Listen to the audio version of this article (generated by AI).
The NNO Cup Season 2, a tournament featuring some of the biggest personalities in European League of Legends, concluded this weekend. Los Ratones, the recently-founded LoL team ran by British streamer Marc Robert ‘Caedrel’ Lamont, were crowned the champions. Rigas Papadopoulos provides a recap.
NNO Cup Season 2 format and teams
The NNO Cup Season 2 was an invite-only tournament with eight teams, consisting of high-elo streamers and former or current professional players.
It was hosted by NNO Prime (formerly known as No Need Orga), with NLC team Nord Esports’ CEO and Co-Founder, Michel, organising it. And the tournament recently won Creator Event of the Year in The League Awards 2024.
The format was double elimination, with all matches being best-of-five. Fearless Draft was used, meaning there were no bans and each team could only pick each champion once per series.
There were two DACH teams, one team each from France/Poland/Spain, and three international teams. One of the international teams was Los Ratones, whose highly-anticipated debut took place in the NNO Cup Season 2, albeit with Caedrel subbing in as an offrole support in place of the vacationing Rekkles.
Nine of the players of the competing players had LEC/EU LCS experience: Adam, Caedrel, Crownie, Gilius, Jankos, Kirei, Nemesis, Satorius and Werlyb.
The most decorated amongst them was Jankos, captain and jungler of ‘5 Pigs 1 Team’, whose prestigious LoL career includes winning a Mid-Season Invitational and being the runner-up of a World Championship. Besides Caedrel, there was another UK player: Fayez ‘Dragdar’ Ahmed, the botlaner for Never FF.
NNO Cup Season 2 Recap
In the tournament opener, hosts NNO scored a close 3-2 victory over Never FF. As for the other Round 1 matches: Los Ratones and 5 Pigs 1 Team swept Kiedyś Miałem Fun and Die Atzen respectively, while French Flair overcome Los Guarros with 3-1. An unfortunate incident marked the Los Ratones vs KMF match: during Caedrel’s post-match interview, someone hijacked his feed and played p*rn on it. As a result, the affected VoDs were taken down.
In the upper bracket semifinal, NNO faced Los Ratones. A 3-1 victory for Los Ratones made them the first team to qualify for the upper bracket final, were they were shortly followed by French Flair after they managed a close 3-2 victory over 5 Pigs 1 Team. Then, in the upper bracket final, a 3-0 sweep sent Los Ratones to the grand final and French Flair to the lower bracket final.
The first elimination match turned out to be controversial. With Never FF facing Kiedyś Miałem Fun in the lower bracket, Never FF captain Azzapp was playing a solo queue match that ended up lasting 58 minutes, and was 17 minutes late to joining the tournament lobby.
According to the rules, a delay of more 15 minutes meant a default loss for that game. But due to a misunderstanding, the tournament staff team believed that KMF did not want to take the win, and the first game was played with the score at 0-0.
After the first game, the misunderstanding was cleared up and it was announced that KMF would be awarded a game win, bringing the score to 1-1 after Never FF’s Game 1 win. While Never FF won the next game as well to go 2-1 ahead, they were unable to close out the series and ended up losing 2-3, being knocked out of the tournament.
As the lower bracket continued, the teams were eliminated one by one: Die Atzen lost 3-0 to Los Guarros, who then knocked out hosts NNO with a 3-1 victory. Kiedyś Miałem Fun were knocked out with a 3-0 clean sweep by 5 Pigs 1 Team, who then performed another clean sweep in the lower bracket semifinal, knocking out Los Guarros.
Finally, in the only rematch of the tournament, 5 Pigs 1 Team were paired with French Flair. This time the result was flipped around, with 5 Pigs 1 Team winning 3-2 and therefore proceeding to the grand final.
Los Ratones opened the scoring in the grand final, winning game one. But 5 Pigs 1 Team struck back, winning a closely-fought game two and becoming the first team in the tournament to tie the score vs Los Ratones. However, they were unable to keep winning.
Los Ratones won game three, putting themselves on match point. The fourth game would be the shortest of the series, with Los Ratones winning in just 22 minutes and securing the title.
Nemesis wins back-to-back NNO Cups as Caedrel comments on Season 2 victory
Besides the prestige, Los Ratones have also earned €10,000 (£8,276) in prize money. With this victory, Nemesis has become the only player to win both seasons of the NNO Cup.
Their roster consisted of Thebausffs (Sweden, top), Velja (Serbia, jungle), Nemesis (Slovenia, mid), Crownie (Slovenia, bot) and Caedrel (UK, support).
In the post-match interview, Caedrel stated the following regarding his roleswap: “I think when Rekkles arrives the team will just be stronger.
“My debut as support is over, my pro play support career lasted three weeks and now we’re done, and I’m never going back, ever.”
Rekkles is set to make his Los Ratones debut on December 15th 2024, competing in a showmatch versus world champions T1 as part of the Red Bull League of Its Own 2024 event at the Accor Arena in Paris, France.
Stats leaders: Top players in the latest NNO Cup
Which players led each category?
- Highest damage/kill: Xayoo from Kiedyś Miałem Fun (9,571)
- Lowest damage/kill: Velja from Los Ratones (3,070)
- KDA ratio: Reptile – 5 Pigs 1 Team (5.26)
- CS/minute: Legolas – Los Guarros (9.19)
- Damage/minute: Zamulek – Kiedyś Miałem Fun (924.3)
- Kill participation: Seaz – Die Atzen (76.6%)
- Most champions played: Kamiloo – French Flair (16 in 17 games)
