In 2011, Fnatic became the first world champion in League of Legends, with six Europeans, including two players from Germany. For 13 years, players from Asia won the world championship afterward. It took until 2024 for a European to become world champion again, and with Martin “Rekkles” Larsson, it is even a real star. But no one really takes the title seriously.
Who is Rekkles? The Swede Rekkles is one of the most popular and iconic players of League of Legends in Europe. He was the franchise player of Fnatic, the most popular team in Europe, as an ADC and won the championship in the LEC 4 times. Individually, Rekkles also grabbed the highest honors: He was named the Most Valuable Player 4 times.
However, since 2020, his career has been on a downward trend. After playing for more than 5 consecutive years at Fnatic, he became a “migrant bird”: He first moved to arch-rival G2, then to the 2nd league in France, and finally back to Fnatic. He did not seem happy at any of the stations.
In 2023, Rekkles had had enough in Europe. He complained about Fnatic and G2, switched from ADC to the supporter role, and joined the South Korean team T1 as a “content creator”. The Swede played there at the age of 28 in their youth team.
T1 brings Rekkles as a substitute player and mascot to the Worlds
This is how he became world champion now: Apparently because Rekkles can play both support and ADC and is the only European in the squad, T1 took him as a substitute player to the LoL Worlds 2024 in Berlin, Paris, and London.
Now in LoL, substitute players are not used as regularly as in football. Substitute players in LoL only come into play when a professional player gets injured, which almost never happens. Or when an equally valuable starting player goes into a crisis of form and the coach sees the need for action.
Therefore, Rekkles had no minutes of playtime during the 17 games that T1 played at the Worlds.
Nevertheless, Rekkles was part of the T1 team, was present at the victory ceremony on stage, and his name will now also be on the trophy.
G2 takes a passive-aggressive shot at Rekkles
This is how it is commented: His former team, G2, which Rekkles had previously strongly criticized, posted a picture of Rekkles on November 2, where he says: “I promised I would win the Worlds, and I will” – to which G2 added: “AND HE DID IT” (via X).
This is quite passive-aggressive because when Rekkles said that, he certainly meant that he would lead Fnatic to victory and not watch Faker win from the stage as “emotional support”.
The comments are also such that many fans are making fun of how Rekkles almost “accidentally” appeared at the victory ceremony.
Even his former teammate at G2, jungler Jankos, is amused that Rekkles suddenly shows up at the title win.
Fans rejoice: This is karma – others just smile tiredly
How is this being discussed? Many Europeans are making fun of Rekkles’ title. Comments like: “Rekkles didn’t even die at the Worlds – he is the greatest.” can be read.
Or: “Rekkles is the best player in the world. He didn’t even touch the keyboard and became world champion. Imagine what he can achieve when he finally plugs in the keyboard.”
However, Rekkles also has some fans who are happy for him to have the title now: “It’s karma. Rekkles was pushed around by his teams for years until T1 picked him up. That he is now holding the trophy was a highlight of the night for some of us.”
“(Coach) Kkoma and (Supporter) Keria forced him to lift the trophy. You can tell by the fact that Rekkles himself was surprised. He looks hesitant and as if it’s embarrassing for him […] That shows how much they value him.”
What’s behind this: The only European who realistically could win a world championship title in LoL is probably midlaner Caps. However, he says he doesn’t want to switch to a strong team in Asia because it would feel like cheating to win the title that way – he would rather become world champion with G2.
For Rekkles, the time at T1 is certainly an exciting experience and a kind of slow transition to becoming a full-time streamer. The Worlds was certainly a great thing for him. But the way he imagined winning the world championship title at 16 is probably very different from how he is experiencing it now at 28: Legendary player Rekkles could become world champion in LoL in 2024, but in a different way than he imagined
