Yesterday, Karmine Corp co-founder Kamel “Kameto” Kebir expressed his frustration on his Twitch stream on Riot Games’ proposed changes for the LEC format in 2026.
Kameto and all other LEC owners had disagreed on the 12-team proposal for 2026
According to KC’s owner, all LEC teams disagreed on bringing two invited ERL teams to the tier-one league for the next year, stating how it was considered incoherent with organizations, like KC themselves, who paid millions to join the league. “There wasn’t a single guy saying that maybe it wasn’t so bad. Everyone said it was shit and that it shouldn’t be done,” he said.
When the French organization first joined the European league, it had to acquire 66.67% of the slot from Astralis for a value of DKK 129 million (17.27 million euros), as the total value of the franchise slot was set at DKK 194 million.
I’m the one who lost my percentages, I’m the one who has to pay, I’ve been in debt for years. I could’ve just streamed and made money, but I chose to invest everything in Karmine. I lost almost a million euros. I never earned anything, but I did it out of passion.
By having organizations join from the tier-two scene, it essentially devalued the investments made by the organizations that had to pay to join: “If you wanted to go to the LEC, you had to pay. We gave our asses to get into the LEC and a few years later, we get pissed on.”
The LEC 2026 season will have two ERL teams in the Kickoff Tournament
The leaked format would see both Los Ratones, the best-performing team in the tier-two scene this season, join alongside the EMEA MAsters Summer champions. The initial proposal was to have a hybrid structure similar to the one used in VALORANT, with 10 partner teams and 2 guest slots.
In the end, Riot Games ended up including the two squads in the Kickoff tournament for next season, which is set to replace the winter split. These two squads will compete and have a chance to fight for a spot at First Stand, which will take place in Brazil.
Everyone was against it. Not a single club was for it. You need to understand that it’s not just about the show, there are teams, employees, lives behind this. You can’t make decisions like this without thinking of the consequences.
The trust between the publisher and the LEC teams is compromised
Kameto also said that the inconsistency doesn’t come with the format itself. He also stated how Riot Games didn’t allow KC to have showmatches at their own KCX event — Karmine Corp’s annual showmatch event — against LEC teams unless they had a slot in the league: “For years, we just asked to play a showmatch against an LEC team at KCX and it was no. They told us that if we wanted to face LEC teams, we had to buy a slot. So we did it. And now, the rules change.”
The French streamer also voiced the potential financial instability from tier-two organizations, which have proven to be highly unsustainable over the past years:
The team that earns the right to come to the LEC won’t even be the same a few months later. Rosters change after every transfer window. It’s not stable, it’s not thought out.
He also made examples of how top teams could field academy rosters in the league while sending their main rosters abroad to bootcamp, undermining the whole competition. In the LEC, teams with academy squads are KC, G2 Esports, Team Vitality, Team BDS, Team Heretics, GIANTX, and Movistar KOI, a large majority of the league.
Kameto’s stance is clear and he is hoping Riot can revise the plan for the LEC before the new season starts: “If this continues, it becomes a clown league,” he ended.
