French League of Legends org Karmine Corp (KC) have become the first to win back-to-back League of Legends Amazon European Masters.
They defeated Fnatic Rising 3-2 in the Summer 2021 EU Masters grand final this evening to defend their title.
The winning side were again representing France’s LFL, after Karmine Corp beat another UK-based side, BT Excel, in the Spring 2021 EU Masters final.
Fnatic’s academy team were tonight representing the UK and Nordics region, the NLC, for the last time, after it was announced that Fnatic Rising will be playing in the Spanish Superliga next year.
It was a close five-game series and Fnatic really gave it their all to keep Karmine on their toes.
KC took the first two games, and it seemed Fnatic were on the ropes, but they almost pulled off an incredible reverse sweep, levelling things to 2-2 before the Blue Wall (KC’s nickname) picked up a comfortable win in game five.
It could have been a different story. In the first game, Fnatic Rising should have won – they were well ahead at the mid-game but Karmine managed to win some unbelievable outnumbered team fights to turn the tables and nick the match.
From there, it seemed like the match would be a straight 3-0, but Fnatic turned up the heat to win games three and four, and it was anyone’s guess who would win the fifth and final game.
Cinkrof said on the broadcast after the final that KC didn’t play as well as they could have, that they didn’t expect Fnatic to take the match to five games, and expressed how difficult it was to successfully defend their EU Masters title.
“For us it was about us proving we are the best team outside of the LEC,” he said.
There was some history here. KC bot laners xMatty (UK) and Targamas (Belgium) have previously played for Fnatic Rising in the past.
It’s a phenomenal achievement for British ADC xMatty, who become the first Brit to win EU Masters earlier this year – now he’s won two of them. He’s shown he can play at the top level, and surely the higher-tier LEC should beckon for him over the next year or so.
“For us it was about us proving we are the best team outside of the LEC.”
Cinkrof, Karmine Corp
This rosters this evening were:
- Karmine Corp: Cabochard (top), Cinkrof (jungle), SAKEN (mid), xMatty (ADC) and Targamas (support)
- Fnatic Rising: PRIDE (top), MAXI (jungle), Dajor (mid), BEAN (ADC) and Rhuckz (support)
Fnatic Rising should be proud of their performance. The UK might not have won an EU Masters, but we showed we were more than good enough to reach two finals this year in BT Excel and Fnatic Rising. We’ll get ’em next time.
The EU Masters was recently renamed to the Amazon European Masters, with the Summer 2021 broadcast line-up featuring a host of UK talent including rising stars Viperoon and Nymaera.
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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.
