After a nail-biting five-game series on Monday, September 8, Movistar KOI secured their ticket to Worlds 2025 by defeating Fnatic 3–2. The Spanish organization, which merged with MAD Lions, will now attend its fifth consecutive Worlds in as many years in the league. They also secured a spot at the Season Finals in Madrid, where they’ll compete in front of their home crowd.

Fnatic, meanwhile, are not out of the race yet. The Black and Orange still have a chance to reach China, but their path is steep: they must first overcome GIANTX and then defeat the winner of Team Vitality vs. Karmine Corp. From here on out, every match is do-or-die.

A series of punishments

This was a series defined by punishments. Both teams made frequent individual and collective mistakes, but each slip was consistently capitalized on. Reactive decision-making kept the games alive and very entertaining, and what unfolded was a dramatic, back-and-forth showdown between two squads that showed more discipline around objectives than in previous clashes. Overall, the two sides looked evenly matched on the day. Ultimately, it was the small details in how each team punished errors that swung the series.

However, MKOI’s drafting proved superior, and Game 5 highlighted this perfectly. While the Fearless draft peaked, Fnatic surprised with some questionable choices — such as last-pick LeBlanc and a Maokai flexed into support alongside a Trundle jungle, which somehow made the game really hard to play after botlane drowned in the very first minutes of the game.

In the post-match interview, the MVP of the series, jungler Javier “Elyoya” Prades, reflected on the hard-fought series, admitting it would be “very interesting to review.” He highlighted how MKOI experimented with multiple drafts, made their share of mistakes, but ultimately adapted when it mattered most.

Looking ahead, Elyoya revealed that the team has recently adjusted elements of their training, which he believes will allow KOI to “ramp up” as they head into the Summer Finals in Madrid. There, they will face a daunting rematch of the Spring Split final against a monstrous G2 Esports on Sunday, September 14 at 5 PM CEST.

For Elyoya himself, this victory carried special significance: the Spanish jungler has now qualified for Worlds in every year of his LEC career. Since his debut with MAD Lions in 2021, he has now reached Worlds five years in a row — becoming only the fifth player in EMEA history to achieve such a streak, following Marek "Humanoid" Brázda, Zdravets "Hylissang" Galabov (six in a row), Luka "Perkz" Perković, and Bora "YellOwStaR" Kim (five in a row).

A top four, with a clear top two

The LEC’s top four has never looked clearer. Despite the Summer Split’s format limiting head-to-head clashes between the league’s powerhouses, the hierarchy is taking shape: just like in Spring, G2 and Movistar KOI sit above the pack, their Worlds tickets well earned.

That leaves Fnatic and Karmine Corp under intense pressure. Both teams face elimination scenarios where only victories will keep their hopes alive. For Fnatic, missing Worlds would mark only the third absence in their storied history (2012 and 2016), despite being the most represented team in Worlds history overall.

For Karmine Corp, the stakes are even more existential. Since their Winter Split title, the Blue Wall has struggled to regain its sharp early-season form. Missing Worlds would extinguish the last spark of hope for their long-awaited first qualification, and bring a bitterly premature end to a year that started with so much promise. At least one of these two titans — and possibly both — will see their season end in disappointment.