LR Rekkles: “It’s important I don’t lose myself along the way. That I keep Martin in mind too, and not just Rekkles”

Los Ratones’ debut in the LEC Versus has been anything but smooth. Despite the hype and high expectations surrounding the roster, results in the opening weeks of the league fell short. Losses quickly piled up and pressure mounted on the team. On Sunday, January 25, the narrative shifted with LR’s first win in the league—and Martin “Rekkles” Larsson’s first LEC victory since 2023.Following the match against Team Heretics, Rekkles sat with Sheep Esports to reflect on his team’s struggle to balance fun with competitiveness and his teammates’ feelings on pro play. Rekkles opens up about the challenges of adapting to a constantly changing game, even as a veteran pro player, his experience about the importance of mental health awareness in the ecosystem, and the uncertainty of his future.

First, right off the bat, how do you feel after your first win back in the LEC three years?

Martin “Rekkles” Larsson: “It’s a good feeling, but I’m happy mostly for my teammates more than anything. I have been through this situation many times before where you have a tough start and all the odds are stacked against you and there’s stress and emotions and everything. So I’m kind of used to it in a sad way. I’m kind of used to it, but for my teammates—and also because of the situation of us only playing one split with a short time span—we needed something like this, just to get some hope, some joy, some happiness going.

For every loss we took, I feel like we got lower and lower in our energy, which is completely understandable. We only have 11 games this Split, so the closer we get to the end of that, the closer we get to also the end of our time here in Berlin. So it’s just really important that we get these wins from time to time to boost everyone up and to get that relief in the team that we can actually do this. So we have some hope.

For myself, for my own game and my own mental state, I don’t need the wins to keep going. I will keep going anyway. But for us as a group and for the rookies that we have, we have older players, but the two rookies actually, it’s really important that we get a few positive days as well and not just negative days.

I meant to ask you about your team morale after the broadcast highlighed a clip of Simon “Baus” Hofverbergon where he shared how he felt about pro play. Could you give a bit of insight on how you and your teammates tackled the situation and his feedback?

Rekkles: I would say it’s been quite a troublesome situation because we started the team as a fun project and throughout 2025 we kind of–how would you say–push the narrative that we are just going to do this our way no matter what, no matter the meta, we’re going to do it our way. But once we got this promotion to the LEC for the Split and we realized the level was going to be higher, we had to sort of figure out how much we can keep that and how much do we actually have to change and try to be more of a serious team. So it’s been a troublesome situation because all of us really want to be the fun team, play our picks our way and not care at all about what is the correct thing to do. But we also know all of us that this is not going to be possible if we want to win.

So we’re trying to find the sweet spot, the middle ground, where we can still bring out the Los Ratones way without it becoming too much of a fun game. We wanted to be in a serious and fun game at the same time, and sometimes we’re too much towards the fun. So it’s important we sprinkled in some serious, and I think we have done a decent job so far. We’re still keeping, for example, Baus’ champion pool intact for the most part rather than letting him play his champions the way he wants to play them. The bigger issue for him has actually been the fact that they changed the game going into this year. They drastically changed the game and basically everything he did before doesn’t really work anymore.

I also feel like everything I did before doesn’t really work anymore.I’m actually having probably my toughest time individually as far as I can remember going back. And for someone like Baus that must just be amplified then because he plays in a very special way and the new League of Legends in 2026 is completely different to everything I have experienced before. At least I can imagine for someone like him, it’s impossible to figure out how you should be doing this. I can’t even figure it out for myself how I should be doing this. So it’s sadly a pretty troublesome situation, but we are talking about it and trying to keep the Los Ratones spirit.

It’s important, no matter the results, that we keep the Los Ratones spirit all the way and we don’t become just any team in the LEC, we came here to not be any team in the LEC. So it’s important we keep that in mind no matter if we win or lose, no matter where this all ends, that we did this and we played the champions we wanted and yeah, we kept our spirit all the way.

When it comes to gameplay changes, how difficult is it for a pro player to keep on playing at the highest level in a game, in a sport that changes constantly? Even with its tournament formats.

Rekkles: It is kind of sad to become a veteran because being a veteran means absolutely nothing in the League of Legends world. As you said back then, everything was different. The game looked different, it was played different, the client was different. Nowadays, anything I did back then holds no weight whatsoever.

So being a veteran basically means nothing. I have to put in the same work now as I did back then. It wouldn’t work for other games or sports in general. There, once you have reached a certain level, since it doesn’t really change, you can just work on your fundamentals and keep it going that way. But for League of Legends specifically, it’s really important to just go for quantity over quality basically. It’s important to play a lot of games, especially now with the new season I’m trying to play more than ever because I just feel like there’s so much to learn.

So all of my previous years, all of my years of struggle and hard work and everything, it basically means nothing. It’s important that for every day, every new year, every new challenge I’m doing, every new professional year, I come in with a new sense of energy and basically I should never feel privileged to chill because I did something the previous year. It holds no weight in the League of Legends world and now more than ever.

I feel like basically everything I did before, the way I played the game, the way I thought about it, it means absolutely nothing because now everything is different from the start of the game till the end, the way the waves work, the towers, the way minions work. Nothing I did last year helps me this year, for example. So it’s just really important to come in with that energy all the time and not lean on the fact that I did good last year or the previous years.

You mentioned your growth and your mental health more than once in your stream and on your socials as well. And this year, the LEC has introduced a partnership with Movember to help pro players and their mental health. How important do you think it is for a pro player to have these kinds of talks to improve as a person and as a player?

Rekkles: It’s more important than anything. It’s what saved me a couple of times throughout my career. There were moments I just thought I couldn’t do it anymore. And if I kept that to myself and I didn’t talk to anyone and work on the issues that I had in my life, I would probably have retired the way many players retire at an early age.

So, it’s more important than anything to be able to talk to someone and to work on yourself as a person, not as a player all the time. Because so much of what we do is working on ourselves as players. That’s the majority of the day, like 95% of the time and it’s important to let some of that percentage go to the personal part too. And I think the older I get, the more I realize if I don’t take care of myself when I’m done with this, I will be a broken individual. I will not be a real person, so to speak.

It’s more important than ever, now that I’m growing up and getting older, that I take care of myself and I’m nice to myself. As much as I love the game and I want to become the best, and I will probably want that for as long as I can possibly play this game, it’s important I don’t lose myself along the way,that I keep Martin in mind too, and not just Rekkles, Rekkles, Rekkles, it’s also Martin, somewhere in there. So as much as I want to [play] until someone drags me off the stage, it’s important I don’t lose myself along that journey. Martin is key too, not just Rekkles.

What does your future look like after the LEC Versus with Los Ratones?

Rekkles: I’m not sure what the future holds. When we got the opportunity to come here for a Split, I obviously came to the conclusion that it’s going to be quite scary in February—or whenever we are done here, March maybe—because normally I have this yearly plan, I’m a person that really likes the calendar to be exactly. So when I have this uncertainty in front of me, it’s quite scary.

And I knew that going into this, that regardless of this great memory we are making here, there is going to come a point I go home and I have nothing to do perhaps for the rest of the year. So that’s quite scary to have in front of me. But it was my duty to follow this project through. It would be weird for me to sit at home or to be on another team to watch Los Ratones play without me.

I thought it was my duty no matter how this ends for me in February, March, whenever, and how the future looks because this [project] was important for me to follow through and to do this together with my friends all the way. We started Los Ratones as a fun thing, as a friends’ group, and I want to end it that way too.

But I know of course the future is not the best situation for me because most likely I will be without anything to do for the rest of this year. And even though in the grand scheme of things if I’m just streaming and playing SoloQ for a few months, it’s not that big of a deal. But actually it is. In the esport world, everything moves so fast. If I don’t play for a Split already, that’s a big deal. So it’s a scary thing to have in front of me, but I’m trying just to focus on the now and to think all the time to myself. I did this because I wanted to follow through on the project. There was no such thing as leaving it behind no matter what. So I just try to focus on the now.

For how long would you want to keep on playing?

Rekkles: I want to play for as long as possible. I feel like since Faker (Lee Sang-hyeok) is playing and he’s older than me, there is just no reason to even think about it. He’s just a few months older than me. He’s born in May and I’m born in September, but we’re the same year. But basically what I meant with that was just he’s the best player in the world and he’s been the best player in the world many years of his career, maybe not every year, but for many years at different times, early in his career, mid in his career, late in his career has been the best player in the entire world.

So I think retirement shouldn’t even be on my mind because he’s older than me, so why wouldn’t I be able to do it? We are both human in the end, and if he’s able to push through and to do this, I should be able to do it too. But of course, it’s not as simple as ‘I want to play, so I’m going to play,’ we will see after the Los Ratones project, where I end up. I guess it depends on how we do as a team, how I do as an individual, what I would like to do myself, what kind of projects I would like to take on.

For example, the last two, or I guess including these three years, have been really fun projects. Being in Korea with T1 and Los Ratones last year and a little bit this year has been really fun projects. Different from if I think 2021, 2022, 2023 when I was really… when everything on my mind was just LEC, and ‘I have to win, I have to win, I have to win.’

When I was in G2 then KC and Fnatic, all that was on my mind was ‘I have to win, I have to be the best,’ which is still of course on my mind, but that was the only thing I was thinking about. I was actually driving myself a bit crazy maybe. And since I took a different approach, like, ‘okay, I’m just going to focus on the process, the journey. I’m going to try to become the best version of myself, the best player I can possibly be, and therefore go to Korea because that’s the best place to do it.’ And then play in Los Ratones because it’s a group of friends and I know I will feel comfortable. Ever since then, it’s just been better for me. Before, it was a bit tougher.

So I guess I’m more thinking if Los Ratones were to come to an end and I have nothing to do, maybe this is more the approach I want to take. Consider going back to Korea, if that’s an option. See if Los Ratones can continue in some sort of fashion. It depends what possibilities there are for in the LEC, for example. But I am in a better place now than I was during the last couple of years before.

So it’s just important thatI keep in mind what kind of situations I should put myself in, and I don’t just throw myself at the LEC for no reason. It’s important that I really put myself with the right group of people and I focus on the right things. It is about winning, but it’s not about that all the time. It has to be about the process, how you do things on a daily basis, and then the wins will come. It shouldn’t be if I win then life is good. If I lose then life is bad. It should be if I’m doing well, if my process is good, if I’m working hard and I’m doing everything I can for my team, life is good. There hasn’t to be a win at the end of that. Of course, that’s what we want, but it’s important. I focus on the process, the journey, and I take on situations that align with that and not just throw myself at any chance I can get a few wins.”