No Teams from the 2025 First Stand Have Qualified for the 2026 Edition

One by one, the teams that represented their regions at last year’s First Stand were eliminated until none remained. The tournament has expanded from five to eight teams, with Brazil no longer having to share a qualifier with North America, while the two biggest leagues in the world, the LCK and the LPL, have each been offered an additional slot.

Hanwha Life Esports, , , Karmine Corp, and CTBC Flying Oyster have all fallen short, some in the finals, others failing even to make it past the group stage. It’s yet another reminder that League of Legends’ esports is constantly shaped by patches and season shifts, and that offseasons can dramatically reshape the balance of power across every region.

Karmine Corp were the only one of the five teams to truly come close to qualifying for this edition of the First Stand. Just like in the previous Winter Split, the French organization fell in the Upper Bracket Final against G2 before making a lower bracket run.

But while last year the Blue Wall managed to take down the Samurai in Grand Final, this time Rasmus “” Winther and his teammates got the job done, preventing KC from being the only European club to ever participate in the First Stand.

For the other four teams, the path was much tougher. In Korea, HLE didn’t even make it past the group stage of the LCK Cup despite an ambitious offseason. While the format may have played a part, their displayed level of play fell short of expectations for this roster. The reigning champion of the First Stand has even been the first team eliminated in the Winter split across all regions

In China, the qualifiers are not yet decided, but TES were eliminated in the Lower Bracket Quarterfinals by Weibo Gaming. The two remaining slots will be contested among Bilibili Gaming, JD Gaming, Weibo Gaming, and Anyone’s Legend. In the LCS, Team Liquid fell in the Lower Bracket Semifinals to the eventual Lock-In champions, LYON.

Finally, the new roster of CFO was eliminated in the first round of the LCP playoffs by Ground Zero. Zhao "" Zhiqiang and his teammates couldn’t replicate the success of their predecessor from last year, and the LCP continues to struggle to find a standout contender.

The competition will take place from March 16 to 22, in São Paulo, Brazil, in the CBLOL arena, which has a capacity of 140 people, a number many consider too small for an international event. The qualified teams are therefore: