First Stand 2025 Achieves “Embarrassing” Results
It can be said that First Stand 2025 has brought new experiences to the audience as an international tournament of Riot implementing Fearless Draft, but it also comes with quite a bit of controversy. The tournament lasted only a short time and was missing many of the so-called “top stars” of the League of Legends scene. This is precisely why First Stand 2025 has become the international tournament with the lowest viewership for Riot in the last 3 years.
Specifically, the total view count of First Stand 2025 was only about 1.1 million at its peak, according to statistics from Esports Charts. Compared to the recently concluded LCK Cup 2025, this number is nearly 800k views lower. Notably, the LCK Cup 2025 also witnessed T1 being eliminated early after just the first match of the playoffs.
The reason for the low view count of First Stand 2025 might be because the tournament lasted for too short a time. However, a more significant reason, agreed upon by many viewers, is the absence of a series of “top stars” in League of Legends, most notably T1. For those who may not know, currently all the matches in the top 5 highest view counts recorded by Esports Charts have featured T1.
But First Stand 2025 Has Also Completed Its Mission
In fact, perhaps even Riot did not expect this tournament to attract views like the World Championship or MSI – tournaments that are superior in both value and significance. However, First Stand 2025 has successfully helped the audience visualize how Fearless Draft and lane swapping will be applied in international tournaments as well as for the remainder of the season.
However, there is also a primary factor that if T1 or teams like G2, Bilibili Gaming… continue to perform inconsistently as they have recently in domestic competitions, the chances of making it to MSI or the World Championship will truly be threatened if these “view-attracting” names encounter some unexpected results and have to… stay home.