Karmine Corp and Hanwha Life Esports will meet on the big stage in the debut First Stand event’s round robin stage. Although Hanwha Life is the favorite to win the upcoming match by a landslide, Karmine’s recent performance may make smart betters wonder whether it has upset potential in the upcoming battle.
After a fairly difficult couple of days for Karmine Corp, the team surprised many by convincingly defeating Top Esports on the third day of First Stand’s round robin stage. Cementing itself as a potential force to be reckoned with, Karmine Corp’s next hurdle is HLE, the only team with two wins in this stage so far.
Considering only one team will be eliminated from the round robin stage, Hanwha Life Esports is in a comfortable position now. However, the same can’t be said for Karmine Corp. While its win against Top Esports gave it the fourth position thanks to the one round it won against Team Liquid, getting another win will definitely move the team out of the hot seat.
Hanwha Life Esports has been on a roll in 2025 and that’s unlikely to stop any time soon. The team has gone undefeated through the First Stand tournament thus far and also hasn’t lost a single match since February, cementing it as one of the strongest League of Legends teams in the world. Arguably the most impressive performance in its recent games has been from the team’s jungler, Peanut. His performance in the second game against Top Esports as Nidelee with a 7/0/11 score was nothing short of impressive, and bringing the same energy against KC may spell danger for the opposing team.
On the other hand, Karmine has been extremely inconsistent. While the team lost to Team Liquid and CTBC Flying Oysters, two teams who are considered underdogs in the tournament, it defeated Top Esports without breaking much of a sweat. In particular, team ADC Caliste has performed poorly in most matches, then went 8-0-6 against TES. This inconsistency makes Karmine Corp a hard team to predict for many.
Below are the rosters of both teams.
Karmine Corp
Hanwha Life Esports
The fearless draft system ensures both teams can’t pick the same set of champions in every game. However, there are a handful of champions we can expect to see from both sides. For example, Karmine is likely to get such picks as Ambessa, Gnar, Sejuani, Viktor, Xin Zhao, Varus, Ezreal, Leona, and Rell. Getting a pick like Ashe wouldn’t be surprising either, considering how well Caliste performed with her.
On the other hand, Hanwha Life Esports performed well with picks like Akali, Varus, Poppy, Aatrox, Ezreal, Azir, and Alistar. Nidalee is another pick fans will likely see considering how well Peanut played as her in the second game against TES. However, KC could also ban her, effectively stopping the other team from playing a tried and tested champion.
Hanwha Life Esports is definitely the favorite going into the upcoming match, having a probability of 1.06 compared to Karmine Corp’s 8.50. However, Karmine’s match against Top Esports had similar odds and KC managed to get a flawless victory.
KC winning against Top Esports was extremely impressive, but Hanwha Life Esports’ recent performance suggests the results here may be different. Karmine has shown inconsistency and HLE has looked strong both as a team and as a set of strong individual players.
HLE will likely be aggressive from the start. With the team’s recent streak of ending games quickly by initiating team fights, KC may be unable to counter at the start of both games to give the opposing team an early lead. The same also happened when Karmine Corp faced Team Liquid in this same tournament. With HLE’s greater experience on the international level its current level of strength, it may be the safer team to side with in the upcoming match.
If you’re confident in one team to win then place your bet now!
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