LoL - EMEA Masters: Los Ratones and Geekay Advance to the Quarter-Finals, Barça and BIG Knocked Out

The group stage of the EMEA Masters Winter 2025 has concluded, and we now know the eight quarter-finalists. A few surprises occurred, while the tournament favorites lived up to expectations. The quarter-finals begin this Thursday, March 20th, at 5 PM CET and will be played in a best-of-five series.

One of the surprises of the group stage was the qualification of the Belgian team ZenniT. They became the first team from Road of Legends (Benelux's merged League of Legends ERL) to make it to the Knockout Stage after defeating and eliminating Macko Esports in a three-game series. Their quarter-final opponent is on a whole different level: Karmine Corp Blue. They will need to pull off a huge upset, as they are really not favored in this matchup.

The second upset of Wednesday's evening came from the Greek league champions, Team Phantasma, who defeated the German first seed, Berlin International Gaming, 2-0, thanks in part to a strong performance from their Macedonian AD Carry, Nikola "Axelent" Petrusev, on Jhin, with a score of 17/4/7 in Game 2. They will now face Los Heretics, and while the challenge seems tough, having already taken down the champion of a major ERL region, they could very well do it again.

Geekay triumphed over Barça eSports 2-1 in a highly contested Game 3 between the Arabian League champions and the Superliga finalists. With over 40 minutes of gameplay and 20 kills for GK compared to 19 for the Spanish team, the balance finally tipped in favor of Ahmad "Giyuu" Charif and his Taliyah, securing his team's spot in the quarter-finals. They will now face Ici Japon Corp in a thrilling Best-of-Five matchup.

Finally, Los Ratones claimed a dominant victory over E WIE EINFACH E-SPORTS after their defeat to KCB. Martin "Rekkles" Larsson went deathless in both games, finishing the series with a score of 0/0/18. The NLC champions will now face Papara SuperMassive for a spot in semi-final.