Will Rekkles be a Rat?
Martin “Rekkles” Larsson is returning home. The European League of Legends legend announced on Wednesday on X that he has decided to leave the T1 Academy and return to Sweden. Following three mixed years on the European circuit, the former Fnatic star joined the world's biggest club in 2024 to debut as a support in the LCK CL, South Korea's secondary league. Despite a challenging start, with a 9th-place finish in the Spring, Rekkles secured a 4th-place finish in the Summer Split. He resurfaced in the public spotlight accompanying Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok and his teammates to Europe for the Worlds, experiencing T1’s fifth world championship victory firsthand—their second consecutive title—six years after his own 2018 Worlds final loss.
On X, Rekkles shared the reasoning behind his decision in detail: “When I received the offer from Becker last year to come to Korea and try out for the LCK CL team, I was not in a great place mentally. I had recently been diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum, and combined with a family accident and a couple of tough years since leaving Fnatic in 2020, I was struggling. Because of this, I was actually leaning toward taking a break for the 2024 season. But since it was T1 asking, I knew future Martin would regret not giving it a try. I think we can all agree this was the right decision, but, as expected, it did not fix my issues—it just put them on hold. Now, I believe it is time for me to address those challenges, and to do that, I need to be in Sweden close to my family.”
King in the North
Rekkles also mentioned that a team had offered him the possibility of competing from his home in Sweden. Though he has not provided details on this team, speculation is mounting on X, where fans anticipate his joining Los Ratones, the new team formed by streamer and former pro player Marc “Caedrel” Lamont. The two are close friends; Rekkles broke his silence last April in an interview on Caedrel's stream after a period of social media hiatus. If the rumors hold (the roster announcement is expected on Friday, November 15), According to the same rumors, Los Ratones could compete in the Northern League, where Rekkles may therefore reclaim his title as the “King in the North.”
Header Photo Credit: Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games