Former Vice World Champion in LoL moves to the 2nd league – dominates the most important tournament after a difficult season

Martin “Rekkles” Larsson is one of the most famous European players in League of Legends. With Fnatic he won the highest European league, the LEC, and even became vice world champion. In 2022 he surprisingly switched to the second division and won the most important title there.

How did things go for Rekkles recently?

• Rekkles was an integral part of Team Fnatic from 2015-2020. With this he won the playoffs of the LEC four times and was also able to convince at the world championships. In 2015 they reached place 3/4, in 2018 even second place and in 2019 and 2020 they reached at least quarterfinals.
• For the 2021 season, Rekkles then decided to switch to the G2 Esports team. They have dominated Europe in recent years and reached second place in 2019 and at least the semi-finals in 2020. They now wanted to build a European super team and finally become world champions.
• But the season went horribly wrong. The botlaner didn’t fit into the structure of the team, which often relied on very aggressive plays. But Rekkles was more of a tactical player who relied on his strength in the endgame. It was not enough for a national title, nor for qualifying for the world championship.
• At the end of 2021, Rekkles surprised everyone with a move to the second division. He went to Karmine Corp, the strongest team in the French LFL.
• But the start was anything but good. Only with difficulty did they reach the European Masters, a tournament in which the best teams from all second divisions in Europe meet. But in this competitive situation, Rekkles was able to convince again.

Difficult start in what is probably the strongest 2nd division in Europe

How was the season? The regular split didn’t go too badly for Karmine Corp. They finished 2nd behind LDLC OL, the Olympique Lion esports team. However, they have already suffered 6 defeats in 18 games in the regular league. Many fans thought that the season with Rekkles would be a sure-fire success.

A major setback followed in the playoffs. They lost the upper bracket final to LDLC and dropped to the lower bracket. There you had to beat BDS Academy to progress. However, they lost exactly this match and only reached 3rd place – actually not enough for the top team.

This also ensured that they did not qualify directly for the European Masters, but had to go through a play-in tournament.

The German LoL team Eintracht Spandau from HandOfBlood also took part in the EU Masters:

How did the EU Masters go? Karmine Corp won the play-in tournament 6-0 in their group. In the knockout round they met Iron Wolves, who they also defeated 2-0 without losing. Getting into the EU Masters went smoothly.

In Group B, Karmine Corp took first place with 5 wins and 1 loss. The only defeat inflicted on them was Team X7 with former Korean world champion Haru. Both teams were tied 5-1 in the end and each had a win against each other. However, Rekkles’ team prevailed in the deciding match, also thanks to a strong performance from their botlaner.

In the KO phase, they beat first the German team Unicorns of Live Sexy Edition and then Vitality.Bee, also a French team.

In this weekend’s final, they then faced LDLC OL, the team that won the split and playoffs in France and inflicted several losses on Karmine Corp.

Karmine Corp wins EU Masters, largely thanks to Rekkles

How did the final go? LDLC won the first match straight away in this best of 5. There was a feeling that the regular season could be repeated, although the match was quite close overall. In the end, LDLC had 4 kills and about 5,000 more gold, which wasn’t much.

Round 2 also started positively for LDLC at first. But the Elder Dragon for Karmine Corp turned the match on its head. Suddenly, they were winning the team fights and gradually tearing down the base.

Karmine Corp was also able to secure matches 3 and 4, which also meant victory in the EU Masters Spring 2022. Another EU Masters will take place in the summer.

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What was Rekkles’ part in the win? Very high (via gol.gg):

• Rekkles has the best KDA (Kill/Death/Assist) of any player in the tournament at 13.3
• He has the best farm rate (10.5 minions per minute)
• He was well ahead of his direct opponent in the botlane in 87.5% of the games at 15 minutes
• He also got a quadra kill (only Deadly had 2 quadra kills) and 11 double kills (best).

It is Karmine Corp’s third straight EU Masters win.

France dominates EU Masters

What was striking about the tournament? Three out of four teams in the semi-finals came from France and the final was played only between French teams. So France currently dominates the leagues below the LEC.

Unfortunately, the German teams performed weaker than hoped. Eintracht Spandau even failed in the group stage, where they faced strong opponents in Vitality.Bee (a French team) and AGO Rogue (the only non-French semi-finalist):

HandOfBlood’s LoL team fails in the group stage of the European Cup – Shows morale in the end