It has been an incredible debut year for Los Ratones, the League of Legends team registered in the UK and created by the British streaming superstar Marc “Caedrel” Lamont, as the team smashed viewership records for EMEA/European Masters by over 100,000 when a peak audience of 484,533 tuned in to watch them become the first UK team to win the tournament.
With a cult following, there’s a huge demand for Los Ratones to join the LEC but Caedrel has insisted it’s currently unlikely.
Responding to a donation on his stream asking him to host a fundraiser, Caedrel said: “I’m going to keep it real. We will never pay 20 million for a spot. It makes absolutely no sense for anyone in the current situation esports is in, especially League. It’s f***ing stupid. As much as I want to compete in the LEC and it would be really hype, it’s f***ing dumb. It makes no sense right now. The financial side just makes absolutely zero sense.
The streamer then went on to lament the current pyramid and the lack of opportunities for his team:
“The problem we have now is we go from NLC best-of-ones all the way to EU Masters and win, and that’s the ceiling. So right now, we’re in this problem where we keep bouncing on the ceiling because everything above it is franchised and is all about business. It’s all about sustainability. There’s no tournaments, or third-party tournaments, or qualifiers or anything.
“And there’s absolutely nothing we can do about it unless one of these teams above us goes ‘oh here’s our hand, take it so we can take all of your branding and you can compete in our league with us. Take our hand and let us use you, you can have our spot.’ So that’s the only thing we can do, were just to sit here bouncing of this stupid ceiling unless A) you pull 20 million out your ass and p*ss it down the toilet or B) a gracious hand comes down and says give us your brand.”
The LEC hasn’t had relegations and promotions since it rebranded to its current name away from the EU LCS in 2019. While there are currently no ways for teams to enter the league without buying a spot, there has previously been talks of expanding the league and the Valorant Challenger Tour (VCT) shows Riot are open to offering temporary spots to lower league teams. Currently, VCT EMEA has a couple of temporary spots for Challenger teams who can join by winning Ascension tournaments as Apeks did last year.
And while Caedrel isn’t going to shell out any money, he hasn’t given up on finding a new home for his team: “We’re going to try and figure out a way to do it. Whether that’s someone else spending 20 million and (we) get a tiny portion, whether it’s a really good team that wants to partner with us, makes a lot of sense that keeps the brand alive and doesn’t turn it into this corporate dog***t. Whether that’s going to a different region altogether, that’s another option… Maybe we’ll have to go somewhere else.”
In my seven years of esports writing, I’ve introuduced esports coverage to newspapers, interviewed some of the biggest names in the industry, and driven viewers mad with the puns in my YouTube scripts. I’m most proud of the latter.
