In 2025, Riot Games announced a big change when organizing the First Stand 2025 tournament for 5 champions from 5 South Korean regions (LCK), China (LPL), Europe – North Africa – Middle East (EMEA), America (LTA) and Asia -Pacific (LCP). Finally, 5 representatives attending the tournament are Hanwha Life Esports (HLE), Top Esports (TES), Karmine Corp (KC), Team Liquid (TL) and CTBC Flying Oyster (CFO).
LCK was the first tournament to close when Hanwha Life Esports won the 2025 LCK Cup championship. Despite having to play from the Play-in, Peanut and his teammates overcome all other teams, eventually defeated Geng 3-2 in the final to become the first team to win the right to the tournament.
Just a few hours after the LCK final, CFO defeated Talon with a score of 3-1 to win the LCP championship. In the first season of LCP, the team from Taipei China has shown overwhelming performance, defeating both Vietnamese teams, MGN Vikings Esports and Gam Esports before, eventually overwhelming Talon compatriots to become the regional representative at First Stand.
In the Americas, Team Liquid did not change the squad to continue to show dominance. Although the Americas have gathered into a single prize, LTA, TL still easily defeated representatives from North America and South America, destroying 100 thieves 3-0 in the final to win the LTA championship.
In the Chinese region, the tournament suddenly changes the format when applying Bo5 to all matches right from the group stage. In this tournament, the reigning runner -up Bilibili Gaming has encountered many difficulties and was soon eliminated. Meanwhile, Tes with the addition of Kanavi showed an overwhelming performance to beat all play-off teams with a score of 3-1, winning the LPL 2025 Split 1 championship.
Meanwhile in LEC, the “seismic” happened when G2 Esports, the overwhelming team of the entire region, received a 0-3 defeat against Karmine Corp in the final final. Accordingly, Canna and his teammates won the tournament championship, terminated the 6 consecutive championships of G2 and became the last team to win tickets to First Stand.
First Stand 2025 will take place from March 10-16 in Seoul, South Korea with a total prize of $ 1 million. The winning area at this tournament will receive a great privilege: winning two tickets directly to MSI 2025 without playing from the play-in.
