Updated on November 1, 9:17 p.m. (GMT+8): Added new announced details.
A new international LoL Esports tournament called “First Stand” will be held from March 10 to 16, 2025 in LoL Park, Seoul, South Korea, as announced at Worlds Media Day 2024.
It will be the third international League of Legends tournament in the calendar year, taking place before the Mid-Season Invitational and Worlds.
Riot Games stated that they’re adding this new international LoL Esports tournament after receiving feedback from LoL Esports fans who expressed interest in regional battles that stir geographic pride.
Previously, fans only got to watch high level clashes during the playoffs at MSI and Worlds, which accounts for roughly 20 total matches per year.
Worlds for example, still adopts a single elimination playoffs format that contains four quarterfinal best-of-five matches, two semifinal matches, and one final, totaling seven.
New international LoL Esports tournament First Stand will be the calendar’s third, plus more details on three-split structure
In terms of qualification, teams compete in their respective regional leagues in a three-split structure. The winner of the first split from each region automatically qualifies for the March 2025 tournament.
For LCK, LPL, and LEC, the franchised teams in these leagues remain unchanged.
For LCS, CBLoL, LLA, and the Pacific Championship Series however, they’ll be combined into two multi-regional leagues: the Americas and APAC.
As such, there’s a total of five teams competing in the new international LoL Esports tournament in March 2025.
This also means that the Mid-Season Invitational, which usually takes place in May each year, is pushed to July.
To shake up the Tier-1 scene even more, a version of the Fearless Draft mode will be adopted in this new international LoL Esports tournament, where champions picked once will be banned in subsequent games of the same series.
This format will inevitably shake up drafts, matchups, and increase the variety of champions used in pro play. It’ll be a refreshing viewing experience since LoL Esports hasn’t seen a new draft format at the highest level of competition in ages.
Riot Games added that the event’s name and branding still in the works, and will release more information once their plans are firmed up.
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