In League of Legends, the first international tournament of the year 2025 has started: The First Stand. This year’s European representatives are not G2, the usual suspects, but the French team Karmine Corp. It’s going disastrously.
What kind of tournament is this? Throughout the year, there are usually two international tournaments in League of Legends: The Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) in the summer and the Worlds at the end of the year.
The new tournament “The First Stand” is being held for the first time in 2025 in Seoul, South Korea. It marks the end of the winter split, which has now concluded.
The 5 regions send their strongest teams to the competition. For Europe, the current champion of the LEC, Karmine Corp, is participating. The team from France, featuring the young star rookie Caliste, surprisingly defeated the European perennial champion G2 on March 2nd.
Karmine Corp loses the first two games against the weakest opponents
Here’s how it goes: For Karmine Corp, the tournament starts with two consecutive losses. This would not be surprising in itself, as losses against teams from South Korea and China are expected.
But it gets much worse, as Karmine Corp has lost the first two games against the “weakest participants” in the field:
- First, they suffered a 1-2 defeat against the US team Team Liquid
- Today, they were demolished with a 0-2 against the representative of the traditionally weak region, Asia-Pacific. Not even one match could they win against CBTC Flying Oyster, a team from Taiwan.
Against the “big boys” Hanwha Life Esports (South Korea) and Top Esports (China), the team can hardly hold out any hope. It would be a huge surprise if Karmine Corp could win a match now.
What’s next: On March 12, they will face Top Esports, and on March 13, they will go against Hanwha Life – unless a miracle happens, a humiliating journey home awaits the players.
Why is this so humiliating? In the past year, the strongest representative of Europe in MSI and Worlds was able to at least win a few games. The European top team was actually always better than the teams from the USA and certainly better than the “smaller regions”.
But at “First Stand”, they have now dropped to the bottom of the hierarchy.
Such extremely bitter defeats remind us of the blowouts that were once seen and mocked in the big US teams, like in 2020 when so-called star players like Doublelift or Bjergsen silently went home without a win from the Worlds.
But in 2025, it seems to be happening to us Europeans.
There’s already gallows humor on reddit
Here’s how it is being commented: There’s already gallows humor on reddit. Karmine Corp is being mocked as “Karmine Corpse”, as a corpse.
Another user quips: I wonder what Caps is doing right now – the midlaner of G2 is considered the best player in Europe.
Especially the jungler Yike is being pointed out as a weak spot of the team with already 23 deaths in the 4 losses. Maybe Yike should have mustered the courage to bring out Teemo: Pro in LoL considers playing the impossible champ to surprise the stars from Asia.
