Karmine Corp's championship made LEC Winter 2025 the most popular tournament among French League of Legends fans

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On March 2nd, all eyes of European League of Legends fans were on Berlin for the grand final of LEC Winter 2025. The Riot Games Arena hosted a thrilling match between two powerhouse teams: the legendary G2 Esports, boasting countless regional titles and years of experience in international tournaments, and the rising French star Karmine Corp, which has been in fantastic form this season.

As the second most popular regional League of Legends league after Korea's LCK, the LEC always draws a massive audience, including viewers and community casters from across the globe. This year’s LEC Winter 2025 was particularly special, as the winning team earned a coveted spot in First Stand 2025, a new international tournament from Riot Games, heightening the excitement surrounding the European league even further.

Karmine Corp / Photo: x.com/LEC

Throughout the tournament, both G2 Esports and Karmine Corp delivered impressive performances. They were among the top teams in the group stage and made quick work of their opponents in the early playoff rounds. What’s interesting is that the grand final marked the third meeting between these two teams in LEC Winter 2025: first, Karmine Corp defeated G2 Esports in the group stage (in a best-of-1 series), but G2 Esports bounced back with a 3-1 victory in the upper bracket final. The third encounter came in the grand final, where Karmine Corp dominated the series, winning 3-0 to claim their first-ever LEC championship title. It’s important to highlight that in their first two seasons after joining the LEC (LEC Winter 2024 and LEC Spring 2024), Karmine Corp finished in 10th place both times. However, they surged to 4th place in LEC Summer 2024, and now, just a year later, they’ve risen to the top, defeating the giants of G2 to take the crown. A remarkable journey of growth and success.

The grand final between G2 Esports and Karmine Corp became the most-watched match of the season, peaking at 801,369 viewers. A major contributing factor was the community casting by Kamel ''Kameto'' Kebir, the popular French streamer and co-owner of Karmine Corp. This season, community caster channels outperformed all the official tournament streams, with Kamet0, Marc Robert ''Caedrel'' Lamont, and Sergio ''Knekro'' García taking the top 3 spots across all viewership metrics. Kameto’s channel was the most-watched throughout the tournament, reaching a peak of 233,351 viewers during the grand final, his best result of 2025.

It’s also worth mentioning that LEC Winter 2025 was the first major European tournament in quite some time not to feature Ibai ''Ibai'' Llanos, the famous Spanish streamer and owner of KOI. Ibai hadn’t streamed live on Twitch for over a month, with his last broadcast being the Kings World Cup 2025 final in mid-January. There’s no doubt that had Ibai been part of the LEC Winter 2025 coverage, the overall viewership numbers for the league would have been significantly higher.

Most popular esports tournaments among french viewers

LEC Winter 2025 became the most-watched League of Legends tournament among French viewers, with Karmine Corp's victory drawing 320,456 fans from France. Looking at other esports titles, the only events that attracted more French viewers were the Inoxtag Zero Build Invitational - #3 and RLCS 2024 - Major 1: EU Open Qualifier 1.

In terms of overall viewership, LEC Winter 2025 ranked seventh among all seasons of the European league. However, when compared to other regions this season, it only lagged behind the LCK Cup 2025, which peaked at an impressive 1,907,634 viewers.

Most popular League of Legends tournaments in early 2025

First Stand 2025, the international tournament, will be held from March 10 to 16 in Seoul, South Korea. The top teams from LCK, LEC, LCP, LPL, and the LTA Cross-Conference will battle it out for a prize pool of one million dollars. Keep up with all the action by following the coverage on the Esports Charts page.