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 Cup. It took 13 years, until 2024, until a European became world champion again and with Martin “Rekkles” Larsson he is even a real star. But no one really takes the title seriously.
Who is Rekkles? Swede Rekkles is one of the most popular and iconic Leauge of Legends players in Europe. As ADC, he was the franchise player of Fnatic, the most popular team in Europe, and won the LEC championship 4 times. Rekkles also took the highest honors individually: he was named most valuable player four times.
But since 2020, his career has been on a downward trend. After playing for Fnatic for more than 5 years in a row, he became a wandering bird: He first moved to arch-rival G2, then to the second division in France and finally back to Fnatic. He didn’t seem happy at any of the stations.
In 2023, Rekkles had enough in Europe. He railed against Fnatic and G2, moved from ADC to the support role and went to the South Korean team T1 as a “content creator”. At the age of 28, the Swede played in their youth team.
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T1 is taking Rekkles to Worlds as a substitute player and mascot
So he now became world champion: Apparently because Rekkles can play support and ADC and is the only European in the squad, T1 took him with them to the LoL Worlds 2024 in Berlin, Paris and London as a substitute player.
Now in LoL you don’t use substitute players as regularly as in football. Substitutes in LoL are almost only used when a professional player is injured, which almost never happens. Or if an equivalent regular player gets into a form crisis and the coach sees a need for action.
As a result, Rekkles didn’t play for a minute during the 17 games that T1 played at Worlds.
Nevertheless, Rekkles was part of the T1 team, was on stage at the victory ceremony and his name will now also be on the trophy.
G2 takes a passive-aggressive approach against Rekkles
That’s how it’s commented: His former team, G2, who Rekkles had previously slandered, tweeted a picture of Rekkles on November 2nd saying, “I promise I will win Worlds and I will do it” – to which G2 added: “AND HE DID IT” (via twitter).
That’s pretty passive-aggressive because when Rekkles said that, I’m sure he meant that he’s going to lead Fnatic to victory, not watch Faker win from the stage as “emotional support.”
The comments are also such that many fans are making fun of how Rekkles showed up at the victory ceremony almost “by accident”.
His former teammate at G2, jungler Jankos, is also amused that Rekkles suddenly appears when he wins the title.
Fans cheer: That’s karma – others just smile tiredly
How is this discussed? Many Europeans make fun of the title of Rekkles. There are comments like: “Rekkles didn’t even die at Worlds – he’s the greatest.”
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 once he plugs in the keyboard.”
But Rekkles also has some fans who now begrudge him the title: “It’s karma. Rekkles was pushed around by his teams for years until T1 took him in. The fact that he held up the trophy was a highlight of the night for some of us.”
“(Coach) Kkoma and (supporter) Keria forced him to lift the trophy. This can be seen from the fact that Rekkles himself was surprised. He seems hesitant and as if it’s embarrassing for him […] That shows how much they value him.”
“Rekkles was more of a coach and mental support than a substitute, but he was 100% part of the team for every single day last month. It’s a well-deserved gesture that they let him hold the trophy.”
This is what lies behind it: The only European who would realistically win a world title in LoL would probably be mid laner Caps. But he says he doesn’t want to switch to a strong team in Asia because that would feel like cheating – he would rather become world champion with G2.
For Rekkles, his time at T1 is certainly a great experience and a kind of slow transition to becoming a full-time streamer; the World Cup was certainly a great experience for him. But he certainly imagined winning the world title at 16 in a completely different way than he experiences it now at 28: Legendary player Rekkles could become world champion in LoL in 2024, but differently than he imagined