Los Ratones
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| Short name | LR |
|---|---|
| Sport | League of Legends |
| Founded | November 15, 2024 |
| Region | EMEA |
| Coach | Marc "Caedrel" Lamont |
| Manager | Kieran Holmes-Darby |
Los Ratones (abbreviated as LR) is an European professional League of Legends team based in the United Kingdom. The club was founded by former League of Legends EMEA Championship (LEC) player and caster Marc "Caedrel" Lamont. The team is known for being the first British-based organization to win EMEA Masters, the highest tier of professional competition in the EMEA region outside of the LEC.
Los Ratones currently competes in the Northern League of Legends Championship (NLC).
History
[edit]During a livestream on his Twitch channel on 1 June 2024, Caedrel first brought up the idea of competing in the Northern League of Legends Championship (NLC) alongside Tim "Nemesis" Lipovšek and Simon "Thebausffs" Hofverberg, commonly known as Baus. Nemesis was a former LEC player who appeared on two editions of the League of Legends World Championship, while Baus was guest caster and analyst during the 2021 LEC season. Months after the said stream, Caedrel announced on 15 November 2024 that he would be starting a professional team called "Los Ratones", with Nemesis and Baus joining the organization as its midlaner and toplaner, respectively. They would be joined by jungler Veljko "Velja" Čamdžić, ADC Juš "Crownie" Marušič, and support Carl Martin Erik "Rekkles" Larsson, with Caedrel serving as head coach of the team.[1] Prior to joining the team, Rekkles was part of T1 Esports Academy in the LCK Challengers League for the 2024 competitive season.
Name origin
[edit]The name, "Los Ratones" first emerged in the "CaedrelPlays" YouTube channel, one of Caedrel's three channels in which he plays games outside of League of Legends, on 17 September 2023 in a first of a series of videos of him playing "Teamfight Manager," an esports manager game available on digital distribution platform Steam, when he typed "Los Ratones" as the name for his team on the game.
Scrim streams
[edit]Los Ratones is known for being the first professional League of Legends team to live-stream the majority of their scrims.[2] Scrims, or practice matches between professional teams, are typically private in League of Legends to protect strategies for official games. On scrim days, Los Ratones can be expected to receive tens of thousands of concurrent viewers across Caedrel and the players' streams. The fan reception of LR's scrim streams inspired FlyQuest and Cloud9 of the League of Legends Championship of The Americas (LTA) North Conference to also stream their own scrims.[3]
On 9 March 2025, Los Ratones was originally scheduled to have practice matches against GiantX, a team currently competing in the LEC. However, this was cancelled due to a rule by game developer Riot Games that prevents the scrims to be livestreamed.[4]
Impact in Tier 1 leagues
[edit]In response to the popularity of streaming scrims popularized by Los Ratones, LEC Commissioner Artem Bykov announced on 13 March 2025 that a trial phase until 23 March would be in place to allow LEC team to publicly stream their practice matches under particular conditions.[5] LTA Commissioner Mark Zimmerman also made a similar announcement on 21 March 2025 that teams in the league may scrim teams from Tier 2 leagues, so long as the team schedules are not in conflict.[6]
Events and Competitions
[edit]NNO Cup
[edit]Los Ratones entered its first tournament as an organization in November 2024 when they joined the second season of the NNO Cup, a tournament organized by German team No Need Orga. In the tournament, the team went undefeated in the winning bracket with a 12-2 win-loss game record, winning all their best-of-five series en route to its first title. Notably, Caedrel was the team's support player as Rekkles was unable to join the team.[7]
Red Bull League of Its Own
[edit]On 29 November 2024, the team announced via its X (formerly Twitter) account that the second edition of Red Bull League of Its Own would be the live debut of Los Ratones, where they would face 2024 World Champions T1 in a showmatch at the Accor Arena in Paris, France.[8][9] In the event, Los Ratones emerged victorious against T1, which featured Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok and Park "Untara" Ui-jin, who was Ryu "Keria" Min-seok's replacement in the event.
NLC
[edit]On 2 January 2025, Los Ratones announced that it would be competing in the Northern League of Legends Championship (NLC) for the 2025 competitive season.[10][11] In the Winter Split, the team went on an undefeated 4–0 series record in the group stage, qualifying for the playoffs. Los Ratones went on another undefeated run in the upper bracket with a 10–1 game record, losing only once to NORD Esports in Game 3 of the upper bracket finals. The squad would score a 3–0 sweep against the same team in the finals in Nottingham to win their first domestic championship.[12]
EMEA Masters
[edit]Los Ratones automatically qualified for EMEA Masters as the NLC's lone representative during the Winter Split. The team was seeded in a four-team double elimination bracket group alongside Karmine Corp Blue, Nightbirds, and E wie einfach Esports, where they would qualify alongside KCB to the quarterfinals. In the playoffs, Los Ratones would secure a 3–2 victory over Papara SuperMassive of Turkey in the quarterfinals, before winning against Team Phantasma of Greece in the semifinals, 3–0, to qualify for its first EMEA Masters Finals. Winning in another 3–0 sweep against Ici Japon Corp of France, Los Ratones secured its first EMEA Masters title, becoming the first organization based in the United Kingdom to do so.[13]
Roster
[edit]| Los Ratones roster | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Players | Coaches | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Legend:
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Roster updated 4 February 2025. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Professional standings
[edit]Major League
[edit]| Year | Domestic | Ref. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| League | Winter | Spring | Summer | ||
| 2025 | NLC | Winners | TBD | TBD | [12] |
| EMEA Masters | Winners | TBD | TBD | [13] | |
Tournaments
[edit]| Date | Tournament | Place | Result | Prize | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 March 2025 | EMEA Masters Winter Split 2025 | 1st | 3:0 Final | €16000 | [13] |
| 2 March 2025 | NLC Winter Split 2025 | 1st | 3:0 Final | [10] | |
| 24 January 2025 | NLC 2025 Winter Seeding Group A | 1st | 4:0 Group | [14] | |
| 8 December 2024 | NNO Cup Season 2 | 1st | 3:1 Final | €10000 | [7] |
References
[edit]- ^ Sacco, Dom (November 15, 2024). "Los Ratones roster: Caedrel reveals 2025 player line-up featuring Rekkles, Nemesis and more, with all scrims to be made public and the team eligible to play in the NLC or EBL". Esports News UK. Retrieved November 15, 2024.
- ^ "Streaming scrims is a good idea? FlyQuest says yes and the first one is today!". esports.gg. 2025-01-12. Retrieved 2025-02-04.
- ^ "LoL - LTA North: FLY-C9 streamed scrims peak at 50k viewers". sheepesports.com. Retrieved 2025-02-12.
- ^ DeSena, Gabby (10 March 2025). "Canceled by Riot Games? Los Ratones vs GIANTX Scrim Situation Explained". Esports Illustrated. Retrieved 24 March 2025.
- ^ DeSena, Gabby (14 March 2025). "Los Ratones Can Stream LEC Scrims After New Rule Change". Esports Illustrated. Retrieved 24 March 2025.
- ^ "LTA Format Changes" (video). youtube.com. League of Legends Championship of The Americas. 21 March 2025.
- ^ a b "Los Ratones win NNO Cup Season 2, another Nemesis victory". esports-news.co.uk. 2024-12-09. Retrieved 2025-02-04.
- ^ Jadhav, Ganesh (29 November 2024). "Los Ratones to face T1 at Red Bull League of Its Own". Strafe Esports. Retrieved 24 March 2025.
- ^ "LOS RATONES VS T1". Los Ratones. 29 November 2024 – via X (formerly Twitter).
- ^ a b "WE'RE GOING TO BE COMPETING IN THE @NLClol". Los Ratones. 2 January 2025 – via X (formerly Twitter).
- ^ Sacco, Dom (January 2, 2025). "Confirmed: Los Ratones join NLC as organisers prepare for UK and Nordic ERL's 'biggest year'". Esports News UK. Retrieved January 2, 2025.
- ^ a b Goyal, Arsh (2 March 2025). "LoL - NLC: Caedrel's Los Ratones claim Winter trophy in 3-0 victory against NORD Esports". Sheep Esports. Retrieved 24 March 2025.
- ^ a b c DeSena, Gabby (24 March 2025). "Los Ratones Dominate EMEA Masters: Grand Finals Recap". Esports Illustrated. Retrieved 24 March 2025.
- ^ "NLC official announcement on seeding standing". X (formerly Twitter). 24 January 2025.