The 2025 LEC Winter Split came to a close on Sunday night after 4-time 2024 champions G2 Esports clashed with the revolution of Karmine Corp. However, the Blue Wall stood firm and Rasmus “Caps” Borregaard Winther and his teammates couldn’t even make a dent in Karmine Corp. The youngsters won 3-0 with an incredibly clean performance, winning the first title for the French organization since it entered the LEC, and claiming the EMEA spot at 2025’s first international tournament, First Stand.
Karmine Corp Just Played Clean League of Legends
The Fearless Best-of-Five series began with a fairly standard draft from both teams – aside from one spicy pick for Kim “Canna” Chang-dong in the form of Aatrox. The game started out quiet with fans having to wait until after the 10 minute mark for the first blood to happen, and it was G2 Esports’ Steven “Hans sama” Liv who claimed it. Even though in the early game, G2 Esports could keep up, some overextensions and great positioning from KC put them in the lead. They also made a great job with taking Caps out of the game, who couldn’t scale into the carry his team needed him to be.
When the midgame came around, the French squad was able to snowball the lead gathered up to 20 minutes into a much bigger one, with Canna’s Aatrox becoming an even bigger issue than before. With Vladimiros “Vladi” Kourtidis also growing in power, it was only a matter of time G2 Esports saw the first “Defeat” sign of the game.
In the second game, the reigning champs tried to draft for comfort with a Tristana-Corki dual ADC composition, as well as Rudy “SkewMond” Semaan being in charge of AP damage with his Zyra pick. However, the team and it’s coaching staff failed to recognize the power that lies within a Rumble-Skarner duo, letting Karmine Corp pick both champions in draft. Paired with a Yone-Ashe-Alistar botside, the French team looked stacked.
The signs were there, and Karmine Corp delivered taking every single objective during the game. While G2 Esports could keep up for most of the match, after KC got the Infernal Souls and the Voracious Atakhan’s False Life buff, it was over for the most successful team in LEC history. Two Baron Nashors and an Elder Drake later – and with a fed Canna and Caliste “Caliste” Henry-Hennebert – KC managed to get to match point, with only one win separating them from their first LEC title – in Caliste’s first ever split, nonetheless.
For the third game, Dylan Falco tried to switch everything up. G2 draft Urgot imported straight from the LTA, Labros “Labrov” Papoutsakis got his favorite, Thresh, while Caps and SkewMond went on Ryze and Pantheon, trying to cover the entirety of the map with their semi-global ultimates. On the other side, Karmine Corp didn’t think it through, and drafted a composition that could’ve been drafted at the first match of a Fearless Bo5 – or even a Bo1.
While G2 tried to seize the initiative with Labrov landing some hooks in the early game, the third bout of the teams went downhill quicker then the other two – and Game 2 wasn’t flattering for G2 Esports. Nothing seemed to work out for the team, and every member looked better individually as well as a squad. With G2’s comp needing to make it to the late game, KC knew they had to step on the gas, and with great rotations, they could push Sergen “BrokenBlade” Celik and co. into corners they didn’t want to be in. With a fated fight around 19 minutes where G2 felt like they had to fight for a non-soul Cloud Drake, Canna landed a 5 man ultimate – and then another big engage a few minutes later. The final of the Grand Final was over in 24 minutes, with Karmine Corp rewriting what we knew of EMEA League of Legends.
With their victory, Caliste won an LEC trophy in his first rookie split, while Yike won one against the team that he debuted in the tournament. While this period is for celebration, KC has little time to rest – they will need to head to South Korea soon to participate in the First Stand against the best teams in the world from March 10 to 16!
