Quickshot on LEC teams at First Stand, Los Ratones' impact, more

Hannan Mundia Published 17/02/2026

Former LEC broadcaster Quickshot has returned to the League of Legends scene with the HopEUm podcast, and he’s come ready with opinions on all of the European teams competing at the region’s top level for pro League.

Trevor “Quickshot” Henry is an established name in the professional LoL scene known primarily for his work as a commentator and host with the LEC. Quickshot recently sat down with WIN.gg to discuss the current state of the LEC at what has proven to be a wild time for European League of Legends.

Our conversation touched on the success of Los Ratones, the struggles of G2 Esports, and what comes next for the LEC after a split that saw tremendous interest from fans and observers worldwide.

WIN.gg: Unlike the LCK and LCS, the LEC Versus split still features best-of-one matches. How do you rate the revised format so far?

Trevor “Quickshot” Henry: I’m not a huge fan. And the reason I’m not a huge fan is that we’ve seen it and we’ve done it. The best-of-ones are fun for a little teaser, but when it comes to competitive formats, I think the viewers and industry have moved on and accepted that best-of-threes are the perfect format.

I will say that I do understand why [we have best-of-ones]. When you look at the overheads, when you look at the planning, when you look at the logistics of doing best-of-threes with all the teams and so much content, and there’s also a potentially smaller appetite for so many games.

When you look at the LCK and LPL, and the understanding that, “hey, watching 20 hours of your favorite team a week is actually normal,” I don’t think we’re quite there yet.

It’s a bit of a tough situation to be in, and I personally would prefer best-of-threes, but I do understand why they do this.

Los Ratones became one of the most-discussed teams in recent LEC history, and generated very strong fan engagement. What lessons do you think Riot Games, the LEC, and even Western esports organizations in general should take from their impact and popularity?

The truth is, there’s not a lot that you can learn. Take a look at every streamer team and influencer-led project. Kameto with KC, Ibai with KOI, MoistCr1TiKaL and Ludwig with Moist Esports, and now even Shopify, there are these teams and personalities that have tried, but I think there are very few others, if any, that have hit the highs that Caedrel and Los Ratones have.

Los Ratones 2026 LEC roster – Image credit: Los Ratones

You’re leaning on a bunch of respected names, people who have great respect and histories. You have a commentator who’s also a former player and co-streamer. They struck lightning.

Now, what can be taken away? Capitalize on it and build a community. Looking at the sense of belonging that was built, and not to sound too much like a shill, but G2 is already doing that. Look at the G2 army, look at the fans and supporter base. They’re doing what made Los Ratones successful. The same with KC, the same with KOI.

If I were to say that there’s any takeaway, it’s focusing on learning how the community’s built, it’s focusing on building that foundation, developing that relationship. But I think they’re quite an anomaly when it comes to viewership and co-streaming, and this exact moment in time and success that Caedrel and Los Ratones have found.

The roster of players at Los Ratones did bring its own unique audience to the mix.

Correct, and even if it didn’t necessarily bring significant viewership, it brought credibility. Baus is a perfect example of somebody who you want to go, “Is he a feeder or is he actually smart?” Regardless of your opinion on the team or the player, that’s an engaging story.

Whether you love or hate Rekkles, you’re gonna watch. He’s one of the most prolific players, and you’re either watching or hate-watching, I think that’s very fair to say. I think that the story is inherited as well, because with respect to KC Blue, I look at Yukino, their jungler, and I’m just like, “Hey, I don’t know much about him.” I’m an average League viewer, I’m also an average LEC viewer, but it didn’t mean anything to me.

It’s a much smaller draw than looking at who’s the guy that’s supporting Baus, Nemesis, Crownie, and Rekkles. I don’t [personally] know that guy either, but I really want to see how he does with those other big names.

G2’s own Caps said that Los Ratones exceeded expectations when it comes to their in-game performance. Did their competitive performance surprise you?

I was extremely surprised by the results. Extremely surprised by how many wins they were able to pick up. [A record of ] 5-6 at the end of an 11-game regular season, when I expected them to pick up either two or three wins against the lowest-ranked LEC teams.

And after going 0-3 in the first week of Versus, I’d actually revised that to say they will not win any games by the end.

What do you think about the gap in performance between Los Ratones and the established pro teams, and the gap between top-ranked players and the top streamers?

I think the overall level of teams in Versus was “volatile,” that’s the word I would use.

I think when you look at how many games had upset results, or at least surprising results that upset expectations. You look at how good NAVI was, how well GIANTX performed, and how many games in which G2 didn’t perform.

Like, Lee Sin top was a bad idea, early-game all-in comps that didn’t generate enough leads, when you look at the overall team performance, you have to factor that in when you evaluate Los Ratones’ competitive performance.

I think they did exceed expectations, because expectations were low, but let’s be fair, almost every other team underperformed versus expectations. Both of these things being true is why we have this incredible upstart story.

Speaking of volatility, GIANTX came into the regular season with relatively strong betting odds and was even competing with Karmine Corp for first place at one point, but collapsed as the split went along. Why do you think they came up short relative to expectations?

So I’m looking at results right now. Week 1, GIANTX beat Shifters, G2, and then lost to Heretics. Week 2, [GIANTX] beat Los Ratones, lost to Fnatic, and then they beat KOI. Then, we start to see a mix. Win versus NAVI, lose to Vitality, they beat SK, and then the final week unfortunately doesn’t go as planned.

I think GIANTX outperformed preseason expectations. Based on what I was hearing from the G2 co-streamers that were part of HopEUm, from a lot of the power rankings that I looked at, and from other teams and organizations, GIANTX was rated pretty low.

I think they were a quintessential rookie team. A new team with new players adapting to the stage and one another. The fact that they can win against KOI but lose to Fnatic, to me, is a surprise based on their performances, especially since it was back-to-back on consecutive days.

When I look at the players for GIANTX: Lot, ISMA, Jackies, Noah, Jun. Yes, there are some names in there that you recognize, but the synergy of playing together in the best-of-one environment with three games back-to-back, the language differences, the stage differences, I actually walked away feeling impressed overall. But I think they landed exactly where they should have, which is in the middle of the table.

I do think they should be respected in a best-of series, but I don’t expect them to do super duper [good].

NAVI finished second, despite much lower outright odds. What do you think accounts for their team performing well over expectations?

I think it’s mentality.

First of all, love NAVI as an organization. For people that don’t know, I’m doing a lot of work in other titles, working in Counter-Strike, seeing how involved NAVI are in the MOBA gaming space as well as in Counter-Strike. And then seeing Maynter, who is Ukrainian and playing for a Ukrainian organization, and his first week going on an interview to say how important it is to him, I got goosebumps watching that.

Then you listen to Rhilech, who is a guy that I didn’t know anything about, right? He comes in with some hype, and I think he overperforms against expectations, and I think the whole team did. Though where I see a difference between NAVI and GIANTX is in terms of synergy, and in interviews. The way they carry themselves as people, there’s almost a cockiness, but that’s grounded in something. They feel like they can win, they feel like they can go toe-to-toe [with other teams], and they proved it.

A still from HopEUm Episode 3 – Image credit: HopEUm

NAVI is my dark horse going into the playoffs. I think the team has the potential to eliminate some established names unless we see some performance increases. I think NAVI is one of the teams that I want to keep watching, and I’m very hopeful for.

I’ll also add one other thing. NAVI as an organization coming in as a new team to this level of League of Legends, and having this level of debut, it just gives me so much immense joy. Because it happened at the same time as Los Ratones, and you can legitimately say there are reasons to discuss them over Los Ratones. I’m just very happy to see a new logo and a new team that’s led by new faces who are stepping up in-game and on camera.

Speaking of stepping up, G2 remains Europe’s most consistent international representative. Given current and recent form, do you have any thoughts on the chances of G2, or LEC teams in general, at the international level?

If First Stand happened next week, I don’t think [LEC teams] win any games. I will have a better idea once I’ve seen best-of-threes, once I’ve seen best-of-fives, and once I’ve seen how our teams adapt to fearless.

Let’s not understate that the first, second, and third picks in each role is like 17-18% percent of all champion picks because it’s best-of-ones. I’m so sick of seeing Yunara and Aphelios, and I’m so sick of another Azir and Ryze or Corki. I’m looking forward to actually evaluating our teams on more than two or three champions. You would assume that we will get rid of most of these champions by the time we get to game two in best ofs.

So how will [the LEC teams] perform at internationals? I am hopeful that the best-of fearless brackets will be good, and I’m so happy that it’s a double-elimination bracket. I’m hopeful that with the eight strongest teams that are competing, they’ll be able to refine and step up.

G2 has always stepped up and shown a level of consistency that, even if they lose a split, you know that they’ll step up in the playoffs. I do think that they definitely need to step up.

I’ve said this on HopEUm many times. I’m one of G2’s biggest critics because I also think they have the highest expectations. This is the T1 of Europe. I hate to simplify it that much, but they’re expected to win everything all the time, and they have for a long time, so let’s see what happens during the playoffs.

Since G2’s goals are so much bigger than just winning some regular season games, do you think they can sometimes struggle to retain focus during the grind of the split?

It’s so hard to answer that question because we can only make assumptions. You and I can watch and say that we’ve watched this team and these players for such a long time. I’ve watched BrokenBlade pick champions like Lee Sin top and dominate with it, but it didn’t work this time. I’ve watched them play as a team, Leona, Xin Zhao, dive comps, and I’ve seen it work in the past, but it didn’t this time.

Then you get to the final game of the regular season, they’re 5-5. If they lose to Fnatic, they are eliminated from playoffs. If they beat Fnatic, they qualify for playoffs. And they kicked the crap out of Fnatic. Now, it must be said that Fnatic had just qualified for playoffs, so maybe Fnatic was the one that lost focus there.

The problem is, we’ll never know until we see them compete again in a best-of series, and until we see if they stay in the upper bracket or pull a G2 and lose in round one and drop to Heretics and have to do the lower-bracket run. These are all things that can happen with this team. They’re always a roller coaster. But I don’t think it’ll be fair to point to them losing focus, at least until we see how they perform [in best-of series play].

Looking at the final LEC split of 2025, G2 absolutely dominated, so it’s hard to write them off now.

You absolutely can’t.

I’ll also say quickly, on playoffs expectations, if we only take four weeks of the regular season into account, I think KC should be the favorites. I think if they can maintain that level in games two and three, I’m scared for the likes of KOI or G2, who I expect to step up. And I’m hopeful that NAVI can be a competitor, because those are my four teams of the eight that I’m looking at.

I just don’t think you can discount the competitive experience and the ability to perform under pressure. KC, KOI, and G2 have years of experience more than many of the other teams competing, so these are going to be the top teams that I’m looking at.

What role does the HopEUm podcast play in the LEC retaining its momentum from early 2026, especially after the loss of EUphoria?

The HopEUm podcast or show, first and foremost, is trying to do something that hasn’t been done before. Anybody that is reading this interview will know about League of Legends podcasts, and there are many of them. There are different avenues, creators, and shows, and we’re going into a crowded space. But there’s a difference with HopEUm because we’re built on language-based co-streaming.

G2 has got a French co-streamer with Skyyart, German with Sola, Italian with Brizz, Caltys is Swedish but broadcasts in English, Send0o in Spain, Wadid with Korean, Jankos with Polish, there’s one more that I’m missing, and I’m going to get into trouble, but it’s an army of co-streamers. Being able to bring these people together to discuss the game, to discuss League of Legends, EMEA, Europe, EMEA Masters, LEC, business, while they are streaming to their audiences.

A still from HopEUm Episode 2 – Image credit: HopEUm

I get to literally be on show and say, “Skyyart, tell me who you think the best French players are from your French viewers.” And then I get to say, “Sola, is he right? Do we think we have a better idea?” You know, we get to play with these things. We’ve only done four episodes at the time that we’re chatting, and I have a lot of excitement for the future about leaning into bringing these languages together, leaning into shared storytelling, because as someone who watches the English broadcast, and really consumes the English content, I got to teach all of these other language streamers.

For example, Yukino and Kamiloo are called the Smile Bros. They ask what I mean, and I just say in the English broadcast, just look at them, so we just call them the Smile Bros. It actually didn’t make the leap to other languages. That’s only one very small example, but my hope and my optimistic view looking forward is that HopEUm will be a bridge between some of these disparate communities.

I love the passion, I love the investment, and frankly, I love the heated discussions between, let’s say, Spain and France, or France and the EMEA region. But I also think there’s a hunger and desire to actually learn and celebrate and bring some of that togetherness there.

The second thing I’ll mention, about EUphoria, is that it’s not meant to be a replacement [of that show]. We just happened to have a timing window that happened to be around the same time that EUphoria was about to go down. It was never targeted to be a replacement. They’re different products.

EUphoria was a very internal, all-access podcast that got members from every single team, their management staff, and international guests, and they focused on one team, or one player, or one story a week.

We’re focusing on every language, every game, every team. While it’s hosted and put on by G2, we actually have a mandate that only 20% of our show can be G2-focused. Because the goal is not to be a G2 prom. The goal is to discuss the League of Legends ecosystem, the competitive space. The goal is to create a show that is bigger than the rest of us.

Los Ratones, in some ways, raised the bar in fan interest with this split. How does the LEC keep that going after losing the team?

On the topic of Los Ratones disbanding and what impact it will have, Caedrel is still the most-watched League of Legends personality. For a long time last year, he was the most-watched Twitch personality. I stand to be corrected, but I think he had the highest number of hours viewed, was literally in competition with Kai Cenat, which is wild. So Caedrel’s co-streaming and his community and stuff will be there.

Now, will it have less of a draw because the [Los Ratones] players are not there and not competing? Yes, of course.

But let’s also not kid ourselves. Los Ratones and KC Blue being number one and number two in EMEA Masters is probably a big reason why the Versus tournament format was changed. We’re in a period of change, we’re in a period of adaptation. The League format is changing, and the League viewers are adapting. Millennials, Gen Z, Gen Alpha, we have different viewing habits, different viewing tastes, different preferences, the rise of co-streamers is there to see.

All of these things are coming together, and Los Ratones is just one piece of that puzzle. It’s not an easy answer because they’re the golden goose right now and can do no wrong, apparently, but they don’t exist anymore, so what will come next and fill that void? Will it be a vacuum, or will somebody else come in and step up to take the mantle?

It’s an exciting prospect because it means there’s possibility, but it’s also a little bit scary.

Feature image credit: HopEUm

Hannan Mundia

About Hannan Mundia

Hannan Mundia is a lifelong gamer. Don’t believe us? Just ask him. But don’t ask how many hours he’s spent playing. He’s been gaming since the age of three, and much of his live revolves around video games and the video game industry. Whether it’s a classic Legend of Zelda game from Nintendo, the newest Bethesda RPG, or something else entirely, you can bet that Hannan is ready and willing to play it.

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