledge of Storm Point is one of the best of any team and they have a unique but effective approach. Further, they are showing consistency and the ability, like in Pro League, to show up when it matters.

Moreover, they are showing improvement on Worlds Edge, meaning that they are not over-reliant on their stronger map for crucial points

Big names such as TSM, Torrent, and Furia struggled, none of them made the top 10. TSM had performed very strongly in the February qualifier.

Full standings on Liquipedia.

Teams in North America will be working very hard to prepare for the Apex LAN in Sweden at the end of April. Smaller tournaments provide the perfect environment to experiment and innovate - with time ticking there is a lot of pressure on teams to prepare quickly. The added pressure of the varying metas in other regions adds an extra dimension to every decision that teams have to make.

For coverage of the ALGS Playoff LAN, and all other things Apex Legends , stay tuned to esports.gg.