Warhammer 40K London Grand Tournament 2025 Winner: Chaos Space Marines Claim Victory

Chaos Space Marines take the crown at the 2025 Warhammer 40K London Grand Tournament. See the full results and what this means for the meta.

The biggest Warhammer 40K event in history is officially in the books. The London Grand Tournament proved to be every bit the spectacle that the community expected, and the winner was a familiar face.

Liam VSL pulled out the win yet again with Chaos Space Marines, running another variation on Veterans of the Long War that proved to be just as oppressive in the meta as Liam’s past iterations.

The good news is that it proves the meta is extremely strong.

Very few people expected Chaos Space Marines to be one of the best armies in the meta going into this tournament. Most of the attention went to Knights, World Eaters, and Death Guard. Vanilla CSM just seemed boring by comparison, especially with Veterans—but that wasn’t an issue for Liam.

Liam’s list, which we will get into later, adopted a “take all comers” approach in its construction and had answers for most of the big problems in the meta.

Warhammer 40K: Liam VSL’s Tournament Wins

Over the weekend, here were Liam’s wins:

• Round 1: 90-73 over Tyranids

• Round 2: 89-86 over Adeptus Mechanicus

• Round 3: 85-28 over Space Marines

• Round 4: 87-45 over Leagues of Votann

• Round 5: 83-48 over World Eaters

• Round 6: 80-68 over Space Marines

• Round 7: 100-78 over Tau

• Round 8: 82-58 over Necrons

• Round 9: 65-42 over Emperor’s Children

• Round 10: 78-60 over Drukhari

Overall, Liam took on a variety of armies, including most of the usual suspects in the meta, and found success. Chaos Space Marines might be a bit of a surprise, but the pilot isn’t—and that is a key lesson for the hobby.

Chasing the meta at all points isn’t what the game is about. Someone who spends time with their armies and knows them well is far more valuable than buying the new hotness and trying to chase what others are doing.

Hopefully, this resonates with the community and leads to more people playing armies they want to play rather than armies they think will win.

Stick with us for full coverage of the London Grand Tournament and more insights into the Warhammer 40K meta!

Rob Leeds

Husband, Florida State Seminole, and fan of all things grimdark, sometimes even winning a game or two.

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