LEC Winter Power Rankings After Week One

The first week of the 2025 LEC Winter Split has ended, and we finally have some semblance of the power dynamics in the league. Most of the community’s predictions were right, but there were definitely some surprises – both in the positive and negative way. Week Two is rapidly approaching, so let’s take a look at the LEC Winter power rankings after Week One!

LEC Winter Power Rankings After Week One

Here’s a quick look at how all ten teams stack up after an action-packed start to the season!

10. SK Gaming

Coming in dead last is the only team that failed to score a victory last weekend, SK Gaming. They played versus G2 Esports and GIANTX, two teams that are admittedly on the stronger side of the spectrum. However, they also faced Team Heretics, and couldn’t really do anything versus the Spanish team either.

While it was clear that SK Gaming was one of the teams that are trying to rebuild after 2024, its still a bit surprising that they had such a poor showing. Steven “RKR” Chen looked nothing like he did in the ERL’s, while one of the best rookies of last year, Ismail “ISMA” Boualem also felt lackluster. SK still has two rounds to bounce back, but so far, it doesn’t look so good.

9. Team Heretics

While Heretics managed to score a victory in the previous round, the only team they were able to defeat was SK Gaming – which is not a huge accomplishment by itself. While that match was relatively one-sided, and Team Heretics had a good early game versus Rogue, the team has some glaring issues that they need to iron out if they don’t want to miss out on the Playoffs.

First, the solo laners, Carl “Carlsen” Ulsted Carlsen and Kamil “Kamiloo” Haudegond have to be more consistent, and they have to work together with Theo “Sheo” Borilé more. It sounds easy on paper, but it’s hard to put into practice – however, Carlsen and Kamiloo are still rookies, so they should be able to adapt quickly.

8. Rogue

Rogue revamped their roster almost entirely before the start of the 2025 season, with only Emil “Larssen” Larsson staying from the previous iteration. Despite that, Rogue still looks the same as before, looking to scale, as the later parts of the game is the only one they feel comfortable in. Or at least that’s what they should’ve done in order to avoid the 1-2 standing they acquired during Week One.

Even though they tried to draft some early game team compositions, they fell short against Team BDS, as well as GIANTX – but that match still feels like a fever dream. Team Heretics was the only one they could beat, but even versus them, their early game looked shaky. If they can’t switch their game up even with Adam “Adam” Maanane joining and Kim “Malrang” Geun-seong returning, they will be confined to the bottom of the rankings this year too.

7. Team Vitality

The French organization’s new roster started they round in a strong fashion, defeating Team BDS with relative ease. Their second and third match wasn’t as convincing though, with both Fnatic and Movistar KOI managing to beat them.

While Team Vitality is still rough around the edges, we believe that they just need time to adjust to the LEC. Okan “Naak Nako” Kaan has the potential to be among the best toplaners in the league, while the team’s midlaner, Mateusz “Czajek” Czajka also had some good moment. With their veteran botlane, VIT has everything they need to achieve success, but they might need the Winter Split to adjust before they can reach their peak.

6. G2 Esports

It’s a bit strange placing G2 Esports this far down the list, but Rasmus “Caps” Borregaard Winther and his teammates more than “earned” the 6^th spot on our power rankings. The Kings of Europe had the worst start of a season since the organization entered the EU LCS/LEC, losing their first two games against Karmine Corp and Team BDS. While those squads are no weak opponents, G2 had no problem versus them in the past. After Saturday and Sunday, fans were afraid that G2 Esports would lose against SK as well, but they looked much better – against the weakest team currently.

While G2 made some changes, we can’t put the blame of this disastrous showing on Labros “Labrov” Papoutsakis and Rudy “SkewMond” Semaan. Steven “Hans sama” Liv and Sergen “BrokenBlade” Celik were also playing subpar, and while Caps tried to carry, he fell short as well. There’s no doubt that G2 will make Playoffs, but they need to pick themselves up if they want to go to Korea to play in the First Stand tournament.

5. Fnatic

Starting off the second half of the LEC Winter Power Rankings After Week One is Fnatic, whose new botlane did wonders for the first round of the Split. While many were skeptical about the return of Elias “Upset” Lipp to the black-and-orange team after the disastrous last time, as well as Mihael “Mikyx” Mehle’s arrival, since G2 Esports decided to part ways with him for the second time, the new duo of FNC is perfectly capable of carrying games.

While against Movistar KOI they got surprised by the ADC of the Spanish team, they made short work of Vitality and Heretics. Fnatic’s midgame is still incredible thanks to Iván “Razork” Martin Díaz – who now gets help from Mikyx in the early stages – and they have late-game insurance in Upset. Although the German was perfectly capable of scaling before the 30-minute mark, so Fnatic is looking like a force to be reckoned with. The reason they are so down the list is that they only beat “weaker” teams, but they have two more weeks to prove themselves.

4. Movistar KOI

MKOI faced off against Fnatic, Team Vitality, and Karmine Corp, beating the former two and holding out for a long time against KC. While he struggled against the Blue Wall, Joseph “Jojopyun” Joon Pyun proved to be a great addition to the rebranded Movistar KOI roster almost immediately, putting on some carry shoes.

However, the players who were part of MAD Lions KOI last year are still very strong – especially David “Supa” Martínez García, who had a monstrous Varus game against Fnatic. The “Elyoya and friends” team stepped their game up with the offseason, and if they can continue to push on, they will be one of the top contenders this year – just like last year, although now the community won’t be as surprised.

3. Team BDS

While the previous iteration of Team BDS worked sort of well, they fell short where it mattered the most – making it to the 2024 World Championship. After building a roster around Ilias “nuc” Bizriken and Yoon “Ice” Sang-hoon, they look much more stable than before. While they got outdrafted by Vitality, they beat G2 Esports after a disastrous early game, bouncing back from a 6.5k gold deficit. Versus Rogue, they left no room for the lategame-oriented team (who drafted for the early game) to scale, with Ice and nuc becoming insanely strong.

When Dogukan “113” Balci was announced as the team’s jungler, the community was skeptical as the Turkish jungler’s last LEC appearance with Astralis was far from great. However, his tanks slot in great with the juggernaut that is Joel “Irrelevant” Miro Scharoll. Team BDS has a clear identity now with two strong carries and three players to enable them, and while they have bigger fish to fry, they are supposed to be THE consistent team of the league.

2. Karmine Corp

Le Blue Wall finally made it to the top – or almost, as they suffered a loss at the hand of GIANTX. Still, Caliste “Caliste” Henry-Hennebert’s LEC debut was great, as the young Frenchman carried his team to victory in his first stage performance. Raphael “Targamas” Crabbé also looked a lot better on the side of Caliste than last year (or any LEC seasons he played in beforehand). The topside of the team also performed well, especially Martin “Yike” Sundelin, who got to exact revenge on his former team.

G2 Esports and Movistar KOI fell easily in front of the French team, but GIANTX still proved to be too big of a problem. Still, Karmine Corp had one of the biggest glow-ups of the LEC, and they are finally starting to look worthy of their fans’ cheers.

1. GIANTX

But the glow-up of Karmine Corp is nothing to what GIANTX went through. After the organization only kept Adam “Jackies” Jerabek – the best rookie of the 2024 season – they put together a team that has proved to be a force of nature even before the Split began. There were rumors about GIANTX steamrolling through every team in the LEC during scrims, but as we know from the previous two G2 Worlds runs, scrims mean nothing.

However, GIANTX wasn’t just talk. They beat SK Gaming, Rogue (in a match that still doesn’t feel real), and Karmine Corp, all in a dominant fashion (except Rogue, we still don’t know what that was). Oh “Noah” Hyeon-taek and Yoon “Jun” Se-jun looked much more confident than on Fnatic, Jackies is still an incredibly cocky and skilled rookie, and the Turkish top-jungle has worked out great too so far, as it was Eren “Lot” Yildiz that put a stop to the madness vs Rogue. GIANTX had an incredible start to the year, but how far can they go before they get reality-checked – if they get checked at all?

Overall, we are looking at an incredibly interesting LEC season. With the influx of rookies and almost all the teams rearranged, there is a lot of room for the power dynamics to change. While we expect the greats to bounce back, the time may have come for G2 Esports to give up the throne – or at the very least, defend it from the youngsters.

The 2025 LEC Winter Split began on the 18^th of January with 10 teams beginning the journey towards the first international event of the year, First Stand. The Regular Season will continue until February 3^rd, with the Playoffs taking place between February 15^th and March 5^th.