In League of Legends, the first major international tournament of the year is currently taking place: The First Stand. Everything seemed to point towards a disgrace for Europe, but the French team Karmine Corp managed to make a surprising comeback in front of thousands of viewers on Twitch.
What a match it was! The French team Karmine Corp had to compete today on March 15, 2025, in the semifinals of the First Stand against CTBC Flying Oyster (CFO), the team from Taiwan. Although CFO is generally considered one of the weaker teams in the tournament, the odds for the Europeans were not favorable, as they had already suffered a 0–2 defeat against them.
In fact, it looked like the Europeans were going to exit the tournament without a win when Karmine Corp achieved a surprising victory against the favorites from China. This apparently gave the team a new boost, as they were now able to send CFO home. On Twitch, the LoL streamer Caedrel was following along – and had up to 110,000 viewers.
Twitch streamers play an important role in the e-sports scene of League of Legends. In the German scene, NoWay is one of the biggest.
Instead of an embarrassing disgrace, Europe achieves a historic comeback
This is how the match went: Karmine Corp started strong in the best-of-five, decisively winning the first two matches. In the third match, CFO fought their way back into the game, getting the first kill after 90 seconds and eventually securing the victory after some back and forth.
In the 4th round, CFO managed to prevail with team fights and equalized to 2:2. The grand final began balanced, with early successes on both sides. Eventually, Karmine Corp was able to position themselves better, eliminate their opponents, and destroy their Nexus.
The match ended after 39 minutes and 28 seconds. For Europe, this is the first international final in 5 years.
On Twitch, streamer Caedrel, the current top streamer for LoL, was cheering. The Brit was visibly tense towards the end but celebrated Karmine Corp’s victory even more exuberantly. Especially midlaner Vladi and botlaner Caliste had put up an “absolutely monstrous” fight, and top laner Canna had been “smurfing” the whole game. On Reddit, Canna is even being hailed as the “newest French war hero” already.
Up to 109,000 viewers were tuning in simultaneously to Caedrel, while an additional 11,000 joined the German commentator Tolkin. On the French channel OTPLOL_, more than 50,000 viewers also followed the match, so over 170,000 viewers were rooting for the Europeans across these 3 channels.
Added to that are the official accounts from Riot and the LCP.
Currently, the Koreans from Hanwha Life Esports and the Chinese team Top Esports are fighting for the next final spot, two of the strongest teams in the tournament. However, TSE had to face defeat against CFO the day before: Team from Taiwan shakes LoL, defeats China, and saves Europe from disgrace.
