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The Arozzi Northern League of Legends Championship (NLC) is the EMEA Regional League for the UK and Nordics region, and its NLC 2025 Winter season is about to start.
The NLC is set to enjoy its biggest and best year yet, with Caedrel’s Los Ratones team joining, alongside star-studded rosters from Nord Esports, The Ruddy Sack and more.
NLC 2025 format
For the format, the NLC is moving to a three-split format like the rest of the ERL system, and will adopt Fearless Draft, mirroring Europe’s upper-tier LEC.
Teams will compete in a seven-week format, consisting of a seeding stage and a playoffs stage.
The seeding stage will consist of a single round-robin, with teams divided into two groups, based on the standings of the last split. From the seeding stage, the teams will be placed into one big double-elimination bracket, which will be played out from week two to seven. This is where all teams get their chance to show what they got in a best-of format.
NLC Winter 2025 start date and seeding stage
The Winter season gets underway with the four-day seeding stage on Wednesday January 15th 2025 from 6pm CET (5pm GMT) on the official NLC Twitch channel.
The four days for the seeding stage will be Wednesday January 15th, Thursday 16th, Wednesday 22nd and Thursday 23rd, with the broadcast starting from 6pm CET each day.
When is the NLC Winter 2025 playoffs stage?
The playoffs start on Wednesday January 29th 2025 and end with the final on Sunday March 9th.
Organisers Leagues Media sent Esports News UK the following dates:
- Wednesday January 29th, upper bracket round one match one and two – week one, day one
- Thursday January 30th, upper bracket round one match three and four – week one, day two
- Wednesday February 5th – lower bracket round one match one, week two, day one
- Thursday February 6th – lower bracket round two match one, week two, day two
- Wednesday February 12th – lower bracket round one match two, week three, day one
- Thursday February 13th – lower bracket round two match two, week three, day two
- Wednesday February 19th – upper bracket, round two match one and two, week four, day one
- Thursday February 20th – upper bracket round three, week four, day two
- Wednesday February 26th – lower bracket, round three match one, week five, day one
- Thursday February 27th – lower bracket, round three match two, week five, day two
- Friday February 28th – lower bracket round four, week five, day three
- Saturday March 8th – lower bracket round five, week six, day one
- Sunday March 9th – final, week six, day two
Seeding stage groups for NLC Winter 2025
Group A
- Nord Esports
- Bulldog Esports
- Lundqvist Lightside
- Verdant
- Los Ratones
Group B
- Kaos Esport
- Venomcrest
- Ruddy
- Rich Gang
- DMG Esports
Group stage matchups, dates and times for NLC Winter 2025
The four-day seeding stage features the following matches and times in CET:
Jan 15th
- Nord vs Los Ratones – 6pm
- Bulldog vs Verdant – 7pm
- Los Ratones vs Lundqvist Lightside – 8pm
- Verdant vs Nord Esports – 9pm
- Lundqvist Lightside vs Bulldog Esports – 10pm
Jan 16th
- Rich Gang vs Ruddy – 6pm
- DMG vs Venomcrest – 7pm
- Ruddy vs Kaos Esport – 8pm
- Venomcrest vs Rich Gang – 9pm
- Kaos Esport vs DMG – 10pm
Jan 22nd
- Bulldog vs Nord Esports – 6pm
- Lundqvist Lightside vs Verdant – 7pm
- Los Ratones vs Bulldog – 8pm
- Nord Esports vs Lundqvist Lightside – 9pm
- Verdant vs Los Ratones – 10pm
Jan 23rd
- DMG vs Rich Gang – 6pm
- Kaos Esport vs Venomcrest – 7pm
- Ruddy vs DMG – 8pm
- Rich Gang vs Kaos Esport – 9pm
- Venomcrest vs Ruddy – 10pm
Get more NLC news on Esports News UK
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.
