The First Stand has come to an end, crowning
Hanwha Life Esports after a dominant 3-1 victory over
Karmine Corp in the final. This BO5 peaked at 1,106,126 viewers and was the only match of the competition to surpass the symbolic one-million viewer mark (all numbers excluding Chinese platforms).
The viewership numbers for First Stand remain strong, despite the timing not being ideal for the American and European audiences. The semifinal between KC and
CTBC Flying Oyster started at 5 AM CET, a difficult time for the Blue Wall's large fanbase. However, they still showed up with over 860,000 viewers to watch
Karmine Corp qualify for the first event in their history. It is the second most-watched match of the competition.
It’s no coincidence that the three most-watched matches of the competition all feature KC. The club has a large fanbase that supports them no matter the situation, as seen during the group stage of First Stand. After two heavy losses to
Team Liquid and CFO, KC fans continued to believe and supported their team on social media and streams.
It is still important and concerning to note that the match between
HLE and Top Esports only gathered just over 700,000 viewers. LCK vs LPL matchups are typically high-viewership games, but the underwhelming performance of TES did not help improve these numbers.
