CFO cause another major upset at First Stand 2025, HLE come back strong against European hopefuls

Team Liquid had the golden opportunity to punch their tickets to the League of Legends First Stand semifinals, but CTBC Flying Oyster had different plans today, and they took down the LTA representatives. Hanwha Life Esports also overcame a hiccup in maintaining their winning streak by dealing a heavy blow to Karmine Corp’s playoff hopes.

CFO looked to deliver a statement after their tough loss to the Korean Powerhouse HLE in the last First Stand matchup, and they bounced back with a 2-0 clean sweep on Liquid. The stars of the first match were mid lane Tsai “HongQ” Ming-Hong and jungler Yu “JunJia” Chun-Chia, who maintained perfect KDAs and dominated the American team on the blue side.

With this win, CFO have managed to defeat both western teams, including their win against Karmine Corp, by a clean 2-0 margin in the Fearless Draft tournament, scripting an underdog storyline by defeating the best teams from the major regions. 

In the next match, Liquid flexed their Ziggs pick, but it didn’t help the team as CFO had all the answers to their questions. While the match started in Liquid’s favor, Doggo’s Tristana and Driver’s Gangplank to counter Impact’s Jax was enough to seal the deal. 

HLE continued to showcase why LCK consistently sends one of the strongest teams in the world for international events and delivered a powerful performance on the back of Choi “Zeus” Woo-je’s impressive KDA of 8/1/5 on Aurora. After being pushed to a decider, KC’s Caliste “Caliste” Henry-Hennebert pulled his iconic Jhin and delivered a powerful performance on the champion to level up the series. In the last match of the series, HLE played a controlled game of keeping tempo, where each player stepped up and delivered their part to continue their win streak and momentum in the tournament and head to the semifinals. 

After this big win against Liquid, CFO will play their last group match against TOP Esports tomorrow to decide KC’s fate. If the Taiwanese team pulls another upset, Karmine Corp will qualify for the semis, while Liquid will have better odds at qualifying in the tournament if they lose.