Los Ratones, TP seek spot in EMEA Masters Final versus Ici Japon Corp

All EMEA Masters quarter-finals closed and on the lower table of the bracket, Los Ratones and Team Phantasma pulled off the upsets. The remake of the French league final ended with Ici Japon Corp taking down KC Blue. Now, LR will face TP today for a spot at the Grand Final.

Three favorites already out

My predictions are already doomed… Team Phantasma continue to rack up upsets in these EM, even though jungler Stéphane “Manaty” Dimier admitted that they had only played two scrims before the start of the competition, both of which were largely lost. After eliminating BIG from playoffs contention, they achieve an even greater feat in the quarter finals by taking out the big favorite to win it all: Los Heretics. In a very tensed game 5 that came down to a bad decision from the Spanish champions – which strangely traded the Elder for an inhibitor – the young and unexperienced Team Phantasma kept their composure and destroyed the Nexus at 49 minutes. It seems that even when they’re given the best possible conditions, the Spanish curse at EMEA Masters reigns supreme…

And the same applies to SuperMassive. They were already considered very strong last summer, before they struggled in Swiss Stage to eventually collapse against Los Heretics (0-3). I thought the TCL Champion had learn from his mistakes, but I should’ve guess that it’s hard to get rid of the choking factor. I had high hopes in this team, especially because they have a lot of experience together as a group and won a pretty stacked Turkish League before slaying the first stage of the competition.

Los Ratones are inevitable. Their narrative is simply too powerful, worthy of the best shonens. The hype that surrounds their journey seems to drive them even when they’re having down moments, as was the case at the start of the competition. The NLC can thank a Simon “Baus” Hofverberg that got tested in his champion pool, by being naturally targeted in draft, and still managed to pull off big performances especially in games 4 and 5. Veljko “Velja” Čamdžić – highly criticized and considered the weak link in the team – also outperformed Duncan “Skeanz” Marquet in the last two games and even got a Quadrakill to close the series.

Yesterday, KC Blue lost to Ici Japon Corp a team that they already beat in their national league and were considered favorites against in their last duel. Their duel was the polar opposite of what transpired in the LFL Flash Final, with the score completely reversing in IJC’s favor (3-1).

Our host @Archarom gives his immediate reaction to this 3-1 semifinals between @KarmineCorp Blue and @icijaponesport ! pic.twitter.com/rTJSEhF3fY

— EMEA Masters (@EMEAmasters) March 21, 2025

LR and TP have already proved that they don’t care about the odds, and Caedrel’s team won’t be able to slow down if they want to book their ticket to the Grand Final. The Riot script seems too strongly written for the Rats for them to miss out.