After reaching the finals of the 2022 Spring EU Masters with French giants Karmine Corp, bot lane veteran Martin “Rekkles” Larsson may become just the fourth former LEC winner to go on and claim a European Masters trophy.
The Swede is a four-time LEC champion and won all of his titles during two spells with Fnatic. He left the LEC after a disastrous 2021 with G2 Esports, in which the team failed to even reach the World Championship. This led to his stepping down to the regional leagues with the LFL’s KCorp while the rest of the roster was largely rebuilt.
The team qualified for this split’s tournament through a third-place finish in France. KCorp has reached the grand finals by defeating the likes of X7 Esports, Unicorns of Love Sexy Edition, and national rivals Vitality.Bee. In between KC and a third consecutive EU Masters title is the LFL’s first seed, LDLC OL.
LDLC is no stranger to EU Masters, having won the title in Spring 2020. On their roster at the time was none other than Bora “YellOwStaR” Kim, an ex-Fnatic legend who has a number of domestic titles to his name. This includes a 2020 EU Masters championship with LDLC.
Rekkles, YellOwStaR among four EU Masters winners that claimed LEC or LPL gold
Yell0wStaR became the third player to be a European Masters champion after earning an EU LCS or LEC title. The previous two players to achieve the feat did so in the very first iteration of EUM in Spring 2018. The first two to do so were Henrik “Froggen” Hansen and Ki “Expect” Dae-han.
Both were part of a star-studded Origen roster that was built to re-establish the organization’s credibility after being previously relegated. The lineup included EU veterans in Konstantinos-Napoleon “FORG1VEN” Tzortziou and Jesse “Jesiz” Le as well as a Korean legend with Choi “inSec” In-seok. inSec had also previously won LPL gold with Royal Never Give Up
Top laner Expect spent some time on a dominant G2 roster, winning three back-to-back titles as well as finishing in second place at MSI 2016. Froggen completed the roster and the ‘Anivia Kid’ brought with him a single EU LCS title from his time on Alliance in 2014. Froggen’s Alliance was the only team other than G2 or Fnatic to win a European split from 2013 to 2020, a run ended by MAD Lions’ back-to-back championships last season.
Now Rekkles has the chance to become the latest player to complete the unique feat, one that most players would surely prefer to do in the reverse order but will still help to validate the Swede’s position as a top ADC in Europe.
To retain their title, Karmine Corp must defeat LDLC through a best-of-five series, set to kick off at 17:00 CEST on Saturday, May 7.
