An incredible ride or a missed opportunity? NLC organisations reflect on Los Ratones departing the league
As his League of Legends Worlds co-streaming was winding down, Marc ‘Caedrel’ Lamont delivered the long-expected news that Los Ratones would not compete in the NLC in 2026.
“Some people are asking about it, ‘Will you [Los Ratones] be in NLC next year?’ No.” The British streamer added, “We are a bit done with NLC, so we won’t be there, but we are in LEC in the Winter split. We are not going to compete in NLC at all. Stay tuned for more updates.”
Following a record-breaking year for the NLC, which saw three LAN finals, three tournament victories for Los Ratones, and the NLC viewership record broken by over 25 times the previous record, the NLC’s high-water mark has now passed.
Los Ratones swept into the NLC like a rising tide. That tide took the NLC’s other orgs along with it and raised the league to new heights, but now that the tide has receded, what long-term effects will Los Ratones’ presence have on the league, if any?
Esports News UK asked members of NLC’s remaining organisations for their thoughts on Caedrel and Los Ratones’ departure, and what it means for the future of the NLC.
Nord Esports exploring options outside of the NLC following Los Ratones departure
Michel Klepper, CEO & Co-Founder at NORD Esports, has confirmed to Esports News UK that the organisation is looking for options outside of the NLC following the departure of Los Ratones.
“It was an awesome experience with LR, and we are really grateful for them being there,” adding that the “offline event initiative was great.”
However, aspects of the NLC 2026 ruleset, combined with other aspects of the league’s current landscape, have made it unattractive to Nord.
“They are also looking to keep LTR Rules, so together with this and a few minor things, it sums up for us to be looking for alternatives,” Klepper noted.
LTR Rules previously required ERLs to have at least two ‘locally trained’ players, though individual ERLs could set the LTR requirement to three.
The restriction meant that teams had to field players who were residents of their region; however, it is understood that the Riot mandate for the restrictions will be lifted for 2026 competition.
Despite the loosening of the restrictions from Riot, ERLs can still apply the rule at their own discretion.
It seems the NLC intends to keep LTR restrictions, encouraging local player development at the cost of making NLC organisations’ choice of players limited.
The departure would be a blow to the NLC, as Nord has oftentimes looked amongst the most promising NLC organisations to compete at the EMEA Masters level.
Yet the departure would be more than just a competitive loss, but a symbolic blow to the ERL.
After all, NLC stands for Northern League of Legends Championship. Losing a brand whose identity is intrinsically tied to its Northern European geography would be a tough loss.
UK organisations reflect on Los Ratones’ departure from the NLC
Org owners express gratitude for Caedrel’s effect on the league
The organisational owners Esports News UK contacted were keen to stress the effect that Caedrel and Los Ratones had on the league, emphasising the excitement the team brought with them.
Los Ratones’ time in the NLC brought with it three highly-attended LAN finals in Nottingham, Copenhagen, and Stockholm.
Sam Cunningham, Founder & Managing Director, Verdant Esports Club:
“When they joined the league, the difference was incredible. We went from a minor region struggling to get 1,000 average viewers to the most-watched ERL and even most watched League event of the month at times. This also carried through to the events where the finals of Spring and Summer were packed-out arenas in Denmark and Sweden, respectively.”
Robin ‘Robinho’ Cheng, Chief Gaming Officer, Bulldog Esports:
“I think it was good, the events were really cool, and I think everyone enjoyed them. I think without LR, the chances of three events taking place would have been quite slim. Having them there enabled the league to have the resources to host such events.”
The new attention for the league allowed other organisations, such as Nord and Ruddy, to sign ‘superteams’ including League of Legends legends such as Marcin ‘Jankos’ Jankowski and Luka ‘Perkz’ Perković.
Jake ‘DonJake’ Morley, co-owner, Ruddy Esports
“I think he’s done a great deal of good for Nordic League of Legends this year, and I think, despite some disagreements we had, I’m really grateful for everything he was able to enable me to do last year. Hats off to him, and good luck in what he does next.”
However, the sudden change did not suit all organisations, with smaller orgs suffering from the talent discrepancy that it brought.
Jack ‘Ace’ Doe, CEO and owner, Venomcrest
“It is a double edged sword for me. On the one hand, I love Rekkles (been a Fnatic fan since I started league) & having them in our league brought so much positivity and hype – plus got to play vs one of the GOAT ex-Fnatic players. Caedral is a great creator who did something bold in 2025 and we just happened to be along for the ride, really.
“On the other hand, it also created a bit of a impossible barrier to overcome as orgs like NORD and Ruddy followed suit creating super teams – meaning the top side of the NLC and the bottom side felt so separate.”
Caedrel’s announcement brings to close that period of excitement for the league, with the landscape once again dramatically changing as the tide recedes.
However, there is a great deal of understanding for LR’s decision to leave the league, considering the scale of the league in comparison to the scale and ambition of Caedrel’s content ambitions.
“I think it’s fair to say that he [Caedrel] and his product kind of outgrew the NLC this year. It’s kind of difficult for the product to like keep up with him because he’s not only just like the biggest like UK creator, he’s one of the biggest streamers in the world.
“Arguably top five streamers in the world, in terms of size. So it’s always going to be hard for what the NLC is, which is like a lot of people who are like either working freelance or not getting paid that much, a company that isn’t super big that’s running it.
“It’s kind of hard for them to keep up. I think they tried with like the scale of stuff, but I think they were quite in and over their heads at times, and he’s obviously a guy with quite big ambitions, and I can completely respect him moving on to the next thing.
“It definitely affects us, but we’re just thankful for him in the first place. When you’ve got a really good thing going, you kind of have to be thankful for it, right? When it’s not there anymore, you can’t be like, ‘oh man, I missed that really good thing we had going.'” – DonJake
As Los Ratones march on into 2026, where the content team will take a place in the new LEC Versus event, their future is looking bright and ambitious, but what about the NLC that is now left behind?
What could have been done better in the NLC’s Los Ratones experiment?
Despite gratitude for being along for the ride, aspects of NLC’s 2025 left some organisations with mixed feelings surrounding the year and its tournament organiser (TO), Leagues Media.
The withdrawal of Los Ratones has led many to question whether the league has managed to achieve any long-term benefits stemming from their inclusion, with criticism being levelled to the NLC that they failed to exploit the opportunity.
Multiple organisational owners noted that the spotlight surrounding Los Ratones was not effectively channelled towards the other teams that needed it, despite the clear picture that Los Ratones would not stay in the league in the long-term.
“A big problem in esports is that people lack lateral thinking and the ability to see how turning on Valve C might affect Valve A. It’s more just like, ‘How do we put as much jet fuel as possible behind Valve A?’
“So NLC is in a really awkward position right now because they’ve spent all this money on all these LANs and LR’s leaving, so it’s there’s no reason to care about anyone next year.
So it’s like just kind of sh*gged. Whereas, if you had used a lot of that spotlight this year – this goes for casters, it goes for production, it goes for events in general – if you’d put more effort into using this as more of a safety net for next year, because it was somewhat of an inevitability that they would leave… I think they very much failed in their kind of strategy this year. I think it was yeah, not great. Not great the way they approached it, to be honest.” – DonJake
Effectively, Los Ratones already had an inbuilt system of promotion in Caedrel’s stream and the streams of the players. Yet much of the promotion surrounding the event focused heavily on LR.
All energy was put into the NLC’s hottest commodity, but that commodity would not be the NLC’s for long. The NLC also allegedly found it hard to include Caedrel in its own content creation, due to the Brit’s own commitments.
The result was that everything was feeding into LR, rather than the scene itself. While no one blames the streamer or LR for that shortfall, it stands out as a missed opportunity for the NLC.
“Personally, I think it would have been cool if he could have used a bit more of his brand power to uplift other teams, but he’s not like beholden to that. It’s not his responsibility, and I recognise he’s got a lot going on and he owes a duty to his fans primarily and then his team as well first.” – DonJake
As a result, there is heavy scepticism regarding the NLC’s future without Los Ratones, with opinions varying between the NLC’s viewership receding to previous viewership numbers, or dipping further.
“Whilst the impact has been significant, it’s ultimately short-lived as Los Ratones need to keep evolving for their fans. If I’m being realistic (some may say pessimistic), I think the viewership/interest in the NLC will likely revert back to the downward trend we saw before Los Ratones joined. It’s unfortunate but not unexpected; it remains to be seen how the league will cope without them.” – Sam Cunningham
The event prior to Los Ratones joining the league, NLC Summer 2024, averaged only 709 viewers according to Esports Charts. The next event, NLC Spring 2025, averaged 38,586.
Certainly, Nord’s potential withdrawal would be a blow, but the NLC veterans also note that the NLC is no stranger to earthquakes and that the league has always, eventually, returned to an equilibrium of sorts.
“Of course LR leaving NLC isn’t the best news, but it is up to the other organisations to pickup the slack. In the short term the viewership will take a big hit I think but the NLC has survived worse before and I am confident it can be a success in 2026” – Robinho
The most common sentiment amongst those contacted was that the NLC was likely in a similar position to what it had been prior to Los Ratones joining.
Even at its best, NLC’s official broadcast was dwarfed by Caedrel’s viewership, with other LR members also often eclipsing the official stream.
Ultimately, those fans are primarily loyal to the LR project, and what specific Tier 2 regional league Los Ratones were part of doesn’t really matter from that perspective, making a subsequent return to 2024 numbers almost inevitable.
NLC provided League of Legends with a proof of concept about content teams, showing that regional leagues could attract high levels of viewership, but that benefit is entirely limited to the content creators who take part, rather than the specific league itself.
While many were grateful to Caedrel for the wild ride that they had been taken on in 2025, there is little optimism of any long-term benefit.
The NLC may have failed to make Los Ratones a factor that elevated the league, but the passion and enthusiasm of the core UK and Nordic league community remains in spades, with the remaining organisations tasked with flying that flag.
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