UK esports organisation Verdant have become the latest League of Legends team in the NLC to qualify for the EMEA Masters this year.
They defeated favourites Nord Esports in the Northern League of Legends Championship (NLC) Spring 2023 playoffs semi-final last night, turning around a 2-1 deficit to win 3-2 in an extraordinary series.
The NLC is the EMEA Regional League (ERL) for the UK, Ireland, Nordics and Malta.
Verdant will now play Riddle next week on Tuesday March 28th in the NLC grand final. Riddle have already qualified for the EMEA Masters having also beaten Nord 3-2 in round one of the playoffs last week.
UPDATE: Riddle have defeated Verdant to become NLC Spring 2023 champions:
Verdant also defeated fellow UK esports organisation Ruddy 3-0 last week in round one of the NLC playoffs, putting them through to last night’s semi-final.
The team finished fourth in the regular season, behind Ruddy (third), Nord (second) and Riddle (first). Verdant’s roster consists of Nille, Taxer, Erolle, Kehvo and Klaj.
The outcome of the final between Verdant and Riddle will determine which team (runner-up) heads to the EMEA Masters play-ins, and which (winner) will head straight to the main stage of the competition.
For a short time, the NLC had three spots in the EMEA Masters, a tournament which features the best League of Legends teams from the different ERLs across EMEA. This was lowered to two spots again when NLC was demoted to a non-accredited ERL last year.
There’s more info on the EMEA Masters Spring 2023 dates here.
Verdant on reaching the EMEA Masters: ‘It’s hard to put into words how this feels’
The team’s support player Klaj spoke to casters Hiprain and Eragon on the NLC broadcast last night, and Verdant founder and owner Sam ‘Sami’ Cunningham sent a comment to Esports News UK on the win.
Support player Johan ‘Klaj’ Olsson said: “To be honest, I feel like recently when we [play the matches on stream], we have a different calm and play a completely different game. Earlier this week, we went 0-4 in scrims, we hard inted it! Once we show up on stream, we show up much better.
“I hard inted the last game but we managed to win anyway, my team is too good! My team have been dragging me through the mud all split.
“I think Nord is a good team and I’m happy we won. We’re happy to reach this point and will give you a great show again.”
On reaching EMEA Masters, Klaj added: “Right now I’m focusing on the playoff series, but I have former teammates I’m looking to face [at EMEA Masters]. But for now we’re just focusing on the next game.”
“Last Summer we won Division 3, which in itself was an incredible achievement and now we’re coming to the end of Spring having booked a spot in the NLC Finals, a place in EMEA Masters and proved ourselves to be the best British team outside of the LEC. Hard to put into words, just how this feels.”
Sami, Verdant
Verdant founder and owner Sam ‘Sami’ Cunningham told Esports News UK: “We came into this split knowing this team had potential, and I’m really proud of how far they’ve come. The players and staff this split have been working hard to ensure we put our best foot forward at every step and it’s paying off.
“For myself and a few others who’ve been with the organisation for a long time, this is a rather incredible way to start off the year. Last Summer we won Division 3, which in itself was an incredible achievement and now we’re coming to the end of Spring having booked a spot in the NLC Finals, a place in EMEA Masters and proved ourselves to be the best British team outside of the LEC. Hard to put into words, just how this feels.
“Another positive note with this win, is that come the end of the season we’ll have planted over 1,000 trees! However, the work is not done and we’re already focused on Riddle.”
Related article: These UK League of Legends esports organisations are planting trees in real life based on their teams’ in-game performances
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.
