CFO vs HLE at First Stand 2025 Day 3: One goes 2:0 to qualify for Playoffs

The League of Legends event First Stand 2025 approaches the half point of its Round Robin stage. It’s a moment when qualification of some teams may become rather certain. Both Hanwha Life Esports and CTBC Flying Oyster could take a huge step towards the FST Playoffs. Two wins is a big power considering the tournament format.

Each of the five teams at the LoL First Stand 2025 Round Robin play four matches. In the end, only the last placement in the general standings brings elimination from the LoL esports tournament. The winner of the match CFO vs HLE has a huge chunk of their job done at the First Stand 2025.

Hanwha Life is the top team from Korea, which is traditionally one of the strongest regions in the international League of Legends. On Day 1, HLE defeated the other tournament favorites, the Chinese team Top Esports.

CTBC Flying Oyster enjoyed their opening victory against Karmine Corp. If they could defeat Hanwha Life, it could be proof of their serious ambitions at the FST 2025.

Sure, everything can still go wrong after this match. However, HLE faces two Western teams in the following two matches, and Hanwha Life certainly have the upper hand vs Karmine Corp and Team Liquid. For CFO, playing against Top Esports will be a challenging match, so this match vs HLE was very important for Flying Oyster.

The stream of the FST 2025 match between CTBC Flying Oyster and Hanwha Life Esports is embedded below. It’s the first match of the tournament’s Day 3. 

The teams had a best-of-three match, so each game is super important. Fewer chances for recovery come hand-in-hand with braver picks of the fearless draft. CTBC Flying Oyster and Hanwha Life Esports could play their best champions without keeping them for later.

From a blood bath in Game 1 to just an impressively confident domination in Game 2 — Hanwha Life Esports totally proved their status as the favorites at the LoL First Stand 2025.

The Korean Champions destroyed CTBC Flying Oyster to have a 2:0 in the FST Round Robin standings. Considering their next opponents, Karmine Corp on Day 4 and Team Liquid on Day 5, this is pretty much a guaranteed qualification for the Playoffs.

As for CTBC Flying Oyster, they have a nice chance to recover in their Day 4 match vs Team Liquid. Playing against Top Esports on Day 5 is certainly challenging, though.

The teams exchanged early kills, and the game start was rather even — but only for a very short period.

The first objectives went to HLE: Peanut on Vi secured six Voidgrubs and a Dragon. Then, a ganking miracle on Top brought three more kills for Hanwha Life. The money difference grew up to 3k in favor of HLE.

Hanwha Life Esports did not let their opponents take the next Dragon or even survive the fight around it. After that point, HLE were busy harassing and killing their opponents all over the map. CFO tried to run away and do at least something, but their achievements were rather minuscule. 

The blood bath for CTBC Flying Oyster ended when HLE secured Atakhan, delivered a few lazy kills, and demolished CFO’s base.

This time, early fights brought a slight kill advantage for CTBC Flying Oyster. It evaporated quickly — picking Zed paid off for Zeka on the Mid lane. 

The other unusual pick by HLE, Vladimir for Zeus, did not have such an early chance, as CFO collapsed on him and killed the Champion. CTBC Flying Oyster chose to be active in aggression, and that allowed them to keep pace with Hanwha Life Esports, at least in the beginning.

A fight around the second pack of Voidgrubs was chaotic, and HLE went ahead after it. Hanwha Life secured two Dragons, and they had gold advantages on all roles apart from Support.

The Vladimir pick proved its value around this point. Zeus became super tanky and extremely dangerous. He dealt damage and escaped death easily.

Hanwha Life Esports secured Atakhan. With a Dragon Soul fight, HLE earned an Ace and the objective. The Baron buff was added to the already incredible might of Hanwha Life, and the Korean players went for another Ace and base destruction.

The might of Asian League of Legends teams is beyond any doubt. When it comes to international LoL esports events, the entire community expects to see Korean and Chinese teams battling for the titles.

Maybe Hanwha Life Esports is not exactly the team we expected to see representing Korea at the First Stand 2025. However, they defeated T1 and Gen.G to be here. It is certainly impressive! HLE is among the biggest favorites at this tournament.

CTBC Flying Oyster succeeded in the intense competition of the freshly-formed region, Pacific. They certainly are eager to prove that the LoL power from Asia also includes Taiwan. Can First Stand 2025 become their moment to shine?

The main question of this FST 2025 tournament stage is not who qualifies for Playoffs. It’s more about who is kicked out of the event. The two first days show that the fans should worry about Karmine Corp: they play vs Top Esports right after the match CFO vs HLE.

Stay tuned to the League of Legends section at esports.gg for all news from the First Stand 2025.