A Collision Course of Conquest: The Story of Karmine Corp and its Journey to Find a Super Star
Within the hallowed halls of the Rocket League Championship Series, a multitude of organizations and teams span the walls of greatness. League Play greats like Dignitas, G2 Esports, NRG, and Team Vitality. Circuit era titans like Team BDS and Team Falcons.
Among them is perhaps now one of the winningest organizations in league history, an organization that came about after the inaugural circuit season began.
Karmine Corp is a French powerhouse founded by the streaming giants Kamel "Kameto" Kebir and Zouhair "Kotei" Darji back in 2020. In addition to their recent dominance in League of Legends, KC has also taken Rocket League by storm, winning two RLCS majors, an Esports World Cup title, and 12 regional RLCS titles.
They didn’t just pick up a team and dominate though. While they certainly have held all of the headlines in Europe recently, their first season or so had them scrapping amongst five or six other teams for the head of the table in the league’s most dominant region.
Chapter 1: The Beginning.
On a humid and foggy night in France, The Blue Wall made its first splash down into the Rocket League Esports scene. The organization announced that they had signed Belgian veteran Aztral, Spanish star Stake, and Itachi, a Moroccan upstart coming out of his rookie season with Giants Gaming.
Stake and Itachi had teamed together the season prior on Giants, and alongside Zamue, the trio missed the RLCS Season X European Championships by 1 spot, finishing seventh in the region. The squad that ended up outpacing them in the Spring Major to snag their Champs spot was Solary, led by Aztral.
Aztral was coming off a European Championship in Season 9 with Dignitas, and was unable to try and play for a title internationally due to the COVID pandemic. Together, this trio had their sights set on qualifying for the first RLCS LAN post-covid, and getting Aztral his second ever shot at the most coveted title in the game, a Rocket League World Champion.
A couple of months later, it was time for The Blue Wall to make their Rocket League Esports debut. Because they had kept 2/3rds of their roster from the previous season, Stake, Itachi, and Aztral were invited to compete in the WePlay Esports Invitational featuring Rocket League.
They quickly recorded their org’s first win in the game, beating SMPR Esports (Kassio, Archie, Chaussette45) in the first round. They then matched up against a bitter local rival, and the defending EU Champion, in Team Vitality, dispatching of them as well.
Team BDS proved to be too much for KC in the upper final, and having dominated much of the Season X circuit, M0nkey M00n, MaRc_By_8, and Extra were poised to enter the new season with some serious momentum.
With Vitality eliminated, KC were matched up against Dignitas in the lower final, and after a thrilling back and forth affair, KC finally landed the knockout punch in game 7 overtime to get another crack at the French juggernauts.
In a controversial format design, the tournament organizers opted to implement Best of Set for the finals, where teams would need two best of 7 series wins to take the championship. This was a bit controversial, as typically in a double elimination bracket, the upper bracket team is given an entire series advantage, only having to win one series while the team coming from lowers must win two.
Without such an advantage, Team BDS took the first series but were unable to close it out in the next two, and the underdogs had won the first tournament they had ever played in. It was their first tournament, first title, and first of many.
Chapter 2: Running the Gauntlet
With a big, A-Tier tournament win under the belts of Karmine Corp, they looked next to the Rocket League Championship Series. This would be the second iteration of the open tournament format, and the first one with international majors instead of regional ones. This meant more exclusive end-of-split events, and a harder run in EU.
To qualify for the Main Event, KC first had to run a 3 day long bracket. It started with two days of a double elimination bracket, and ended with two 16-team Swiss Stages, with the top 8 of each Swiss qualifying for the second weekend, and as a result, the Main Event.
In this particular season, teams could avoid the “pre-gauntlet gauntlet” by surviving an initial Swiss Stage offered to the Top 16 teams in EU from the previous season. KC did just that, going 3-2 on the day to qualify for the second weekend.
In their RLCS debut, they played yet another Swiss Stage and steamrolled through it, beating Misfits Gaming, 00Nation, and Giants Gaming to qualify for the playoffs. In the quarterfinals of the single elimination playoff bracket, they survived a game 7 thriller against Williams Resolve, and looked poised to repeat their success from the preseason.
Their momentum screeched to a halt however, as Endpoint bested them in game 7 of the semifinals, and went on to beat Team BDS to win the first regional of the season over in EU. Still, a top 4 performance is great for a team’s outlook during a run to the major. Consistent teams are rewarded for at least a couple of playoff wins and typically make it to the next stage of competition on LAN.
Unfortunately for Karmine Corp, they just weren’t a consistent team just yet. Consistency was something that plagued Itachi and Stake in the previous season, and even Aztral to an extent. Because of this, it was disappointing but not shocking when in regional 2, KC bowed out in last place, going 0-3 in Swiss with losses to Vitality, FC Barcelona, and Giants.
They needed a good showing in the final regional to salvage their split. After surviving the Swiss Stage in round 5, they suffered a second playoff loss to Endpoint, and finished 7th in Europe, missing out on the Major by two spots.
Split 2 was better for consistency, but consistency as a top 8 team. They continued to struggle in playoff series, bowing out in the top 8 twice— once to Dignitas and once to a trio of virtual unknowns to the general RLCS fandom at the time, Team Queso.
Chapter 3: A Quick Ascent to the Top
Team Queso as an organization had been around since the Open Era began, and after their bid to extend contracts with Spanish household names AtomiK, DmentZa, and VKSailen fell short to one from Giants Gaming, they found themselves out of a team.
Elsewhere, English players Rise and Joyo both made their RLCS debuts in Season X. Rise made a few scattered regionals during his rookie season under Barrage Esports, and Joyo made his debut in the final split under the team name “Howard.” Over the offseason, the two teamed up and picked up a young French player by the name of Vatira.
The team’s run as “Magnolia” was brief, and after dominating the Alienware Tournament Series during the offseason without even dropping a game, Team Queso was convinced. They signed the team and announced the signing ahead of the 2021-22 season, and earned a call to the invitational Swiss Stage qualifier before the regular season kicked off.
Their first split went about as expected for a bunch of newcomers. They recorded a couple of wins in the first two opens, and even made a playoff appearance in the final event of the opening split, but found themselves tied for ninth place in Europe with two-thirds of the season still to go.
It was split 2 when they exploded. After sneaking into the Main Event in the fifth round of Swiss, Queso absolutely dominated groups, going 3-0 and only dropping 3 games. Then in the playoffs, they snuck past Williams Resolve in game 7, swept the best team in the world in Team BDS, and 4-1’d Dignitas in the Grand Finals.
If the talent wasn’t clear by their quick rises to the top, it certainly was now. Vatira, Joyo, and Rise went from getting their first ever RLCS playoff appearance, to winning the entire thing the very next tournament.
Queso’s split of destiny continued with another final appearance and a second regional championship, and they capped it off with a thrilling lower bracket run to nearly take down G2 Esports at the Winter Major in front of a rowdy Los Angeles crowd.
Chapter 4: Crossing Paths
While Queso was enjoying a historical breakout for their entire roster, Karmine Corp’s inagural season was not going quite as well. Split 2 kicked off with a loss in the top 8 and a 9-12 finish for the Blue Wall, and their split and Winter Major hopes came to an end at the hands of Team Queso in Winter Open #3.
Karmine Corp finished two spots out of Major contention, and sat two spots outside of Worlds contention heading into the final split of the season. They needed a boost, and desperately.
During the final trade window of the season, they got one. The Blue Wall saw Stake removed from the team and replaced with Englishman Noly, who had split the last season and a half with Guild Esports.
The fire he brought to the team was immediately obvious. Despite a quick loss in the first Main Event to SMPR, KC strung together 3 straight wins to make it to the top 6. Then, they made it all the way to the lower finals of the second Spring regional, defeating Vatira and his new organization Moist Esports to make it to the top 3. Then, a top 8 was all they needed to go dancing for the first time in org history. Karmine Corp was going to LAN.
Chapter 5: The Last Dance (of the season)
Entering the Spring Major in London, Karmine Corp was 230 points away from tying Evil Geniuses for the final spot at the RLCS Word Championship. All they needed was a single series win to pass EG and make it to the biggest tournament in Rocket League.
Admittedly, although there was some drama and pressure of getting that win, the series to clinch Worlds for KC was pretty anticlimactic. They matched up against SAM1 and dismantled them in three games, outscoring the Brazilians 9-0 in the final two games of the series.
Their mentality for this tournament wasn’t to just get that one win and dip out though. The job was not finished. They matched up against the defending Major champions in G2 Esports, and played a screamer of a match.
G2 took the first two of the series and looked poise to go on another tear to the Grand Finals, taking a 1 goal lead into the final 30 seconds of the game.
Noly didn’t want to go quietly into the night however, and ego-challenged Chicago in his own corner and took it back the other way with 27 seconds on the clock. His cross-map air dribble found AztraL in midfield and AztraL found twine.
Then, off the kick-off, Itachi completely dominated the fifty-fifty and Karmine Corp suddenly had a lead. KC used this momentum switch to essentially tilt G2 out of the upper bracket and completed the reverse sweep for a date with Version1.
V1 looked immaculate this entire tournament. With rising star BeastMode on the squad and everyone’s favorite trash-talker Comm running point, NA had a very exciting team repping their region.
Defeating Moist the round prior was just the beginning. This team wanted to play spoiler against all of the European teams in front of the home crowd, and they did just that. In game 7, KC made a tragic mistake by keeping the ball up on 0 seconds with nobody back on defense, and V1 sailed a ball from past midfield all the way into the net to take the decider and land them in the upper finals.
Turns out that V1’s win over Moist, the one that prevented another clash between Vatira and his future home for life, just delayed the inevitable. KC and Moist both responded to adversity in lowers, with KC defeating FURIA once again, and Moist taking down Spacestation Gaming and Team Liquid, both in game 7, to make it to the top 4.
There was no such cardio needed in their showdown however. Much like KC’s Worlds clincher earlier in the tournament, this series was anticlimactic. Its consequences, on the other hand, were major. Moist were here with unfinished business. They had came so close to a major title and were never going to leave London without one.
They got revenge on V1 in the lower final with a 4-0 thrashing over tthe Americans. Then, in the Grand Finals, Moist pulled off a stunner, winning the first series to force a bracket reset in game 7, and then freestyled all over the Falcons defense in series 2 to take home their first RLCS LAN win so early on in their careers. This was likely the moment that KC set their sights on a new French star.
Both KC and Vatira’s runs in the last, epic hurrah of the season ended in despair. After cruising through the World Championship Wildcard, KC once again matched up with FURIA, and this time, they were bested. FURIA was throwing haymakers at this event and it became overwhelmingly clear that they were here not just to get a playoff appearance for their region, but a star on their jerseys.
KC staggered back to their corner, and rebounded in round 2 with a 4-2 win over OpTic Gaming. They were now one series win away from a Worlds playoff spot. Unfortunately for them, or so it seemed, their opponent in the do-or-die match was the recent London Major runners-up in Falcons, who had just suffered a trouncing at the hands of FaZe Clan. Surely Falcons wouldn’t go out this early in the biggest tournament of their lives?
KC made sure that it wouldn’t be them in the wreckage. They jumped out to a quick 2-0 series lead, wavered a bit, and then took the next two games to close out the series in 6.
Moist on the other hand, was cruising. Wins over SSG and SMPR made it so that they were comfortably in the playoffs and looking to go back-to-back.
The playoffs were set, and the bracket was made for one last KC-Moist showdown. Neither team made it there. With seconds ticking away in game 7, Moist was clinging to a 1 goal lead. Vatira makes a brilliant stop with a squishy save to send CaioTG1’s waterfall pass away from danger. He could only watch in horror however, as his teammate Rise flies past him, leaving no one back in the Moist net. Desperately clawing his way back to the net, he realizes that Yanxnz’s follow up is just out of reach. It careens of Vatira’s car right into the back of the net for the equalizer.
Exactly 16 seconds later, all Vatira can do is jump and hope that Yanxnz isn’t able to beat him to the jump-ball in his own box. Yanxnz did exactly that, and FURIA had snatched the series from the hands of the number one seed.
Karmine Corp’s attempt at advancing to the semis wasn’t much better. They drew Team BDS in the quarterfinals, who granted wasn’t playing their best ball as of late. Coming off a last place finish in London to KCP did do something to put a fire under them however, and they went blow for blow with KC. The haymaker ended up being a full field shot capitalizing off a major overcommit, similar to the one that knocked them to lowers just a month prior. And that was it. Two great stories bowing out in 5-8th place. So where do we go from here?
Epilogue: KC finds their Franchise Player
On September 8th, 2022, a Joyo tweet rocked the community. The Englishman simply posted: “vatira has decided to move on, me and rise will be lf1 for the remainder of the offseason.” As quickly as their rise to the top started, their time together ended.
On September 21st, their replacement was set: Karmine Corp’s AztraL. A week and a half later, a partnership was formed and announced that would stand the test of (Rocket League) time. Alongside SMPR’s ExotiiK, Vatira would be joining Itachi and Karmine Corp for the 2022-23 season.
Then the results poured in. Three Grand Final Apperances to start off their season, as well as Karmine Corp’s first ever European RLCS Regional win. A Winter Major win over Firstkiller and friends. Two Flip & Spin titles. A Birmingham Major win (over Firstkiller and friends again??). An Esports World Cup win to boot. You name it, KC has won it. The only spot left in that trophy case, for both the Blue Wall and Vatira, is a Worlds Trophy. And this could finally be their season to get one.
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