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Nord Esports have today beaten Bulldog Esports 3-1 in the NLC Winter 2025 lower final LAN at Confetti X in Nottingham.
In doing so, they have advanced to the grand final versus Los Ratones on Sunday March 2nd, meaning the last match of the Winter NLC will be a repeat of the first (Los Ratones vs Nord).
The winner of Sunday’s final will qualify for the EMEA Masters, which features the best League of Legends esports teams from the various regional league teams across EMEA. There will also be an NLC and LEC Winter grand final watch party happening on Sunday March 2nd.
Nord had four of their five players at LAN, with their German mid-laner Noway4u playing remotely.
Nord Esports took game one, and while Bulldog had some close fights, Nord’s bot lane of xMatty (UK, ADC) and Treatz (Sweden, support) were the difference, going 9/3/7 and 1/1/18 respectively. Vizicsacsi (Hungary, top-laner) and Santorin (Denmark, jungler) also performed well as a team.
Game two was a similar affair to game one, with both at 29 minutes in length. However, Bulldog took the reins in game three, a 42-minute brawl that was a little drawn out, but at that point it looked like a comeback would be in for the UK esports organisation.
However, Nord were too good in the final bout, another 29-minute game, to seal the series and stamp their names in the grand final. As UK caster Initialise said, ‘Bulldog were sent to the kennel’.
But credit must be given to Bulldog Esports and their roster consisting of top-laner Mietek (Poland), jungler Lulas (Portugal), mid-laner Kaymin (Germany), ADC Exofeng (Bulgaria) and support player Kasing (UK).
They did well to reach the LAN finals weekend, and were good fun in our Bulldog Esports NLC Winter 2025 LAN finals interview.
But all eyes are now on Nord and Los Ratones.
‘We can beat Los Ratones’ – Nord Esports on facing Caedrel’s team in NLC Winter 2025 grand final
British NLC broadcast talent Middlecott, who was hyping up the crowd and making chants such as ‘Santorin is a ganker!’ during the finals, interviewed Nord Esports on stage after their win today.
He asked xMatty what he thought about Middlecott calling him a ‘specialist in failure’.
“We did the first step of the job, I can still fail for you tomorrow if you want,” xMatty replied. “But I mean, it was a really good series and we have a good shot against Los Ratones. They’re a good team but I believe we can win.”
And Treatz, on his and xMatty’s curtains hairstyles, said: “Of course, I just look over my shoulder and see this beautiful man [xMatty] and instantly get happier.”
Vizicsacsi added: “I made a Pentakill in the finals [in the past] so we’ll look to repeat that tomorrow [against Los Ratones].”
Santorin said he ‘had a danish for breakfast, so was ready to go’ today.
And UK coach Just Jon said:
Related article: Los Ratones bootcamp in London at GiantX HQ
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.
