Veteran-led South Korea crowned Esports Championships Asia champions after demolition of China

Team South Korea was victorious at the Esports Championships Asia 2025 League of Legends tournament held in Cần Thơ, Vietnam. LCK veteran Son “Ucal” Woo-hyeon led his young team to a decisive victory against China, 3-0.

South Korea progressed through the best-of-one single round robin group stage of the continental League tournament undefeated, while China only dropped a game against Korea. While the Korean team was the favorite to win this tournament, the level of play from some of the players, especially Ucal and Kim “Willer” Jeong-hyeon, was simply a tier above both the competition and even their own teammates.

With this win, South Korea became the inaugural champion of the newly introduced Esports Championships Asia, which came in as a replacement and upgrade for Esports Championships East Asia, held from 2021 to 2024.

The change was made to allow more Asian countries to participate in the event: China, South Korea, and Japan remained, but last year’s participant, Hong Kong, was replaced by Thailand, and this year’s host, Vietnam.

Vietnam had a decent showing, beating a decent Thailand team, but was unable to match either of the finalists. Japan, unfortunately, had a very poor tournament, which wasn’t totally unexpected. The entire team consists of the DetonatioN FocusMe Academy players, who were unable to win LJL this season.

Esports Championships Asia 2025 final standings:

• 1. South Korea – $4,000
• 2. China – $3,000
• 3. Vietnam – $2,000
• 4. Thailand
• 5. Japan

Grand finals versus China

The grand finals match, played under the Fearless Draft format (picked champions become unavailable for the rest of the series), ended in a complete wipeout of team China.

Ucal demonstrated why he was considered to be a top midlane talent at some stages in his career, getting 24 kills in two matches that he played after subbing in for Yoo “Zinie” Baek-jin, who played game one.

This season’s meta was reflected in this event as well, so he wasn’t able to get his hands on Azir—his most-played champion—who was banned in all three games. Still, his exciting Sylas play and a pocket counterpick Lissandra were enough to completely dominate his lane and force the objectives with his jungler, Willer.

ECEA was always notable for its player selection process. Each country’s esports association picked out the most exciting young prospects from the Academy teams, some of which went on to reach the highest level: Choi “Lucid” Yong-hyeok became a starter at Dplus, Joo “Duro” Min-kyu was voted as the LCK All Pro Team 2025 support alongside his Gen.G teammates, and Jeong “Peter” Yoon-su played in the Worlds Finals against T1.

This year, the Korea e-Sports Association (KeSPA) picked a more experienced team, with Lim “Soboro” Seong-min, Park “Paduck” Seok-hyeon, as well as the aforementioned Ucal and Willer—all of whom have prior LCK experience.

Yet their opponents, team China, were all Bilibili Gaming Junior players, who won the LDL 2025 Split 3 Champions Cup this year.

The winners of the previous ECA/ECEA iterations are:

• 2024 – China
• 2023 – South Korea
• 2022 – South Korea
• 2021 – South Korea

Team South Korea will have its most important event next September, the 2026 Asian Games, where winning players can receive the much-coveted military exemption.

For Ucal, this tournament could represent hope. At various points this season, he was a shining light on the ailing DRX roster, but midway through the year, he found himself relegated to the academy team. As things stand now, he won’t have a place in LCK for 2026, but a performance like this will surely turn some heads.