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The 2026 League of Legends competitive season kicks off in Brazil. From March 16 to 22, the First Stand Tournament (FST) brings together teams from six regions—LPL, LCK, LEC, LCS, LCP, and CBLOL—for an all best-of-five international showdown at the Riot Games Arena in São Paulo (140-seat capacity) with a $1 million USD prize pool on the line. The stakes go beyond the trophy: FST results determine regional seeding for the Mid-Season Invitational, making every game and every series count from day one.
Before the action starts, mark March 8 in your calendar: the FST Draw Show will air immediately after the LPL Finals, revealing the group assignments and the full tournament bracket. That broadcast will also confirm China’s second representative, completing the eight-team field.
Schedule & Format
FST is split into two stages. The Group Stage runs from March 16 to 20, followed by the Knockout Stage on March 21 and the Grand Finals on March 22. Every single match is a best-of-five—a deliberate choice to reward deep preparation, mid-series adaptation, and regional playstyle identity over single-game variance, in such a short tournament. Every match day of the tournament will start at 2 PM CET / 6 AM PST / 10 AM BRT / 10 PM KST.
The Draw Show on March 8 will sort the eight teams into two groups based on three seeding pools. Pool 1 consists of the top seeds from Korea and China (Gen.G and TBD), Pool 2 includes LOUD, LYON, G2 Esports, and Secret Whales, and Pool 3 holds the second seeds from Korea and China (BNK FearX and TBD). Pool 1 teams are drawn against Pool 3, Pool 2 teams face each other, and no group can contain two teams from the same region. Since only one team per region is allowed in each group, two Round 1 matchups are already locked in: BNK FearX vs LPL #1 and Gen.G vs LPL #2 — guaranteeing two Korea vs China clashes right out of the gate.
