New League of Legends Event First Stand
As the 2024 League of Legends World Championship wraps up, Riot Games has shared exciting plans for the upcoming season, revealing a new international tournament called First Stand.
This competition is set to open the 2025 season, featuring top teams from 5 major regions: LCK (Korea), LPL (China), LEC (Europe), LTA (a combined North and South American region), and LCP (Pacific region). Each region will be represented by its best team from Split One, creating a unique showdown to kickstart the year.
Riot’s Global Head of Strategy, Chris Greeley, describes First Stand as a stage for both innovation and regional rivalry. It’s designed to set the tone for the year, with each team guaranteed to face the others in a best-of series format, deviating from the usual single-elimination matches. The event will run over seven days, ensuring every matchup gets a full test of skill and strategy.
A standout feature of First Stand is the Fearless Draft, a new drafting rule that prevents any champion from being picked more than once within a series. This means that once a champion is chosen by one team, it’s locked out for the rest of the series, forcing teams to adapt their strategies throughout the tournament.
This change brings a fresh layer of complexity to each League match, challenging teams to broaden their champion pools and approach drafting in novel ways.
Additionally, Riot has emphasized the inclusion of regions previously seen as “minor,” such as LTA South and certain teams from the LCP. This shift in competitive representation reflects their improved performance, especially after strong showings at Worlds 2024. Hosting for future tournaments in these regions is also under consideration, signaling a broader competitive landscape.
It’s unclear if the new League event First Stand will influence qualification for the World Championship, as the Mid-Season Invitational does now, but Riot has promised further details in the coming year. The tournament is set to run from March 10 to March 16, 2025, in Seoul, South Korea, offering fans an exciting new start to the season.
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