TL First Stand Team Analysis – Time for LTA to Pop Off?

Team Liquid lifted the first ever LTA trophy this Winter, by destroying 100 Thieves 3-0 in the LTA Cross Conference Final. The organization will be taking part in its fifth consecutive international event, with the exact same roster as last year. What to expect from the most experienced collective at First Stand? Find out in our team analysis.

Team Liquid is indeed the team that will be taking part in First Stand and has been together the longest. Hanwha Life Esports are in the same vein, however they’ve been changing their toplaner this offseason. TL is also the oldest team taking part in the first international tournament of the year, with an average age of 26 years and 270 days, defying all skeptics by beating its runner-up in this category, TES (24 years and 7 days on average), by almost 3 years… Jeong “Impact” Eon-young and Jo “CoreJJ” Yong-in are the oldest players of the competition by a large margin, but they’re also the only players of a Western team that already lifted a Worlds trophy in their career (2013 for Impact with T1 and 2017 for CoreJJ with SSG). Despite being the most experienced group, Team Liquid is the FST team that have played the fewest games (17) in 2025 due to the much-debated LTA Split 1 format.

Team Liquid’s Strong Point: Botlane’s consistency

The LTA Champion lifted their second regional title with the same roster, since this same iteration of TL also won the LCS Spring 2024. And at the time, they already showed what they could do on the international stage. Against EU, first, by crushing Fnatic at MSI (3-1) and EWC (2-0). They also showed a glimpse of resistance against Asia by taking 2 games out of 7 to the Worlds Champions T1 at MSI and EWC. Even though at Worlds, they were less convincing, as they only won against paiN Gaming and GAM Esports. However, this last Split, they got to count on the most reliable botlane possible in their region. Sean “Yeon” Sung especially stepped up a lot compared to last year, as he took all three MVPs of the series during the Cross Conference Finals. He’s also backed up by CoreJJ, who’s back to top form after a slight dip in 2024. But also a very consistent Eain “APA” Stearns, who found himself quite alone on the midlane throne during the playoffs.

Team Liquid’s Weak Point: Lane swaps nerfs and Umti

The lanes swaps are nerfs for the competition, and TL are therefore indisputably so. This feature of the game became their biggest strength in the end of Spring last year, at MSI, EWC and even in Summer before FlyQuest turned the tables. They mastered it so well that even the Asian teams had some hard times dealing with their early game. But even though they’re nerfed, they’ll most likely won’t vanish as KC Vladi was telling us in interview, “botlane can still swap at minute four if they have a difficult match-up”… And that nerf could even become a strength for the American representative. Last year, TL was among te first teams in the world that learnt how to manage correctly the lane swaps. If their read on how to manage this huge patch once again proves to be correct, they’ll have a huge advance over the other teams at the tournament, one that can’t be adjusted in only a week (FST’s duration).

But there’s one burden that doesn’t seem to be easing off since the start of the year… Worse, he’s endangered his team on more than one occasion during the LTA playoffs. I am talking about the team’s jungler: Um “UmTi” Sung-hyeon. As he makes his return to the LCK scene, where he has spent so much time at the bottom of the table, the Korean arrives in one of the most shaky states of his career. And yet his team are champions, which just goes to show how evident his poor performances appear. Too often, his team found themselves contesting as four, or even dropping important objectives as the jungler single-handedly embarrassed himself as they approached. Even in terms of 15-minute stats, Umti is on average below his direct opponent in terms of Golds (-133) and XP (-72), not to mention below most LTA North junglers in almost every other relevant statistics.

Final Thoughts

In short, despite the very good form of the botside trio, I’m afraid that the fragility of TL’s jungler is a weakness that can be exploited all too easily when the level rises, particularly at international competitions. What’s more, despite my confidence in the coaching staff’s skills, I’d be very surprised if they were able to crack the complexity of the new patch with so little preparation time. That is why I believe the new patch will be a real challenge for a team that used to get most of its early game leads thanks to exemplary lane swap management. Finally, whether it’s the format which forced them to play 10 games less than the champions of the other regions, or the link-up with LTA Sul which did nothing to raise America’s level in this first split; I think that LTA as a whole is lagging behind the other regions, and has displayed an average level well below that of their European neighbors, for example.

However, there’s no guarantee that they won’t be able to turn this around with the time they’ve spent in South Korea. In fact, TL have had a week longer to get into the swing of things than Karmine Corp, since their split ended earlier. And on a brighter side, if there’s one team that has stabilized in this first season of LTA, it’s Team Liquid, who were able to rely on their shared experience to smash the Grand Final, for example.

I remember TL’s Head Coach Jake “Spawn” Tiberi saying in interview “If you can keep it together for one, two, or three years, then I think the second and third years are when you can be very successful.” Now that they’ve entered the second year in style domestically, it’s time to prove that this statement wasn’t just about their own region by at least putting on a good fight against Asian teams.