The Northern League of Legends Championship (NLC) Winter 2025 has one of the most impressive viewership in League of Legends (LoL) esports this year. Its Grand Finals alone drew above 360,000 viewers, reflecting the sheer interest towards the heated battles it had to offer. Here, we’ll go over a recap of the NLC Winter 2025 results, format, teams, and more.
Tournament Details and Format Recap
NLC Winter 2025 featured 10 teams battling in this B-Tier competition. All were fighting for the coveted championship spot, which grants the sole winner a ticket to the A-Tier tournament EMEA Masters Winter. The whole competition ran from January 15 until March 2, 2025, held both online and offline.
Kicking off with a Group Stage, it had all 10 Northern League of Legends Championship teams divided into two groups of 5. They battled in a single Round-Robin format with Best of 1 matches, where the top 4 teams from each group advanced to the Playoffs Upper Bracket. Meanwhile, the bottom teams qualified for the Lower Bracket with another chance to make it to the Grand Finals.
The Playoffs utilized a Double Elimination format as well as the newly added LoL esports drafting mechanic, Fearless Draft. The teams duked it out in best-of-five series, with the exception of the Upper Bracket Quarterfinals and the Upper Bracket Semifinals since both are best-of-three matches.
Competing Teams and Stage Results
The Northern League of Legends Championship underwent some changes ahead of the season because of adding new teams to its roster. After two weeks of competition, here’s how the new lineup of teams placed in NLC Winter 2025 Group Stage and Playoffs:
Group Stage
Results for Group A
- Los Ratones
- NORD Esports
- Bulldog Esports
- Verdant
- Lundqvist Lightside
Results for Group B
- Rich Gang Esports
- The Ruddy Sack
- Venomcrest Esports
- DMG Esports
- KAOS e-sport
Playoff Stage
- CHAMPION – Los Ratones
- 2nd Place – NORD Esports
- 3rd Place – Bulldog Esports
- 4th Place – Verdant
- 5th-6th Place – The Ruddy Sack, Rich Gang Esports
- 7th-8th Place – Lundqvist Lightside, KAOS e-sports
- 9th-10th Place – DMG Esports, Venomcrest Esports
Los Ratones: A Remarkable Victory
More than half of the NLC Winter 2025’s peak viewership can be credited to Los Ratones. Their unconventional approach—including public scrim streams and a roster mixing streamers and professional players—captivated audiences and disrupted traditional esports models.
The popular League of Legends personality Marc “Caedrel” Lamont assembled the ragtag bunch that made Los Ratones. This also added to the amount of initial support and attention they received. While many still doubted them due to their composition, they eventually emerged as the standout team in the Northern League of Legends Championship.
The team’s performance in the NLC Winter 2025 was simply spectacular. Their perfect 4-0 record in the Group Stage set the stage for an impressive playoff run, at the end of which they triumphed 3-0 over NORD Esports. Now, the next step for Los Ratones is toward EMEA Masters Winter 2025.
Conclusion
Most LoL esports fans turn all attention to bigger regional leagues, like the towering LCK and LPL empires. However, the recently concluded NLC Winter 2025 shows how smaller tournaments can also match the intensity and excitement of S-Tier pro-play. Los Ratones adding a new kick to these Northern League of Legends Championship matches made them even more interesting to watch. As League esports evolves, we may see even more teams like them and more support toward local and regional tournaments.
