Karmine Corp officially extend Caliste's contract until 2028

The timing of the official announcement could not have landed better. For the last weekend of LEC, Caliste once again made KC fans lose their minds, claiming his first Tier 1 pentakill in front of a packed Madrid Arena against the home side, MKOI. He then got up and shushed the entire crowd — silencing a Spanish arena once again, less than 24 hours after Ibai's trash talk had set the rivalry on fire.

G2 had been watching?

It's no secret G2 Esports have had Caliste on their radar for several years. Speaking on OTP_LoL's Dans le Carré show on Tuesday evening, G2's general manager Romain conceded that KC had "handled their negotiations well."

"It's always tricky as a club to convince a player to re-sign before the offseason opens, because that always works out more in the club's favour than the player's," he explained.

He went on to openly regret that the deal closed early. "For the whole ecosystem, it would have been more fun if we'd reached the end of the contract with Caliste," he said. Romain clarified that G2 had not been able to approach the player directly — speaking to a player under contract is considered poaching and is banned under Riot's global policy — and added that he had not spoken to KC about Caliste in some time either. "If we were in a timeline where Caliste and Hans Sama were available at the end of the year, I can tell you players and teams could run a real mercato, with players actually having to choose their partner, the teams having to choose the right combinations etc."

For Karmine Corp, locking in their generational talent before the rest of Europe could even put a number on the table is the kind of long-term move that defines an organisation's ambition. For Caliste, the 'Très Prestigieux' throne is no longer something to wait for — it is his.