This match happens on the first day of the League of Legends FST 2025 tournament, but it totally could be the grand final.
Five major LoL regions have their best teams competing at the First Stand 2025. Four of them start playing on Day 1: Hanwha Life Esports and Top Esports clash in the second match.
However strong other players may be, it is pretty traditional for League of Legends esports to end up with Korean and Chinese teams in the international grand finals. That was the case with three big events of 2024. Will LoL FST 2025 follow this trend too?
If so, the match HLE vs TES is quite a rehearsal before battle for the champions title. All the details are here!
Where to watch the First Stand 2025 match HLE vs TES?
The official LoL Esports channel on YouTube and Riot Games on Twitch broadcast the entire First Stand 2025 tournament. You can watch the match Hanwha Life Esports vs Top Esports right here, as the stream is embedded below. The teams play on March 10 right after the first match of Day 1, TL vs KC — so the start time may shift.
Korea | Europe | North America East | North America West | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Match start | 8 p.m. KST | 12 p.m. CET | 6 a.m. ET | 3 a.m. PT |
Hanwha Life Esports vs Top Esports: Live Score
This is only the beginning of the First Stand 2025, but when such strong League of Legends teams face each other, the show is worth witnessing.
The LoL esports tournament consists of two stages. Round-robin matches come first: each of the five teams plays vs everyone else. Only one will be eliminated in the end. Then, the remaining four teams have two semi-finals and one grand final.
Hanwha Life and Top Esports start their tournament experience with this match. For one of them, this win will be a powerful boost in the general standings against the other FST 2025 favorite.
HLE 2:0 TES — Hanwha Life Esports won the series
Game | Winners |
|---|---|
| 1 | Hanwha Life Esports |
| 2 | Hanwha Life Esports |
| 3 | - |
Banned LoL Champions
Game | HLE bans | TES bans |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Poppy, Varus, Nidalee, Ambessa, Gragas | Kalista, Jayce, Rumble, Braum, Gnar |
| 2 | Yone, Rumble, Ambessa, Ahri, Viego | Galio, Jayce, Gnar, K'Sante, Lillia |
| 3 |
Picked Champions
HLE picks | Hanwha Life Esports | Position | Top Esports | TES picks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jax (G1) Aatrox (G2) | Zeus | Top | 369 | Kennen (G1) Gragas (G2) |
| Skarner (G1) Nidalee (G2) | Peanut | Jungler | Kanavi | Vi (G1) Nocturne (G2) |
| Azir (G1) Akali (G2) | Zeka | Mid | Creme | Aurora (G1) Orianna (G2) |
| Ezreal (G1) Varus (G2) | Viper | Bot | JackeyLove | Miss Fortune (G1) Kalista (G2) |
| Alistar (G1) Poppy (G2) | Delight | Support | Crisp | Leona (G1) Renata Glasc (G2) |
Match recap
The might of Hanwha Life Esports shined brightly throughout the League of Legends FST 2025 match against Top Esports.
The Korean players were reasonably cautious, but then delivered such a powerful strike that the opponents had no chance to recover. This was a scenario in both games.
TES kept the pace only in the beginning. They delivered kills and secured objectives. But HLE were objectively better this time.
Hanwha Life Esports play against CTBC Flying Oyster on Day 3 of the League of Legends First Stand 2025, which is on March 12. Top Esports has a match vs Team Liquid on March 11.
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Game 1
Top Esports earned the First Blood, but Hanwha Life responded with an even more successful fight in the early game. The teams got three Voidgrubs and a Dragon each. The battle was very even in the beginning, and TES did not let the kill difference become drastic.
Around a Herald fight, TES got this objective, but HLE killed two opponents and took Dragon for free. Soon after that, TES won a fight around the fourth Dragon: in terms of killing the beast and the opponents.
Hanwha Life Esports played all their best cards to secure Baron and then earned an Ace. With TES all dead, the game suddenly went strongly in favor of the Korean team.
The Baron buff was still active when Hanwha Life started their siege, demolished the base of Top Esports, earned another Ace, and won game 1. It’s a great start to the First Stand 2025 for HLE!
Game 2
The game started evenly again. Both teams got a few great kills and some important objectives. TES and HLE were rather cautious, which is understandable considering the stakes.
Hanwha Life looked slightly better at team fights, but that still wasn’t a drastic domination. And then suddenly, they used the proper moment on the Mid lane to initiate a team fight and kill every TES player. That success gave HLE the power to feel comfortable all over the map.
Another great team fight started for Hanwha Life similarly to the previous one: with an attack by Nocturne of Kanavi. That ultimate did not bring the expected effect, and four TES were dead. They revived to die again. HLE smashed hard and proved their status as the LoL Esports First Stand 2025.
Hanwha Life Esports: Destroyers of the World Champions
If you somehow missed matches of the LCK Cup 2025, you may not be aware of the current strength of this League of Legends team. Not only did Hanwha Life Esports win that tournament, but they also destroyed world-class powerhouses on the way to victory.
In the very first match of the LCK Cup 2025 Playoffs, HLE eliminated T1, the LoL World Champions 2024. The team also defeated the MSI 2024 winners, twice. Hanwha Life won round 2 and grand final matches vs Gen.G.
We sure can expect a lot from HLE at the First Stand 2025.
Top Esports: Explosive talents
One thing is pretty notable about Top Esports. This Chinese team knows how to surprise the community with their wins against super big opponents.
At the League of Legends Esports World Cup 2024, TES defeated Gen.G in the very first round, and they were decent opponents for T1 in the grand final.
To play at the LoL First Stad 2025, Top Esports eliminated Bilibili Gaming and a few other teams at the LPL Split 1 2025.
It will not be surprising to see TES reaching the FST grand final.
The First Stand 2025 goes on for a week, so we can enjoy many top-level LoL matches. For all League of Legends news and updates, stick around on esports.gg!
