While the 2025 First Stand tournament concluded with Hanwha Life Esports beating Karmine Corp and achieving their first international League of Legends success, LoL Esports are not slowing down. The first EMEA Masters tournament of 2025 will occur between March 17 and 23, pitting the best national teams from the EMEA Regional Leagues against each other. Unlike First Stand, this tournament will be held entirely online from the Group Stage to the Knockout Stage.
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EMEA Masters 2025 Winter Format
The first EMEA Masters of 2025 will begin with the Group Stage, where the 16 participating teams will be divided into four GSL Groups of four teams. All matches played will be Best of Threes during this stage of the competition. All teams will have two shots at making the Knockout stage, and out of the 16 participants, 8 will make it to the second half of EMEA Masters – the two best from each Group.
The Knockout Stage will feature a single elimination bracket for the Top 8, with all series being Best of Fives. However, there will be no second chances, so teams must play their best to make it to the Grand Final.
The tournament will also feature the new and improved way to pick team compositions in League of Legends, Fearless Draft. Both the Group Stage and the Knockout Stage will have hard Fearless Draft, meaning that once a player picks a champion, nobody can pick it for the remainder of the series.
EMEA Masters 2025 Winter Prize Pool
The tournament features a €40,000 Euro prize pool, which will be distributed among the top 8 teams:
- The Winner will get €16,000,
- The second placed team will receive €8,000,
- The third and fourth placed squads will be €4,000 richer,
- The fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth placed teams will earn €2,000 to share among themselves.
While EMEA Masters doesn’t feature as big of a prize pool, sponsors are still the main way a teams players get their salary – as well as stream revenue for organizations such as Los Ratones. The biggest reward for young players however is getting out there and showing what they are capable of, so that the teams in the bigger leagues – like the LEC and the LTA offer them a spot on their rosters.
EMEA Masters 2025 Participants
There will be 16 teams competing in the tournament:
- Karmine Corp Blue as the first seed of the French LFL,
- BIG as the first seed of the German Prime League,
- Los Heretics as the first seed of the Spanish SuperLiga,
- Papara SuperMassive as the first seed of the Turkish TCL,
- Macko Esports as the first seed of the Italian LIT,
- Geekay Esports as the first seed of the Arabic Arabian League,
- Team Phantasma as the first seed of the Greek HLL,
- Nightbirds as the first seed of the Czech and Slovakian Hitpoint Legends,
- Los Ratones as the first seed of the Nordic and British NLC,
- Zero Tenacity as the first seed of the Polish and Baltic Rift Legends,
- FlameHard as the first seed of the Portuguese LPLOL,
- Crvena Zvezda as the first seed of the Balkan EBL,
- ZennIT as the first seed of the Benelux Road of Legends,
- Ici Japon Corp as the second seed of the French LFL,
- E WIE EINFACH Esports as the second seed of the German Prime League,
- and Barca eSports as the second seed of the Spanish SuperLiga.
EMEA Masters 2025 Teams to Look Out For
Of course, the biggest buzz is around Los Ratones, the strongest team of the NLC consisting of streamers like Simon “Baus” Hofverberg and ex-pros such as Carl “Rekkles” Martin Erik Larsson. The team, which is owned and coached by Marc “Caedrel” Lamont, a pro player-turned-caster-turned-streamer-turned-team owner. They have stomped their way through the Nordic championship with their star-studded roster, and they are one of the clear favorites of this EMEA Masters.
The strongest team of the strongest ERL, Karmine Corp Blue is also a strong contender for first place. Armed with Ismail “ISMA” Boualem, who joined the academy team of KC – but already has a spot in GIANTX for the 2025 LEC Spring Season – is filled with talent, as well as two Korean imports. While they weren’t the best in the LFL 2025 Flash In Groups, nobody could truly challenge them during the Playoffs.
The TCL’s Papara SuperMassive is also set to make a return to the top of the leaderboards. After the Turkish League has been brought “down” to the ERL level, they made a splash and won it all – but haven’t been able to recreate that dominance. Armed with ex-LEC players Irfan “Armut” Berk Tükek, Duncan “Skeanz” Marquet, as well as with Mustafa “Carry” Selim Yilmaz, An “FIESTA” Heyon-seo and Jeong “BAO” Hyeon-woo, Papara is looking very strong, and the TCL is a good training ground for international events.
Among the underdogs, the Esports Balkan League’s own Crvena Zvezda could make a bigger splash. While the EBL is among the smallest regions in the ERL ecosystem, they have been expanding, with the teams signing Hungarian players again. Tibor “Blueboar” Jobban and Gergő “Sekkou” Réfi are members of the EBL Winter champion squad, and it should tell you some things that Blueboar is starting even though Oskar “Selfmade” Boderek is on the team – but the veteran Pole is not playing due to personal reasons.
Of course, the big ERL’s second seeds are worth to take a look at, especially Barca eSports, the League of Legends team of football club FC Barcelona. Armed with former LEC players Matti “WhiteKnight” Antero Sormunen and Pawel “Czekolad” Szczepanik, they made a huge comeback after finishing 8th in the SuperLiga 2025 Winter Split. They clawed their way back into the Spanish Finals, where they could take a game off Los Heretics as well.
EMEA Masters 2025 How to Watch
The first EMEA Masters tournament in 2025 will last for a full week, starting from March 17 to March 23. You can find the official English broadcast on lolesports.com, as well as the official EMEA Masters Twitch channel.
The EMEA Masters tournaments are to give a chance for smaller players and leagues to represent themselves, that’s why you can also find the broadcast in a multitude of languages – basically every nation that competes at the EMEA Masters has their own broadcast.
The EMEA Masters is a great way to find out about up-and-coming talents in the European and Middle-Eastern League of Legends scenes, as well as to see some veterans play for smaller stakes – don’t miss out on the action this week!
