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UK esports organisation Bulldog Esports stunned big-name roster The Ruddy Sack 2-1 in the NLC Winter 2025 playoffs this week.
With players like Perkz and Jankos on The Ruddy Sack, it would be easy to call this result a shock upset, but that would be unfair on Bulldog’s roster.
They might not be as experienced as a whole, when compared to Ruddy, but disregard UK veteran support player Kasing at your peril. The 31-year-old has been playing at a top level for well over a decade now, and such experience can’t be bought.
Fellow Bulldog players Mietek, Lulas, Kaymin and Exofeng all put in a good team performance, proving the NLC 2025 casters wrong on the night.
Bulldog mid-laner Kaymin said he was ‘happy we pulled this off as a crazy Under-Bulldog story’ and admitted he hadn’t played Ahri in two months.
That bot gap in games one and three was clear to see, especially in the final game, when Ruddy bot-laner Humzh went 1/10/7 as Miss Fortune (MF) and support Hustlin went 1/9/9, compared to Bulldog’s ADC Exofeng (8/4/17) and support Kasing (2/5/26).
The news comes just one week after Humzh confidently told Esports News UK after The Ruddy Sack advanced to NLC playoffs: “I never get gapped bot. I’ll always do my job. Best in the West. I’ll beat Faker in three years. I’m the best on the team, that’s a fact.”
When grilled by Sanchovies in the Ruddy Sack press conference this week on his performance in game three, Humzh blamed his coach YamatoCannon.
“Yamato dropped it, I’m not gonna lie,” Humzh said. “With MF I can’t play the game, they’re dashing onto me the whole game, what do I do? Pick me anything, you know what I’m saying, I’m fine with whatever.”
“I let the MF happen Humzh, I take that on me, brother,” Yamato responded, taking responsibility for this pick.
The Ruddy Sack then posted this below tweet.
It’s been a testing week for Ruddy, with DonJake also tweeting earlier that he had been temporarily banned on Twitch for typing in the NLC Twitch chat that “I would blow up their house”.
The Ruddy Sack co-owner and streamer IWillDominate also looked a broken man as Bulldog shattered Ruddy’s Nexus in game three, as Bulldog co-owner and streamer NAWI – who joined as Bulldog Esports returned a few months ago – cheered with delight on stream. Recently, Bulldog’s coach Kybet told Esports News UK him and his team were ‘aiming for the top’.
IWD said: “I thought we’d be able to beat Bulldog Esports, but I guess it shows how strong the NLC is. Based on scrims though, this is probably the best the team mood has been, the entire time. Maybe we just need to lose more. I think our ADC should get out of low masters and get some GM games.”
Humzh responded: “Get me an unranked new account from Riot, that’s all I need.”
You can see some of these moments in our recap TikTok below, starting with Caedrel reacting to Los Ratones 2-0 win over DMG.
These two results mean Bulldog will face undefeated Los Ratones in the next round of the upper bracket in the NLC Winter 2025 playoffs on February 13th.
Oh, and we couldn’t not mention Thebausffs being unable to stop himself walking into the enemy fountain when his team are about to win.
Verdant and Nord also advance in the upper bracket after 2-0 wins in NLC Winter 2025 playoff matches
In the other two NLC playoff matches this week, another UK esports organisation caused another upset.
This time it was Verdant who beat the previously undefeated Rich Gang 2-0.
“This wasn’t just an upset, this was a 2-0 upset for Verdant, who have dismantled Rich Gang, the undefeated team of Group B, sending them down to the loser’s bracket!” caster Foxdrop said.
And elsewhere, Nord beat UK org Venomcrest 2-0 to progress.
Nord support player Treatz said after the win: “It’s really fun to play [in the NLC], this is a great opportunity and not one I’m taking for granted, even though we have some content here and there.
“Even if we’re winning or losing, I never get tilted in the game, I just try to look at the next opportunity. So it’s really fun to play with these guys and everyone at Nord has been really supportive. Making it further in playoffs is what we’re looking for, so this is just the start.”
This means Verdant will face Nord in the upper bracket on February 13th.
The next lower bracket matches will take place on February 5th.
The upcoming matches are as follows:
See the full NLC Winter 2025 schedule here.
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.
