KC's European Odyssey: How to build a great blue wall

Karmine Corp will make their long-awaited debut in the LEC after three successful years in the ERLs where they won 4 EMEA Masters titles alongside 2 domestic trophies in the LFL. The same way as in 2021 - the year at which Karmine Corp made its entrance into the LFL - KC comes in their new division with mixed ambitions and expectations.

The teambuilding process KC went throught already sets them apart from the rest. KC have indeed promorted 3 players from their winning EMEA squad into their LEC squad : Lucas "Cabochard" Simon-Meslet, Lucas "Saken" Fayard and Raphaël "Targamas" Crabbé. Althought it is not the first time a promorted team brings alonside them a player - Heretics did build their roster around Jackspektra in 2023 for instance - KC will arrive in LEC with a majority of players that come from their former LFL roster

While it makes sense that KC would keep a core from their EMEA Masters winning roster, it is not certain that the sololaners will be able to keep pace in the LEC, especially for Saken who is joining the ranks of some of the LEC’s most competitive Mid Laners. The French duo has shown incredible clutch ability when it mattered, but looking at the 2023 Spring split (and 2022 Summer to some extent), it has been tough for them to always stay on top of the ERLs. However, promoting Targamas to LEC seemed like a no-brainer for KC since the former G2 support was with little to no doubt the best ERL support and arguably better than some other LEC Supports.

What we can most of all take away from KC's past three years in the ERL is that Saken and Cabochard work very well in a functioning system, which only Targamas and Cinkrof have been able to provide. It is interesting to note on that matter that Cabochard recently made a transition in his role to help the young French prodigy ADC Caliste “Caliste” Henry-Hennebert thrive. He has indeed taken much less resources and space and played very selflessly, to great success.

In addition, Saken and Cabochard succeed the most when able to take on leads by themselves, if they are heavily contested in their laning phase, often would the struggle keep on after the early game.

This well-proven trio will have to integrate two new players who were also playing together in 2023: Jungler Zhou "Bo" Yang-Bo and ADC Elias “Upset” Lipp. The future synergy between these players raises questions, indeed, despite Upset having a versatile gameplay and being overall very similar to Caliste, Bo is by no means close to what Cinkrof was for KC.

In LFL, Targamas would often work as a second piston alongside Cinkrof. The polish jungler would handle the early-game tempo while Targamas was more responsible for the map movement roughly after 2nd drake. Bo is also known for being very guiding as a jungler, but for a very different function. The chinese superstar has been notorious for being very aggressive and requiring his laners to play for him, and not the other way around.

Cabochard’s versatility has already been proven with the many different identities he has had as KC’s Toplaner in the 5 splits he’s played for the french organization. Saken, on the other hand, is a trickier question, will the KC’s idol be able to give Bo the space he needs to carry ? The french Midlaner has excelled the most when Cinkrof was at its peak of second-supporting jungle playstyle, but Saken has never really had a hard carry rooted identity, similar to the likes of Larssen and Vetheo.

KC’s gameplan has always been fairly simple in ERLs : have a very strong midlane that enables side lanes to scale and win around teamfights. Only in the last split would KC heavily press botside much more than topside. This game plan is simple but very difficult to execute as you need your midlane to be ahead in tempo in most situations.

Bo will use the tempo given to him much more aggressively than Cinkrof, allowing KC to play with a wider diversity of win conditions and set ups, but maybe at the price of Targamas’ and Saken’s habits they built in 2023. It would be surprising - though not impossible - to see Bo being the one forced to fit in the mould seeing as the less agency he had in VIT, the worse he performed.

If Bo remains in the role he was in during his later seasons in Vitality , KC will most likely have a jungler very similar to 113, their jungler in 2022. That would mean that Saken and Cabochard would work more individually with a jungler that would keep the control of the tempo while adapting his gameplay to that of his teammates. This would work very well with Cabochard’s gameplay as the french veteran is at his best when left alone. But this role is far from what Bo is strong at, hence it would put him at a weakened position.

On the other hand, if Bo is set to play the way he did in FPX and at the beginning of 2023, KC would have to give away a lot of space and trust to him. This would place Cabochard in a very different spot than last year, as he would not be allowed to play the lane for himself - i.e. setting up the waves and his tempo solely to go through the lane unchallenged - he would rather need to offer openings to his jungler. This playstyle would however work better with Saken (and with Bo, obviously) who has been very good both at locking his opponent on his lane and at matching his pressure on the map.

In either case, KC’s botlane should be fine, Targamas had improved a lot as a botlaner in 2022 during his pairing with Flakked, while Upset has always been a reference in Europe for his laning phase. The question of the overall synergy can still be posed regarding the horrendous Bot lane duo that was Patrik-Targamas in XL this year, but Upset is more versatile than Patrik, so it should not be too much of a worry.

With the exception of Bo who has always been more of a skirmisher than a teamfighter (but excels in both domains anyway), every player of KC is a teamfighter. The 5v5 has always been the alpha and the omega of KC’s success in the last three years.

For instance, in the ever-tense EMEA Masters finals against Movistar Riders, KC was highly disrupted in their early game plans, but the Blue Wall managed to claw back through excellent teamfighting, one that can match many teamfight set-ups seen in the LEC during the same period. Saken and Cabochard bring on that aspect of the game, a vital experience for a team that will need to perform in bo1s.

Overall, KC has had a strong identity of being clutch in the most dire of circumstances, in a championship where 9 bo1s may be the only thing you’ll play in the span of 3 months, this is an excellent quality to have. It will be interesting to see KC fight against the top Teamfighters of Europe, on this matter, Upset’s form will be decisive. The German ADC made a name for himself in Fnatic for winning - sometimes on his own - fights that looked unwinnable otherwise.

On paper, KC’s roster is in the middle of the pack alongside numerous teams that have very similar forces. It would be a major surprise if Targamas’ men would face elimination during the regular season, as they have the players to grab at the very least 3 or 4 wins.

A lot of KC’s potential is going to come down to Cabochard and Saken’s ability to level up their play for LEC, if both players remain lowtiers in their role - which on paper is the most probable outcome for the first splits at least - it is likely that KC will very quickly hit a cap in Europe. Bo’s season is also not guaranteed, although he showed that he could be the best in LEC, he was also benched at the end of a very poor season in favour of academy Jungler Kacper "Daglas" Dagiel . The stable factor that KC will have to rely on is most likely going to be the experienced Botlane.

If Saken and Cabochard are able to step up, KC could very well be a top 3 team in Europe, the gap between them and G2 still seems too big to be reached in a year, but outside of the current title holders, KC has the potential to beat anybody when the stars align. A top 4 finish and Worlds qualification would be a major success for the french org, a top 6 would be a good achievement, but failing to reach the LEC finals in the end would be seen as a failure, this roster is built to fight in the playoffs and not losing all of them on the first bo5.

Plus, KC’s ambitions have always been very high, though Kameto wants to be realistic and not ask for a top 1 for the first year, KC couldn’t be happy without a strong playoffs run during the year, which is something they are totally able to achieve should everything fall into place. In the end, almost everything comes down to the individual form of KC players, the synergies will be the deciding factors if that first issue is solved.