Karmine Corp Blue will enter the EMEA Masters Winter on March 17 with a revamped roster. Fresh off securing their fourth LFL championship title, the Blue Wall announced two roster changes for the regional competition on Friday, with a video from Zouhair "Kotei" Darji. First, KC officially validated reports from Sheep Esports, which had revealed an hour earlier that the club had reached an agreement with SK Gaming to swap their respective junglers.

As part of this deal, KC has sent Mehdi “Boukada” Lahlou to the LEC while securing SK’s now-former player, Ismaïl “ISMA” Boualem. Kotei confirmed that ISMA would compete in the EMEA Masters, despite initial uncertainty. Indeed, according to the 2025 ERL Rulebook, "A Player who has participated in more than 50% of the Matches in the current LEC Split is ineligible to participate in any ERL Regular Season, Play-Offs, and the EM event for the current Split." ISMA, having played the entirety of the LEC Winter Split with SK, should therefore be ineligible to compete in the EMEA Masters under this rule.

According to our sources, KC had requested an exception from Riot and was awaiting a response when we released our report. Karmine Corp therefore answered the question, but included the caveat “pending Riot approval” in their official statement. Notably, ISMA’s last match in the ERL before moving to SK Gaming in the LEC was the EMEA Masters final, where he played for Movistar Riders—against none other than Karmine Corp.

“Piero won’t be playing the EMEA Masters with us due to visa issues”

Beyond this, Karmine also clarified a situation that had sparked confusion on Thursday evening. During an interview on OTP—the official LFL broadcaster—KCB’s South Korean support, Kim “Piero” Jeong-hoon, had hinted that visa issues might prevent him from competing in the tournament. “Piero won’t be playing the EMEA Masters with us due to visa issues,” Kotei confirmed in the video. “He needs to renew his visa, which takes about 20 days in Korea, and that process overlaps with the EM schedule,” he explained.

As a result, Kotei announced that Emilien “Nsurr” Gergaud, the support player of KC’s Division 2 team, Blue Stars, would temporarily step in for Piero. “He’s been part of our training sessions and reviews for some time now,” added the club’s co-founder. Nsurr has previous experience at the EMEA Masters, having qualified winning the LPLOL (Portugal) in Spring 2023. However, his team, GTZ Esports, struggled in the play-in stage, finishing with one win and five losses. Piero will be back with the team for the start of the Spring Split.