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The NLC has issued a statement warning fans who are looking to purchase third-party resale tickets for the Winter 2025 LAN finals in Nottingham this weekend.
This comes after a Los Ratones fan claimed they were scammed after paying for tickets that turned out to be fake.
Tickets for the Arozzi NLC Winter Finals LAN event went on sale on February 9th 2025, priced at £20 each. This included tickets to the Nord vs Bulldog lower bracket final on Saturday March 1st, and the grand final featuring Los Ratones on Sunday March 2nd.
With the Confetti X venue having 100 seats, tickets of course sold out fast. However, there is a special NLC & LEC Winter Grand Finals watch party and Los Ratones/team meet and greets event taking place down the road at The Nest in Nottingham, with tickets still available for that.
But some fans still really want to attend the live finals and watch their favourite teams up close. One Reddit user, recklessteevee, posted on the PedroPeepos Caedrel subreddit a week ago, looking to buy resale tickets. They found some, believing them to be genuine.
Recklessteevee later said on the Los Ratones subreddit:
“Tickets are fake. Noticed a small discrepancy between the two fake ones with punctuation. And also, [legit tickets] come with a QR code [and barcode], which mine did not. Slightly annoyed about the whole thing, less about the money and more about getting to see them on stage.”
Recklessteevee, Los Ratones fan
“The reseller was difficult to contact and extremely suspicious now that I’ve made the purchase. Weirdly though, the tickets seem very well done. They line up with the Ticket Tailor venue seating and I was sent images of the purchase as an image.
“Still very surprising to me that someone would target this small event and to such lengths. I have however booked for the meet and greet as an alternative. Shoutout to the guy in the comments for helping me out. Enjoy all.”
They also said in the PedroPeepos subreddit: “Received quite a few scam responses, so be careful if you’re trying to purchase.”
Despite the ordeal, the Los Ratones fan said they are still looking to buy resale tickets.
NLC offers advice to fans looking for tickets ahead of NLC finals weekend
Esports News UK contacted NLC organisers Leagues Media for comment.
The NLC/Leagues Media sent Esports News UK the following statement: “First and foremost, we’re really sad to see that people are trying to exploit the demand of our event and taking advantage of people who didn’t get a ticket.
“If anyone ever looks to purchase tickets through resellers, we will advise people to contact us directly for a legitimacy check. This can be done through our NLC Twitter account or email at [email protected].
“We’re always happy to help validate and double check.”
‘Fake tickets almost impressively accurate’ – Los Ratones fan
Recklessteevee responded to Esports News UK’s follow-up questions, saying: “I’ve contacted the event organiser who didn’t have the order number on record and I’ve been in constant communication with the venue to ask for help about the whole matter. At first I thought maybe it’s real but an error on their side as the tickets were impressively accurate. By that I mean proper title, times, Ticket Tailor watermark, QR code, order numbers, buyer names, and seat numbers.
“The most compelling was the seats as they lined up with the Ticket Tailor website venue so I thought no way they’ve gone to this length to scam someone over such a small event. I was wrong and I take full blame for rushing into it, should’ve asked people well before what their tickets looked like.
“I actually put up a post on a couple related subreddits asking about resale tickets. Got a lot of obvious fake offers lowballing at like ~£70 with pretty inhuman responses and accounts. I then received a direct message invite rather than how the others sent the message through (I’m not too familiar with Reddit).
“The person was talking about selling two tickets and was trying to relate to me talking about the fake offers out there. We shared Instagram accounts and it happened over Instagram after that.”
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.
