The Ongoing Rivalry Between LFL and LVP in Regional League of Legends
A Tale of Two Leagues: French and Spanish Regional Competition
The rivalry between France’s LFL (La Ligue Française) and Spain’s LVP (Liga de Videojuegos Profesional) continues to shape the European regional League of Legends landscape. With both leagues recently completing their Winter 2025 seasons, we can now analyze how the French and Spanish fan communities engaged with their respective competitions.
Origins of the Rivalry
The competitive dynamic between LFL and LVP emerged several years ago, primarily driven by popular streaming personalities and their team organizations. Kamel “Kameto” Kebir’s Karmine Corp in France and Ibai Llanos’ KOI in Spain brought unprecedented attention to their regional leagues, occasionally rivaling the viewership of major franchise leagues that offer World Championship qualification. Though both organizations have since advanced to the LEC (League of Legends EMEA Championship), their academy teams maintain a presence in their respective regional leagues, continuing to fuel the rivalry.
Viewership Comparison: Winter 2025
Early 2025 data reveals a clear advantage for the French fan community. LFL Winter 2025 significantly outperformed LVP Superliga Winter 2025, recording more than twice the total watch hours and nearly three times higher peak and average viewership figures. This occurred despite the Spanish league featuring more unique streaming channels covering the competition.
Notably, the most-watched matches in both leagues weren’t championship finals but regular season games featuring the academy teams of Karmine Corp and KOI—both of which ended in defeats for these popular organizations.
LFL Winter 2025: Growth and Evolution
The French league demonstrated impressive growth, with LFL Winter 2025 achieving a 21% increase in average viewership compared to Summer 2024. This upward trend can be attributed to the expanding presence of media-backed organizations in the league. Beyond Karmine Corp Blue, new teams like Gentle Mates (owned by streamer Corentin “Gotaga” Houssein) and Joblife (backed by Toma “JLTomy” Abdellaoui) have joined the competition.
The league’s reformatted structure—now half the length of previous seasons—contributed to viewership dynamics. While this shortened format reduced total watch hours by approximately 30%, it maintained consistently higher average viewership throughout the competition.
However, the French league continues to rely heavily on Kameto’s personal streams, which have seen gradually declining viewership for LFL content. This trend appears less related to Kameto’s personal popularity and more to fan preference for following Karmine Corp’s main team in the LEC rather than its academy roster in the LFL.
LVP Superliga Winter 2025: Challenges and Declines
The Spanish league faced significant viewership challenges during its Winter 2025 season, recording notable declines in both total watch hours and peak viewership.
A primary factor behind this downturn was Ibai’s nearly two-month streaming hiatus at the beginning of 2025. This absence impacted not only LVP Superliga viewership but also LEC numbers. While other KOI streamers like Jaime Mellado and Alejandro “kuentinlol” Cotrina covered matches, they couldn’t compensate for Ibai’s absence.
The official LVPes channel also experienced substantial viewership drops, with average viewership falling by 34.5% and peak viewership decreasing by a dramatic 85% compared to the previous season.
This season highlighted the vulnerability of relying too heavily on individual streamers and community-driven broadcasts. Had Kameto not streamed LFL matches, the French league’s viewership figures would likely have been considerably less impressive as well.
