Los Ratones concede first official defeat to KCorp Blue

For the second day of the EMEA Masters Winter, Los Ratones were facing Karmine Corp Blue (KC’s academy team) in the Group D for a spot in playoffs. LR suffered their first competitive loss of the year to the LFL Champion, with a tough 0-2 score. A reality check for the Rats that were pretty much unmatched all split long in the NLC. Caedrel’s team will have one last chance to qualify for playoffs on Wednesday, as they’ll face the German second seed: EWI.

Two games that had nothing in common

In the first game, LR took a huge early advantage, in control of all the objectives as well as the pace of the game. But they ultimately struggled to make a good push with their Baron Nashor, and KCB’s scaling comp took over in the later stages. Like for their first EM game yesterday, the NLC champion delivered another 50 minutes banger but this time, the Blue Wall stood out in the teamfight for the third Elder Drake.

The second game was nothing like the first, with KCB’s temporary jungler deciding to assume his responsibilities and show why he will be in a top LEC team in Spring. Ismaïl “ISMA” Boualem’s Nidalee left no room for breathing to Veljko “Velja” Čamdžić, as he was simply perma invading all his camps with three winning lanes. It took Karmine Corp Blue 27 minutes to close what looked like an easy game two, from start to finish.

Both teams not in top form

Martin “Rekkles” Larsson won the EMEA Masters with KC two years ago, but in his legendary ADC role at the time. The star player of LR took a lot of blame for the game 2 against his former org, stating he was too tilted and his comms took a hit because of that. This loss also comes while LR struggle to find their way on the new patch so far, with a very difficult week of scrims before EM. Particularly because of the nerf on lane swaps, that clearly weakened Simon “Baus” Hofverberg’s playstyle. On the other hand, KCB have reassured themselves since they also had their lot of hurdles to overcome for the competition, while KC’s LEC team made finished runner-up at First Stand.

Ma game 1 est a montré dans toutes les écoles de clown mais au moins je me suis "ratrappé" sur la game 2
Pas évident d'être sur la même page avec aussi peu de games ensemble mais on win! 😁

— isma (@ismaa_lol) March 18, 2025

The LFL Champion’s support Kim “Piero” Jung-hun got stucked in his home country (South-Korea) because of visa issues. KCB had to bring on their support from KCBS (KC’s French Second division team): Emilien “Nsurr” Gergaud. They also had a hard time finding which jungler they’ll play with, since Mehdi “Boukada” Lahlou signed with SK Gaming in the LEC for Spring, and Isma was supposed to replace him in KCB but GIANTX recruited him in a last minute roster move. Because of Isma’s busy schedule to prepare for the LEC, the team only had few days of practice before the competition. However, with a very good second game from the jungle/support duo against one of the competition’s favorite, KCB can be reassured: they’re still strong and aiming for the org’s fifth EM trophy.

The EM standings after Tuesday

Group A: SuperMassive have qualified for playoffs after winning against Geekay Esports (2-0), GK will have one last chance against Barça eSports that just eliminated Zero Tenacity (2-0).

Group B: Ici Japon Corp have qualified for playoffs after winning against BIG (2-0), BIG will have one last chance against Team Phantasma that just eliminated Crvena zvezda (2-1).

Group C: Los Heretics have qualified for playoffs after winning against Macko Esports (2-0), MCK will have one last chance against ZennIT that just eliminated Flame Hard (2-1).

Group D: KCB have qualified for playoffs after winning against Los Ratones (2-0), LR will have one last chance against EWI that just eliminated NightBirds (2-0).