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The first international tournament of the 2025 season and the first championship of the First Stand 2025 series is reaching its end. There are 2 teams left in the race for the championship.
Karmine Corp and Hanwha Life Esports will play each other for the First Stand 2025 title and the $400,000 prize pool.
Let's try to figure out which of the KC - HLE pair will be stronger and earn another championship title in the 2025 season.
Let's go.
HLE Form.
We open our analysis of the HLE vs Karmine Corp match with an analysis of HLE's form. In this match they play as favourites with odds to win at around 1.2.
HLE have been consistently reaching the late stages of the regular split. This only started to work out in 2023. Before that, in the 2022 season, HLE were the worst team in the race, twice finishing in the top 10 in regular splits.
It was corrected by 2023, after the big Reshuffle. Two reigning world champions joined the HLE roster, which strengthened the club considerably.
- HLE roster: Zeus, Peanut, Zeka, Viper, Delight.
With the addition of Zeka and Kingen to the HLE lineup, it was clearly more vigorous. So much so that they made it to the top 4 of LCK Spring 2023. The latest addition to HLE is Grizzly, a jungler who got promoted from the academic roster.
It seems to be working out pretty well. HLE finished in the top 3 in the regular season, which with teams like Dplus, T1 and other top teams is pretty good.
In the first play-offs match HLE warmed up against DRX. Nominally reigning world champions couldn't do anything against their visions and HLE easily closed the match with the score 3-0.
Then the situation was not so rosy: HLE ran into Gen.G and fell 0-3. The favour went to the bottom set of play-offs, but it did not save them for long.
Hanwha Life Esports faced KT Rolster in the first match of the last chance grid. The pressure was too hard and HLE was washed away: 0-3 and a play-offs exit, and at the same time not a pass to Worlds 2023.
They tried to make it to the Worlds in the regional finals, but again failed. LCK finished the final tournament of the season in the top 3, having failed to use either of the two attempts to qualify for the Worlds: they lost first to KT Rolster with a 1-3 score and then to Ledge or DPlus KIA with the same score.
Hanwha Life Esports finished the LCK Spring 2024 season in the top 3. The team once again fell one series short of reaching the international LAN tournament.
HLE advanced to the LCK Summer 2024 play-offs from the second place of the regular season, finishing 14-4. Went directly to the second stage of the playoffs. They debuted at the LCK Summer 2024 play-offs with a match against T1, where they beat the reigning world champions 3-0. HLE then lost to Gen.G, beat T1 again on class and in the grand final got revenge on Gen.G and became LCK Summer 2024 champions.
Worlds 2024 HLE Long started with a solid win over PSG Talon. Next up was a win over G2 Esports. In the next match for the play-offs Worlds 2024 HLE were close to disaster against FlyQuest, but managed to turn the tide in the first map, which allowed them to close the series 2-1 in their favour. Worlds 2024 opened the playoffs with a match against BLG, where Ledge won 1-3.
They opened the 2025 season with an appearance at the LCK Cup 2025, where they played Baron Group along with T1 and others. There they took the top 2, having won the stage with the score 3-2 and got to the second round of Play-In. Already there they beat DRX, which gave them a place in the play-offs. In the first round of play-offs HLE played against T1, where they defeated the reigning world champions 3-2 in a full-fledged Bo5 match. Next up was a match against Gen.G with a similar outcome: 3-2 in favour of Hanwha Life Esports. In the LCK Cup 2025 Grand Final match, they played against DPlus KIA, winning 3-2. In the LCK 2025 Grand Final, HLE finally made it to the LCK Grand Final by defeating Gen.G to become LCK champions for the first time.
At First Stand 2025 HLE played a great group stage, winning all 4 matches with a map difference of 8-2. In the match to advance to the grand finals, HLE demolished Top Esports without a chance, ending the series 3-0.
Champions Hanwha Life Esports
HLE utilise a wide pool of characters on the top line. The most popular are Gnar (12 matches, 75% wins), KSante (5 matches, 40% wins), Ornn (4 matches, 75% wins), and Sion (4 matches, 50% wins).
Sejuani (9 matches, 11% wins), Vi (7 matches, 85% wins), Elise (4 games, 75% wins) appear most often in the forest.
Azir (9 games, 55% wins), Sylas (5 matches, 80% wins), Kassadin (5 matches, 80% wins), Akali (4 matches, 100% wins) appear on the centre line.
Shooters are chosen as standard: Zeri (11 matches, 63% wins), Varus (7 matches, 42% wins), Caitlyn (7 games, 57% wins), Lucian (5 matches, 80% wins).
The supporting heroes are Lulu (10 games, 70% wins), Heimerdinger (7 matches, 42% wins), Lux (6 matches, 66% wins), and Nami (4 matches, 75% wins).
Karmine Corp uniforms
We continue our analysis of the match Karmine Corp - HLE with the analysis of Karmine Corp's form. The LEC Winter 2025 champions will play as favourites with odds to win at around 5.
Despite its great popularity in Europe, Karmine Corp is an absolute newcomer to the LEC league. The French team has previously played on the local scene, competing against compatriots, and has also played in various TIR-2 events within the LEC ecosystem.
For 2023, the teami has a very strong record with appearances in 4 tournaments. For professional teams in League of Legends, this is significant, as most of them play exclusively in a single league.
Karmine Corp started with LFL Spring 2023 and started off horribly. At the local league the team played 7-11 in the group stage, which was not even enough to qualify for the play-offs.
Things improved significantly from there and Karmine Corp lifted the championship trophy over their heads twice in a row. The first time at LFL Summer 2023 and the second time at EMEA Masters Summer 2023. Incidentally, Masters Karmine Corp have won 4 times in the team's history and that is a significant statistic.
The last tournament of last season was the Coup De France 2024 championship. Either there was no priority for the event, or they were not in shape at all, but KC took the top 8 there.
- Karmine Corp line-up: Canna, Yike, Vladi, Caliste, Targamas.
Karmine Corp joined the LEC by purchasing a slot from Astralis. The Danish club, which did not achieve results last season, decided to sell its place in the prestigious league. Whether they did the right thing - we will find out later.
In the first match of LEC Winter 2024 Karmine Corp will play against Fnatic. In that match I believe in the victory of Karmine. After that - the game against G2 Esports and there Karmine Corp will be much more difficult. However, with Fnatic everything turned out to be the opposite: KC won, and with G2 Esports - everything is logical, an easy victory for the "samurai".
Karmine Corp officially became the worst team of LEC Winter 2024 ahead of time. Before Long Sogpeg of their last match in the regular season, KC have a stat line of 1-7, with their only win coming in week 3 against SK Gaming. The only treat was the prestige point that Karmine Corp got in their last group stage match.
At LEC Spring 2024, Karmine Corp repeated their "success" of the winter split. That is, they again took the last line, and with the identical result of 2 wins and 7 losses.
At the LEC Summer 2024 Playoffs, they made it to the LEC Summer 2024 Playoffs from 5th place with a score of 4-5. They debuted in the play-offs with a match against G2 Esports, where they lost 0-2. Karmine Corp rather unexpectedly ran over MAD Lions KOI in the first round of the lower bracket, shutting out the more titled opponent 2-0. Next, they won again and again over a more titled opponent in the form of SK Gaming. In the end, they managed to reach the top 4, but then the fuse was not enough and BDS knocked Karmine Corp out of the tournament.
The group stage of LEC Winter 2025 Karmine Corp did well. Canna and company shared the second line of the group stage table with G2 and KOI, coming away with a 6-3 win. In the first round of play-offs Karmine Corp confidently outplayed Team Vitality, and went on to beat KOI with a similar win. Against G2 it was a very different situation and resulted in a 1-3 defeat. KOI barely defeated Fnatic 3-2 in the bottom set, but in the grand finals something happened: Karmine Corp literally destroyed G2, beating the best team in Europe 3-0, leaving the "samurai" no chance.
At First Stand 2025, Karmine Corp did not play their best game. The LEC champions played 1-3, but thanks to coincidence and map difference, they qualified for the play-offs. In the grand final match they played a tough bo5 against CFO and came out stronger.
The most popular champions of Karmine Corp
The most popular and successful top line champion remains Gragas (3 matches, 100% wins) and also Kennen (3 matches, 66% wins).
Wukong (6 games, 33% wins) and Sejuani (4 matches, 100% wins) play in the forest.
The centre line is played with Ahri (4 matches, 0% wins), Tristana (3 matches, 100% wins) and Syndra (3 matches, 100% wins).
The ADC position is most often occupied by Lucian (4 matches. 50% wins), Aphelios (4 matches, 75% wins).
Nami (3 games, 66% wins), Thresh (3 matches, 100% wins) are often paired with shooters.
History of head-to-head meetings HLE - Karmine Corp
The teams played each other in the group stage of First Stand 2025, where HLE won with the score 2-1.
Predicted result of the match Karmine Corp - HLE in the grand final of First Stand 2025
I don't expect any revelations or surprises in this match. HLE is a few goals stronger than KC, and much more experienced in terms of personal achievements. I'm ready to see an easy outing from HLE.
Bottom line: 3-0 win for HLE.
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