LEC Versus Playoffs viewership down after Los Ratones exit

The LEC Versus 2026 playoffs opened on February 16 against the backdrop of a group stage that had generated some of the most compelling storylines the region had seen in years. The journey of special invited team Los Ratones and their founding streamer Marc "Caedrel" Lamont was followed many, and their elimination from playoff contention on the final day of the group stage via tiebreakers cast a long shadow over the bracket. Heading into the playoffs stage, viewership has sadly failed to match the hype behind Caedrel’s squad.

While viewership remains decreased compared to the group stage, the playoffs games at the LEC Versus are still attracting considerable attention. Many of EMEA’s most popular rosters are still in competition, and featuring regional fan favourite teams, the opening playoffs matches were still able to maintain over a quarter of a million Average Viewers. While a step back from the final game of Los Ratones, which fell just shy of 600,000 peak concurrent viewers, there are still high stakes playoffs games to come at the LEC 2026 Versus.

Compared to the group stage results of the LEC 2026 Versus, the opening playoffs games showed a marked decrease across most top audience demographics. The League of Legends esports viewership failed to grow for the first playoffs games, with English recording the largest decrease among top audiences — comparing Caedrel’s group and playoffs viewership specifically, his stream accounts for a significant portion of this drop. The playoff bracket, populated exclusively by franchised organizations without a comparable content creator engine behind them, is operating in a fundamentally different viewership environment.

French-language viewers were the only top esports audience to increase its viewership for the playoffs stage. French LoL fans are still rallying behind local teams Team Vitality and Karmine Corp, especially the latter through co-streaming support from its founder Kamel “Kamet0” Kebir. French viewers managed to increase their viewership over the group stage, with the audience tuning in for the special derby featuring two of their country’s most popular esports organizations.

The elimination match between Karmine Corp and Team Vitality was the most popular playoffs game so far, recording over 397,000 Peak Viewers. It carried the specific tension that comes with a regional rivalry context, and the game itself was a three-map series featuring a strong recovery by Karmine Corp. After losing the first game of the set, Kamet0’s roster came back dominantly to secure a 2:1 reverse sweep, leading to the highest French Peak Viewers of the tournament so far.

The other most popular games of the playoffs included two upper bracket matches. Firstly, the opening game between Fnatic and NAVI delivered one of the most exciting stories of the playoffs. NAVI was able to control the game in dominant fashion, easily working there way towards a 2:0 victory to begin their playoffs run. How a legendary LoL organization was calmly dismantled by NAVI caused a sizeable viewership for their match, setting it close to the performance of the top French-derby. Following the loss against NAVI, Fnatic was then eliminated by Team Vitality in their following match.

While Fnatic vs. NAVI made for a strong opening, the showdown between G2 Esports and Karmine Corp in the following round carried something heavier. This showdown between two of EMEA’s strongest teams in the upper bracket signified one of the most crucial matches of the event — with G2 Esports already qualified for the grand final, KC will have to battle their way through a semifinal and lower bracket final for another chance at victory over G2.

With the remainders of the playoffs still ahead of the LEC Versus 2026, there are still some chances for the tournament to surpass the wave of hype surrounding Los Ratones. The remaining three playoffs matches will take place across a weekend, beginning on Friday and culminating on Sunday. Keep an eye on the event’s viewership live with Esports Charts and our database of esports tournaments.