The 2025 League of Legends competitive season is well underway with each league wrapping up its domestic tournaments as the first international event of the year, First Stand, is fast approaching. Five champions will do battle in this quick and exciting tournament hosted at the LoL Park Arena in South Korea. There are plenty of new faces, while some old guard players look to embark on another international journey. Join us in this article as we walk you through everything you need to know about First Stand. From the teams competing to the tournament format to the prize pool, and more.

What is the First Stand format?

Five teams are invited to compete at the inaugural First Stand tournament. Each team is the champion from their respective leagues. First Stand will be implementing hard fearless draft for the entirety of the 2025 tournament. This means that whenever a champion is played, they are banned for the rest of the season. Over the course of the first split in all five regions, teams have adopted the fearless draft model which is why it’s available in First Stand.

First Stand is divided into two stages, the Group Stage and the Knockout Stage. The Group Stage sees the five teams compete in a single round robin. All matches will be best-of-three fearless draft. The top four teams with the best record at the end of the Group Stage will move on to the Knckout Stage. The team with the worst record is immediately eliminated from the tournament. 

The Knockout stage sees the top four teams compete in a single elimination bracket starting with two semi-finals. Each series will be a best-of-five with the winning team earning their region a direct slot into the Mid-Season Invitational bracket stage, skipping the play-ins entirely. 

Who are the participants at First Stand 2025?

As mentioned above, there are five teams that are competing at First Stand with each of the five major regions sending their champion to represent them at the first international event of the year. There are some familiar faces amongst a new debutant to the League of Legends international stage. Here are the five teams competing at First Stand 2025:

• Top Esports (LPL)
• Hanwha Life Esports (LCK)
• Team Liquid (LTA)
• Karmine Corp ( LEC)
• CTBC Flying Oyster (LCP)

What is the First Stand Prize Pool?

The five teams competing at First Stand will be battling for a split of the $1 million prize pool. Each team will get a percentage of the prize pool with the winner receiving the largest share. Here is how the prize pool is distributed amongst the teams at First Stand:

• 1st: $300,000
• 2nd: $225,000
• 3rd - 4th: $172,500
• 5th: $130,000

Who are the favorites to win First Stand 2025?

If you’re looking for the heavy favorites to win the first international event of the year, look no further than the representatives of the LCK and the LPL. Top Esports had to run the LPL gauntlet to make it to First Stand and were impressive at doing so. The LPL squad had to go through five best-of-fives just to make it to South Korea having finished second in their group. They won every series by a 3-1 scoreline, just showcasing how strong they were as a team across the LPL Split 1 playoffs. Top wasn’t always the best early-game team, but when it came to teamfighting no team in the LPL could match up to them. 

The comes the team that had to play the maximum amount of games to get here, Hanwha Life Esports. The LCK Cup champions defended their claim to being the best team in the region with multiple game-five victories over the likes of T1 and Gen.G to reach the first international event of the year. Across the board, this team has been impressive, but also very resilient with every single one of their best-of-fives going the full five games, meaning when it came to being clutch, Hanwha Life answered the call. Zeka is also building up a reputation as an extremely clutch player in game fives with a lengthy game-five winning streak over the past couple of years. 

But what about the rest of the field?

Despite the LPL and LCK squads being the heavy favorites to win First Stand, the other teams are there to cause an upset. Starting with Team Liquid, they continue their run of representing North America on the biggest stages League of Legends has to offer. APA has yet to miss an international event since debuting in 2023. Team Liquid is back in form after an impressive end to the 2025 LTA Split 1 playoff saw TL breeze through 100 Thieves in the grand final 3-0 to book their ticket to First Stand. It’ll be interesting to see how TL gets on with lane swaps essentially removed from the game. TL built up a reputation as one of the best lane swap teams in the world, consistently giving the Eastern teams a run for their money. 

Then there’s the newly crowned LEC champions Karmine Corp. This is an exciting squad that has a lot of potential to cause many upsets on the international stage and it’ll be interesting to see how the LEC #1 seed gets on against the veteran roster of Team Liquid.Vladi and Caliste are the two young stars of the KC roster, and it’ll be their first time stepping onto the international stage. Yike and Canna are no strangers to going up against teams from the LCK, with the former featuring many times for G2 at MSI and Worlds, while Canna had a lengthy stint in the LCK. 

Fans can watch LoL Esports First Stand later this month when the Group Stage officially kicks off.