Caliste beats Skewmond to LEC Rookie of the Year 2025 award

Jack Stewart, Senior Editor

Last Updated: 26/09/2025

Karmine Corp ADC Caliste ‘Caliste’ Henry-Hennebert has been named the LEC 2025 Rookie of the Year.

The 19-year-old Frenchman was handed the award before KCorp battled with Fnatic in the LEC Summer Split Playoffs.

Caliste defeated stern competition, as a lot of rookies had very good debut years in the LEC this season.

This comes after the LEC Rookie of the Year award criteria changed to allow Summer debutants to compete in the following year.

G2 jungler Rudy ‘SkewMond’ Semaan came in second place in the LEC rookie vote.

And Team Vitality top-laner Kaan ‘Naak Nako’ Okan also made it onto the podium after being voted into third.

Many LEC fans complained that Skewmond had been robbed after performing consistently and improving throughout the year.

However, the overwhelming majority of Riot Games’ chosen committee voted for Caliste, with 28/38 voters putting him first.

Skewmond received five first-place votes, including from Andrei ‘Odoamne’ Pascu.

Meanwhile, five votees put Naak Nako in first, including G2 players and G2 staff who probably hoped it would help Skewmond win.

Speaking about the award in front of a less-than-welcoming crowd in Madrid, Caliste said:

“I’m happy that I won this trophy.

“When I joined the LEC, there was of stress because I was really hyped and everyone was waiting for me to make a mistake.

“I just wanted to show myself I’m the best, I think I did kinda well. So I’m happy with my performance till now.”

Caliste also mentioned that he believes he has become a better teammate this year:

“I’ve evolved a lot. Individually first, but also a lot in terms of being a human, as a teammate.

“There’s a lot of wonderful people in my team who helped me be a better player and also a better human.”

Previous LEC Rookie of the Split/Season winners

Since the rebrand from the EU LCS, the previous LEC Rookie of the Split and Rookie of the Year winners are as follows:

• Razork (Misfits) – Spring 2020
• Labrov (Vitality) – Summer 2020
• Elyoya (MAD Lions) – Spring 2021
• Adam (Fnatic) – Summer 2021
• Shlatan (Misfits) – Spring 2022
• Jeonghoon/Execute (Astralis) – Summer 2022
• Yike (G2 Esports) – 2023
• Jackies (GIANTX)- 2024
• Caliste (Karmine Corp) – 2025

Since the rebrand from the EU LCS to the LEC, Caliste is only the second Frenchman to win a rookie award.

His current KCorp teammate, Martin ‘Yike’ Sundelin, won the award back in 2023.

One of EMEA’s best-ever junglers, Javier ‘Elyoya’ Prades Batall,a was awarded the LEC Spring 2021 Rookie of the Split.

Of all the rookie award winners in the LEC era, Lucjan ‘Shlatan’ Ahmad is the only winner who didn’t compete in the LEC 2025 season.

Jack Stewart, Senior Editor

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.

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