Karmine Corp are the first team eliminated from the League of Legends EMEA Championship Winter Split 2024, marking the end of their debut in the international league. The team headed into the final week of the regular season needing three wins to reach a tiebreak game, but Rogue snuffed out the French powerhouse’s last hope in just over 30 minutes.
Just a few months ago, KC’s co-founder, Kamel “Kameto” Kebir, and the org’s fans had envisioned finally reaching the LEC as a dream come true. It turned into a nightmare for the team during this inaugural Split.
After KC’s first week in the LEC, the team’s head coach, Jakob “YamatoCannon” Mebdi, reflected on the team’s disappointing debut in the LEC Winter Split in an interview with Dot Esports, emphasizing the importance of facing challenges to emerge stronger. Despite their 0-3 start, he urged the team—and fans—to maintain perspective, focusing on the long-term goal of playoff qualification, expressing confidence that the team can bounce back and make necessary improvements before the next set of games in the “ruthless” regular season.
Despite the team’s early-game confidence and prowess being evident, it ultimately faltered as the matches progressed—as seen in KC’s match against Rogue.
KC initially secured an early lead across the map, but failing to capitalize on this advantage proved to be their downfall as Rogue patiently bided its time before reaching their scaling comp’s power spike. Attempted flanks and off-positioned champions contributed to KC’s overall struggles that let their early lead slip away and moved Rogue one step closer to securing the Winter playoffs.
On the other hand, Rogue clinched the victory almost without breaking a sweat, mainly thanks to Larssen’s Corki, who closed the game 7/0, and Markoon’s Rell, with its 100 percent kill participation in the game. As the curtain falls on Karmine Corp’s Winter Split journey, the team’s fans can only hope for their resurgence in the upcoming LEC Spring Split, which is expected to kick off in March.
