Witchcraft: The Spiritual Successor of Los Ratones?! A Side Quest in EMEA Masters Winter 2026

While Los Ratones (LR) no longer exists, most of its players are still eager to hit the Rift: the new spiritual successor has been unveiled, and goes by the name of Witchcraft. A team created with the purpose of bringing back the first iteration of LR… A team that wants to have fun and stream the entire process, giving the most direct viewing experience of a competitive team.

Witchcraft – Former Los Ratones’ core welcomes a new member

After the end of the LEC Versus, the Los Ratones players found themselves with no major competitive opportunity to keep the project going. Moreover, top laner Simon “TheBausffs” Hofverberg also stated his intention to return to his streaming career. This led the team to disband, but the main core of the roster saw a new door open up for them: the Esports World Cup (EWC) Qualifier.

The recent changes to the EMEA Masters (EM) mean that the team will be able to take part in the tournament and fight for a top-two finish, which will automatically grant them access to the EWC Qualifier, in what is essentially another LEC Versus. Yes, tier-two teams get another opportunity to fight with LEC teams to join the 16-team tournament in Saudi Arabia, which will feature the top teams in the world, such as Gen.G.

With Baus leaving, Witchcraft has brought in another familiar space in the competitive scene: Gabriël “Bwipo” Rau. The guy reunites with his former teammates, Tim “Nemesis” Lipovšek and Carl Martin Erik “Rekkles” Larsson, who represented Fnatic from 2019 to 2020. Bwipo, after parting ways with FlyQuest at the end of 2025, didn’t find any competitive team and only had two extremely short stints on streamer teams, one being French Flair and the other on ZYB Esport, the team led by Yasin “Nisqy” Dinçer. Nemesis also revealed that streamer Karim “Sanchovies” Dodson will be the team’s top lane substitute.

The lineup will be supported by the previous Los Ratones’ coaching staff, with both Jakob “YamatoCannon” Mebdi and Kevin “Shaves” Tolman joining. YamatoCannon explained that he will be juggling both coaching and co-streaming duties and that Witchcraft, while having a majority of the LR team, is not tied to the previous project. “There is no Los Ratones without Caedrel, there is no Los Ratones without Baus,” he said.

An uphill battle in EMEA Masters

According to the coach, Caedrel gave the previous spot held by LR to Nemesis, which explains why the team will be competing in EM instead of NLC’s 4th seed. This is the same criteria applied to Karmine Corp Blue, the other tier-two team that took part in the LEC Versus.

Both teams will be seeded into the group stage, meaning that Witchcraft will have to fight from the very start on March 9 up until the grand final on April 21, if they were to reach the EWC Qualifier. For the team, the seeding becomes tricky since the no.4 seeds will be placed with higher seeds from other ERLs.

How will Witchcraft perform? Expectations and Potential

On paper, this team is set to be one of the strongest lineups in the ERLs. While Baus is no longer there with his iconic champion pool, Bwipo should bring a similar level of play with a more standard champion pool. And considering how the rest of the team was performing towards the end of the LEC Versus, it has everything they need to fight for the title.

That being said, the EM has quite a few competitive teams, so it won’t be an easy ride for Witchcraft. Aside from the top teams in the LFL, such as Solary, Galions, and French Flair, one of the most feared rosters in the tournament is the Turkish team MISA Esports, which is led by former KT Challengers bot lane Byeon “Hype” Jeong-hyeon and Han “Way” Gil and former LEC player Doğukan “113” Balcı. There is also G2’s academy team, G2 NORD, from Germany’s Prime League.

The most important key to Witchcraft’s performance will be on how quickly the LR core finds synergy with Bwipo and whether they can find their own solution/answer to the meta. In the LEC Versus, LR was one of the first teams to figure out some of the priority picks, including Nami support and Dr. Mundo in the jungle. The other question mark will be around Fearless Draft: EM will be using best-of-series throughout the tournament, but the players haven’t played any Fearless Draft in the LEC due to its Bo1 format.

Nonetheless, fans should rejoice that former LR players are going on a side quest. It might not have the exact same flavor, but they are still getting a part of what made LR so popular: watching their favorite personalities compete and maybe stir up a little chaos in a new setting.