NA defeats EU to win the League of Legends Rivality Challenge

North America has won the League of Legends Rivality Challenge, defeating Europe in a ranked competition designed to reignite the historic rivalry between the two regions. Both regions fielded 24-player rosters with the goal of earning as much LP as possible, but only starting to score once players reached Master.

Since early January, North American and European streamers and high-elo players have been competing daily in SoloQ as part of Rivality, an event created to hype the new ranked season and compare regional strength. Led by team captains Solarbacca for NA and iReaz for EU, the two teams played to determine which region could ‘outgrind’ and outperform the other on the ranked ladder.

After roughly 20 days of competition, NA secured the overall win finishing with 32,840 LP compared to EU’s 29,360. The final difference of circa 3k LP reflected a close race in the beginning of the competition while highlighting NA’s stronger consistency over time. “Both regions showed similar growth curves through January," Reddit user goldenstinger said. “But NA's consistent 56.1% winrate across 48 players proved decisive against EU's 55.7%.”

The Rivality Challenge was decided not only by volume and consistency of play, but also individual results. John "Cupic" Lowe (NA) finished as the overall tournament champion, ending the event with 2,289 LP at Challenger 1. He reached a 157–82 match record—a 66% win rate—and a 3.72 KDA across 239 games.

Among the top five players in the standings, four represented NA, with Mike "Phantasm" Thiele being the highest-ranked EU player at 2,091 LP. In total, NA claimed 11 of the top 20 spots, narrowly edging EU’s nine. A €20,400 prize pool added extra stakes to the grind. The money was distributed among the top 24 individual performers, rewarding not only regional success but also personal achievement.

Beyond the standings, the event attracted strong engagement with peak concurrent viewership reaching over 70k fans across streams. These numbers were recorded across circa 7,5k matches and confirmed the event’s success as both a competitive and entertainment-focused cross-regional rivalry. The Rivality Challenge delivered the intense competition expected from an Na vs EU competition in League of Legends. With strong viewer interest, the event has become a worthy successor to Rift Rivals, keeping the transatlantic rivalry alive.