The newly announced international League of Legends event, First Stand, will be held for the first time between March 10 and 16 in Seoul, South Korea.
Tournament Information
Only the winners from the five major regions will participate in First Stand 2025, meaning a total of five teams. They will first compete in a single round-robin stage, where all matches will be best-of-three (Bo3). The top four teams will advance to the knockout stage.
The knockout stage will feature a single-elimination bracket with best-of-five (Bo5) matches. All matches in this event will use Fearless Draft, which has been adopted across all regions in 2025. The winner of First Stand 2025 will take home USD $300,000 and secure a direct spot in the bracket stage of the next international event of the year, MSI 2025.
Riot will use game patch 25.05 for this event. The major update in this patch introduces lane swap detection before three minutes and 30 seconds of in-game time, with penalties imposed on the lane-swapping team. This update may restrict lane-swapping tactics, and the top lane is expected to return to traditional 1v1 matchups.
Opening matches and team preview
Team Liquid (+151*) vs. Karmine Corp (-185*)
Team Liquid (TL) has not made any roster changes in 2025. The team won the LTA Cross-Conference, reclaiming its position as the top team in the region after losing to FlyQuest in the LCS Summer 2024 finals. Veteran Top Laner Jeong "Impact" Eon-young, now 30 years old, continues to perform consistently. His experience has been a significant advantage in the lane-swapping meta, but it remains to be seen how he will adapt if the top lane returns to traditional 1v1 matchups.
TL has not achieved significant international success in recent years, with its last notable result being a first runner-up finish in 2019. The team’s goal for First Stand 2025 is to at least advance to the knockout stage.
Karmine Corp (KC), a popular French organization, has ended G2 Esports’s dynasty in the LEC. The most notable roster change for KC in 2025 was signing former G2 Jungler Martin "Yike" Sundelin, who has continued to prove himself as the best Jungler in Europe with a dominant 3-0 sweep against his former team, G2.
However, KC’s Mid Laner and AD Carry were promoted to the LEC roster last year and are still relatively new to the top-tier pro circuit. First Stand 2025 will mark the team’s international debut, which could be a potential uncertainty for the team.
Best bets: TL Money Line (+151*) and Total Maps Over 2.5 (-113*)
Bet: Team Liquid vs. Karmine Corp odds
Hanwha Life (-182*) vs. Top Esports (+149*)
If you’ve been following our League of Legends Weekly Best Bets in 2025, you won’t be unfamiliar with these two teams. They are the winners of the LCK Cup and LPL Split 1, respectively.
Hanwha Life Esports (HLE) had a tough journey in the LCK Cup playoffs, winning four intense five-game series against T1, Dplus KIA (DK), and Gen.G to claim its first-ever LCK Cup title.
Mid Laner Kim "Zeka" Geon-woo is on a nine-series winning streak in five-game series, a record that will be hard to break. Top Laner Choi "Zeus" Woo-je has seamlessly integrated into his new team, earning three series MVP titles out of the four series he played during the playoffs and being crowned the Finals MVP.
However, the team’s instability lies in veteran Jungler Han "Peanut" Wang-ho, particularly his performance on Zyra, which has a 0% win rate in four games played. Additionally, HLE’s performance on the red side has been questioned, as most of the team’s wins in five-game series came while playing on the blue side.
Top Esports (TES) also faced a challenging path in the LPL knockout stage, fighting its way through the lower bracket. TES defeated top LPL teams like Bilibili Gaming (BLG), JD Gaming (JDG), and Anyone’s Legend (AL). TES won every Bo5 match in the knockout stage with a 3-1 score, never needing to go to a fifth game —a stark contrast to HLE’s journey.
TES’s new Jungler in 2025, Seo "Kanavi" Jin-hyeok, has brought a fresh style to the team. His ability to secure jungle control, farm resources, and stand out in the late game has addressed TES’s long-standing issue of relying too heavily on AD Carry Wenbo "JackeyLove" Yu to deal damage in late-game team fights.
Top Laner Bai "369" Jiahao has also evolved significantly this season. Once criticized for only playing tank champions, he now boasts a diverse champion pool, the lowest average deaths, the highest damage per minute among LPL Top Laners, and the highest average 15-minute lead against his opponents. Much of this improvement can be credited to TES signing Yoon "Homme" Sung-young as head coach this season. As a former pro Top Laner, “Homme” has successfully coached four different teams to win top-tier titles throughout his career.
This matchup will likely depend on whether HLE can secure the blue side in Game 1. If the team can start on the blue side, it may gain a significant advantage.
Best bets: Handicap TES +1.5 (-224*) and Total Maps Over 2.5 (-113*)
Bet: Hanwha Life vs. Top Esports odds
*Odds subject to change
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