First Stand 2025: Day 4 Viewership Peak and Playoff Picture
First Stand 2025, the opening international League of Legends tournament of the season, is approaching the conclusion of its group stage. With some notable developments in both team standings and audience engagement. Day 4 brought a new viewership milestone during a clash between two fan-favorite teams, pushing concurrent viewers beyond 800,000, though overall audience growth remains somewhat restrained.
Playoff Spots Taking Shape
Two teams have now secured their positions in the playoff bracket: Hanwha Life Esports (HLE), South Korea’s winter champions, and CTBC Flying Oyster, the leading team from the pan-Asian region. The final qualifying matches are scheduled for tomorrow, with all remaining teams still mathematically in contention. However, Karmine Corp (KC) faces the most challenging path, as their advancement now depends primarily on their competitors’ results rather than their own performance.
KC had an opportunity to strengthen their playoff chances in today’s match against tournament favorites HLE. Despite putting up a respectable fight and managing to take one game, the French organization ultimately couldn’t overcome their Korean opponents. While their tournament results may be disappointing, their viewership impact tells a different story—their match became the most-watched contest of the event thus far, exceeding the previous high (set during Day 1’s HLE vs. Top Esports Korea-China showdown) by 19%.
Viewership Analysis
Korean and European audiences continue to dominate the viewership statistics, though overall numbers remain below expectations. The tournament’s scheduling in the Korean time zone presents significant challenges for Western audiences, with match times falling during inconvenient hours for both European and American viewers. The new viewership peak occurred during the final map of the day’s second match, when European audiences were beginning their day. Had the KC vs. HLE match been scheduled earlier, it likely wouldn’t have achieved this milestone.
The Community Casting Effect
After four days of competition, one trend has become increasingly apparent: community casting significantly impacts viewership metrics. While the Day 1 peak showed roughly equal numbers between official and unofficial streams, subsequent days have demonstrated a clearer advantage for community co-casting.
Leveraging more co-casters could potentially boost viewership for the group stage finale and playoff rounds, though much depends on tomorrow’s results. There remains a possibility that both European and American representatives (Team Liquid) could advance to the final stage—an outcome that would benefit viewership numbers as co-casters from these regions tend to draw substantial audiences.
Even with this ideal scenario from a viewership perspective, challenges remain. The playoff schedule begins at 4:00 AM London time, creating an extremely early viewing window for European fans and a late-night broadcast for American audiences.
