LoL - LEC: Karmine Corp speedruns its victory against Fnatic to reach lower bracket final

Fnatic's Spring Split comes to a bitter end with a crushing 0-3 loss to Karmine Corp. They finish in fourth place and will not be representing Europe at MSI alongside G2 Esports. Meanwhile, KC advance to the finals of the lower bracket, where they’ll face Movistar KOI — a chance for revenge after their previous defeat in the upper bracket, a shot at MSI qualification, a place in the LEC Finals, and another hyped best-of-five between the two teams with the league’s largest fanbases.

All doubts are gone for the Blue Wall. They obliterated Fnatic in just one hour and 34 minutes across the three games — a complete dismantling reminiscent of Fnatic’s past seven years of playoff struggles against G2. Once again, it seems Fnatic has been haunted by their demons, falling short of KC just as they did in the Winter Split.

But this time, it was even worse as Fnatic offered little resistance. Despite showing strong performances in the regular split’s best-of-threes, where they finished second overall, they crumbled when it mattered most. The LEC is merciless and leaves no room for teams riddled with doubt. The entire Black and Orange topside looked out of sync, and Ivan "Razork" Martín was shut down throughout the series. KC outclassed them in every lane, most notably in the jungle and in the toplane, where Kim "Canna" Chang-dong continued his dominant form from the start of the year.

Beyond the on-stage result, deeper issues appear to be plaguing the team. Dysfunction is apparent, and some players seem unable to work toward a shared goal. Even head coach Fabian "GrabbZ" Lohmann hinted at this on X. This statement echoes what he said in our last interview: “I’d rather lose now, get memed, and use it to wake up. That was disgusting from us [...] We can’t talk about winning EU and play like this.” He developed this further on the last stream he did last Tuesday, explaining that his players were not listening to each other in-game.

While it's hard to draw deeper conclusions from the outside, a performance coach is expected to join the staff for the Summer Split — but will that be enough? One thing is certain: the Black and Orange have work to do if they want to make it to Worlds in China. They’ll need at least a top-three finish in Summer to qualify.

KC looked like European champions once again, and this series was a major confidence boost. It felt like a test match, and they passed with flying colors. After their win against Team Heretics on Sunday, Caliste "Caliste" Henry-Hennebert said: “If we beat Fnatic, I'm really confident I'm going to Finals and qualify to MSI by just 3-0 MKOI.”

We’ll find out this Saturday at 5 PM if the young prodigy’s prophecy comes true. Only three teams remain in the LEC, and the Spring Split champion will be crowned this weekend.