LoL - LEC Rivalry Day: Fnatic vs G2 and Movistar KOI vs Karmine Corp

This Monday is a special day for any true European League of Legends fan, as we’re promised an incredible spectacle. While the 2025 Winter Split playoffs in the LEC are in full swing, two amazing matchups await us this evening. Europe’s oldest rivalry will take place once again today, Fnatic against G2 Esports, while the new future classic of the LEC will follow, Movistar KOI against Karmine Corp. What makes these confrontations even more special is that their outcome could go either way. All of these are in BO3 fearless draft for the first time.

This is the most well-known matchup in the European scene. The former kings, Fnatic, against their successors, who have dominated the league since they arrived in 2016, G2 Esports. The statistics from recent years are staggering. The all-time head-to-head between the two teams stands at 33-21 in favor of G2 (69 games played versus 45).

G2 has won seven finals against Fnatic out of the eight they’ve played. Fnatic beat G2 in a BO5 during Summer 2024, but before that, you’d have to go back to Spring 2022, highlighting just how dominant the Samurais have been in long series. The most striking stat, however, is that the last BO3 Fnatic won against G2 was in Summer 2017 at the EU LCS, back when Rasmus "Caps" Winther had just joined the Black and Orange in the region’s top league.

What makes today’s context interesting is that for the first time in a long while, Fnatic enters this matchup as the favorites. They finished first in the regular season’s Winter BO1s, and they’re the most consistent team, consistently showing the highest level of play and the greatest synergy among players, as well as the most discipline. That doesn’t mean their victory is guaranteed, though, as G2 still has three players who’ve dominated Fnatic over the past two years, and we’ve seen the Samurais gain momentum after a rough start to the split. So, the game is wide open, and it’s up to Fnatic to finally challenge stats that haven’t been in their favor for a long time.

To help them reshuffle the deck and take control of their destiny, they can rely on their new botlane this year, which has been dominating the competition. Since the return of Elias "Upset" Lipp and the arrival of Mihael "Mikyx" Mehle, Fnatic has gained more stability and clearer win conditions. This sets them up to get revenge on G2, who let Mikyx go last offseason despite him still performing at a fantastic level. And he’s not the only one eager to take down the Samurais—Fabian "GrabbZ" Lohmann, Fnatic’s Head Coach who once reached the top with G2, is also looking for payback against the organization that let him go after their 2021 downfall. Their fate is in their own hands, and they can launch their assault tonight at 6 PM CET in a fearless BO3, marking a historic first for them.

The two organizations have seemed like rivals forever. KOI is a Spanish organization that was founded at the end of 2021, and its father figure is Ibai Llanos, a world-renowned streamer. They played their first League of Legends match in December in a showmatch against Karmine Corp, which had only started in the LFL at the beginning of the year. It was in front of 15,000 people on-site and over 350,000 people on Twitch that the rivalry began.

It grew on social media but also unfolded multiple times on the Rift. In total:

So if we add up all these confrontations over time, even showmatches, Karmine dominates the rivalry to this day with a League of Legends track record of seven to two (ten games won for KC and four for KOI). This does not include the 2023 EMEA Masters final, also won by KC (3-2). This final however saw Caliste "Caliste" Henry-Hennebert face David "Supa" Garcia and Álvaro Fernández "Alvaro" del Amo playing for Movistar Riders at the time. This still has repercussions today, as Caliste has not lost to them since. He even made the following statement in a post-match interview, after KC won against Vitality: "I think KOI is not that good. Jojopyun (Joseph Pyun) is talking too much for the game he did against us, and I think Supa and Alvaro are pretty good, but honestly, I'm not sure if they are better than Carrzy (Matyáš Orságand) Hylissang (Zdravets Galabov)."

However, the context has changed significantly. Both teams now have more than solid rosters, and we are about to experience a year where both teams finally play in the same league, at equal strength. This will certainly add more spice to the BO3 confrontation today, which marks the beginning of a truly new sports rivalry in the LEC after a long time.