Caedrel’s Team Los Ratones Will Not Be Competing In ERLs In 2026

LoL Contributor

Publish Date: November 25, 2025

Caedrel has announced that his streamer team Los Ratones (LR) will not be playing in a European Regional League in 2026. LR will play in the LEC Versus in Winter, but what comes after that is unknown. The rats won all three 2025 splits in the NLC, but they won’t return to that league or any other tier-2 league in 2026.

A star-studded roster

At the end of 2024, former pro player, caster, and Malzahar R canceller Caedrel united a superteam of streamers and pro players. LR’s roster is as follows:

Baus (top lane): A Sion one-trick streamer, famous for numerous Sion strategies such as lethality Sion or inting Sion. Baus makes these strats work, then the rest of the playerbase copies them and fails. LR has a good win rate overall, but he’s undefeated on Sion, going 11-0 through many bans.
Velja (jungle): Velja has been a tier 2 player since 2019. Without having strong accolades or tournament results, he’s a core component of the team.
Nemesis (mid lane): Nemesis was one of the best mids in the LEC and Fnatic’s mid laner in 2019 and 2020. Nemesis then became a streamer in 2021, after two Worlds quarter appearances.
Crownie (bot lane): Crownie used to be seen as one of the best ADCs in Europe despite always being on bottom-tier teams. The ADC did reach Worlds in 2023, though he then went 0-3 in the Swiss stage.
Rekkles (support): Europe’s all-time legendary marksman and Fnatic’s star player, now turned support. Rekkles has an impressive, extended career, with 6 Worlds appearances, including one final. In fact, he actually won Worlds in 2024 by being T1’s substitute.

Caedrel’s goal was to do something different with the regional leagues. As such, every player and himself streamed all their official games and scrims. That resulted in the most popular tier 2 team ever created, with their matches being watched by more people than most tier 1 matches.

The 2025 Winter EMEA Masters finals had 486k views with Los Ratones playing in it. That is 3.7 times as much as what the previous finals got, opposing Vitality Bee and Team BDS Academy.

Los Ratones gathering for a bootcamp. Image Source: Los Ratones (via https://x.com/LosRatoneslol)

Los Ratones in 2025, the best tier 2 team Europe has ever seen

However, their results were even crazier than their viewership. LR isn’t only a team made up of a majority of great pro players; they also have infrastructure and ambition. The results naturally followed suit.

Los Ratones almost never lost games. The rats could easily fall behind from thoughtless playing in lane. However, their opponents could never close it out. Somehow, LR eventually started winning thanks to splitpushing or simply better hands.

Los Ratones lost a single Best of 5 all year long (out of 18), the one blemish on their otherwise fully golden road. LR’s achievements through the year are as follows:

Won the NLC in all three splits.
Went 4-0 in all three NLC Group stages.
Won the EMEA Masters in Winter and Spring, reached the Semifinals in Summer.
Hasn’t lost a single game in any finals in 2025, going 15-0 in these matches.

LEC Versus and Los Ratones in 2026

Los Ratones was created as a one-year project. After that, the experiment would be stuck in limbo. LR is way too strong for tier 2 leagues, but can’t make it to the LEC. The rats most likely wouldn’t be good enough for it, either. Every player on the team ended up seemingly burnt out from the year, too.

However, Riot Games then announced changes to the 2026 LEC format. LEC Versus, the Winter split replacement, will invite Los Ratones and Karmine Corp Blue alongside its other 10 teams. KCB was invited as the Summer EU Masters winner. On the other hand, LR got in as the best-performing European regional league team in 2025.

As a result, the plans are for LR to play in the LEC Versus for the first split of 2026. After that, probably nothing given that announcement. Los Ratones won’t come back to an ERL, and there should be no chance for them to enter the LEC proper. Most likely, the team will disband.

Velja, Crownie and Nemesis might try to join an LEC team. Although the year had already started by then and they could have their work cut out for them. Baus has no plans of going pro over his streaming career, so he should stick to that. As for Rekkles, it’ll depend on whether he feels comfortable living in Berlin again.

The ERLs’ and EMEA Masters’ viewership is the real loser of this deal.

Featured Image Source: Los Ratones (via