First Stand 2025: Who is Top Esports?

First Stand 2025 is here as the first international League of Legends esports event of the year. Read along to learn more about Top Esports, the FST 2025 representative from the Chinese League of Legends Pro League (LPL) region.

Top Esports emerged victorious in the LPL 2025 Split 1 season. They finished the group stage second in Group A with a record of 2-1. Thus, when the knockout stage began, TES were placed in the lower bracket. With every match a do-or-die, they had to make their way through the bracket.

They blasted past Invictus Gaming, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Bilibili Gaming, JD Gaming, and finally, Anyone's Legend in the grand final, all in 3-1 fashion.

Top: Bai "369" Jiahao

369 returns to the international stage! With Top Esports, he failed to acquire the Esports World Cup 2024 win against T1, but his last appearance at a Riot international event was with JD Gaming in 2022 Worlds. Back then, they had to make a semifinals exit as they were felled by T1, 1-3.

369 has been a consistent top performer since his LPL debut in 2019. He found success constantly, thanks to his dominant playstyle. However, the lane-swap strategy that was active during the regular season is no longer in play for First Strike 2025. As the top-laner, 369 was the most affected by the strategy.

In FST 2025, we can expect a wholly different 369 than the one that had to be on the receiving end of lane-swaps.

Jungle: Seo "Kanavi" Jin-hyeok

The only South Korean import on the team, Kanavi, has been in the LPL since 2019. However, he only joined TES this year, with the remainder of his LPL career being spent on JD Gaming.

With JDG, Kanavi bagged multiple LPL wins, two semifinal finishes in Worlds, and an MSI trophy back in 2023.

The 369-Kanavi top-jungle duo is oppressive, and the two are familiar with each other, given their shared years in JDG. This is not to discredit Kanavi's individual prowess, however. His long years of playing have given him the flexibility to play a wide berth of champions - and with Fearless Draft active for FST 2025, he'll have to dive into his deep champion pool.

Mid-lane: Lin "Creme" Jian

The LPL has no shortage of mid-lane talent. Creme was not one to stand out in the region - in fact, TES's win in the LPL Split 1 2025 was the first time he got to lift the trophy. Since his career began with OMG in 2021, Creme has been marred by low finishes and early exits, often not even qualifying for playoffs.

It was only when he joined TES last year that things started looking up for him. While he finds comfort in mages like Orianna and Hwei, he's not afraid to get down and dirty with champions like Yone and Akali if he has to.

Many teams in First Stand 2025 will see Creme as the weak link of Top Esports. Will he manage to weather the storm?

Bot-lane: Wenbo "JackeyLove" Yu

JackeyLove is one-half of TES's solid bot duo pickup. If you've been following LoL Esports for a while, his name would be familiar to you as the AD Carry of the Worlds-winning Invictus Gaming lineup back in 2018.

Since then, JackeyLove's story has been rocky. He joined TES in 2020. In that year, he picked up the Mid-Season Cup win and a quarterfinal exit in Worlds, along with a couple of regional championships. After this, though, TES would not achieve anything, barring a few appearances in international events.

JackeyLove would not lift a trophy until LPL Split 1 2025. Whether he can ride this momentum to FST 2025 is something worth looking out for.

Support: Liu "Crisp" Qingsong

Crisp, like his lane partner, is also a Worlds champion. He got his win with FunPlus Phoenix back in 2019, and since then, he has hopped between various teams before landing on Top Esports.

His strength lies in engage champions, and with Split 1 demanding them even more with tower dives against lane-swapped opponents, Crisp truly shone. Despite this, the removal of lane swaps should not change Crisp's playstyle at all. Go in, take the 2v2, and carry teamfights with his engages.

For more First Stand 2025 and League of Legends coverage, stick around esports.gg.