Fnatic’s League of Legends academy team, Fnatic Rising, have won yet another European Regional League (ERL).
They defeated Riddle Esports 3-1 today in the grand final of the inaugural Northern League of Legends Championship (NLC), with support player Bravado named MVP.
Both teams have now qualified for the EU Masters, with London’s Fnatic Rising progressing to the Main Event and Norway’s Riddle making it to the Play-In stage.
The win also gives Fnatic Rising four back-to-back ERL titles, started by their first UKLC finals win in early 2019 and most recently their victory over BT Excel in March.
Speaking of BT Excel, the other UK-based academy team in the NLC, they were defeated by Fnatic Rising in the NLC semi-final 2-1, before falling to Riddle Esports 2-1 in the losers’ bracket final.
Riddle impressed many with their run in the NLC and they managed to take one game from Fnatic Rising in the final, but Fnatic were too much for them in the end.
Before the NLC Summer Season began, Riddle Esports’ British head coach Louis ‘Smeagol’ Green told Esports News UK he was confident of making a playoffs run.
Elsewhere, UK org MNM Gaming and Danish side Singularity finished bottom of group B and A respectively, but recently requalified for the NLC. They defeated Granit Gaming 3-0 and KOVA Esports 3-2 respectively, two teams who made it through to the NLC Relegation Series from the Telia Masters.
The NLC was first announced back in April – it’s a Northern European league run by DreamHack featuring 12 invited teams from across the Nordics, UK and Ireland. 5 teams are from the UK and Ireland: Fnatic Rising, BT Excel, MNM Gaming, Munster Rugby Gaming and Barrage Esports.
Looking at the other UK tiers below the NLC, Nvision won the UKLC, and Resolve won the UKEL below that.
You can view the NLC, UKLC and UKEL Summer 2020 league standings here.
The UKLC Relegation Series, which will see two teams qualify for the UKLC next season, takes place on August 23rd and 24th.
Barrage Academy will face NerdRage and Bulldog Esports will play against Resolve for a shot at competing in the UKLC next season.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
