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League of Legends: why FunPlus Phoenix will (or won’t) win the World Championship

By s. samek

GWANGJU, SOUTH KOREA - OCTOBER 27: The supporters of team Invictus Gaming of China celebrate the winning against team G2 ESPORTS of Europe during the semifinal match of 2018 The League of Legends World Championship at Gwangju Women's University Universiade Gymnasium on October 27, 2018 in Gwangju, South Korea. (Photo by Woohae Cho/Getty Images)
GWANGJU, SOUTH KOREA - OCTOBER 27: The supporters of team Invictus Gaming of China celebrate the winning against team G2 ESPORTS of Europe during the semifinal match of 2018 The League of Legends World Championship at Gwangju Women's University Universiade Gymnasium on October 27, 2018 in Gwangju, South Korea. (Photo by Woohae Cho/Getty Images) /
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GWANGJU, SOUTH KOREA – OCTOBER 27: The supporters of team Invictus Gaming of China celebrate the winning against team G2 ESPORTS of Europe during the semifinal match of 2018 The League of Legends World Championship at Gwangju Women’s University Universiade Gymnasium on October 27, 2018 in Gwangju, South Korea. (Photo by Woohae Cho/Getty Images)
GWANGJU, SOUTH KOREA – OCTOBER 27: The supporters of team Invictus Gaming of China celebrate the winning against team G2 ESPORTS of Europe during the semifinal match of 2018 The League of Legends World Championship at Gwangju Women’s University Universiade Gymnasium on October 27, 2018 in Gwangju, South Korea. (Photo by Woohae Cho/Getty Images) /

With the League of Legends World Championship approaching, why will the LPL’s best win it all…and why won’t they?

The goal of every team in League of Legends is to compete for a world championship. Well after the dust as settled on many leagues and contests we have the final field of 24 teams for worlds set. In a series of posts, I plan to look at how every time has a chance at winning it all while naming points as to why they won’t lift the Summoner’s Cup. The first in the series is Chinese League first seed Fun Plus Phoenix.

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Why FunPlus Phoenix will win

1. They’re the top seed from the best region in the world

At the beginning of the season, I feel like no one would have picked Fun Plus Phoenix to win the LPL, especially after they finished lost in the quarterfinals of last seasons summer playoffs.  With giants like RNG, Edward Gaming and Invictus looming at the top it would take a lot of work to climb past them.

But forget climbing, the Phoenix flew way past them finishing at 13-2 in spring and being the top seed for the spring playoffs.  IG was second, while RNG finished fourth. Yes, they eventually got bounced by  JD gaming in the playoffs, but hey third place is much improved.

Then during the summer, the flame continued to burn bright as FunPlus earned another spot atop the league standings at 14-1 with their lone loss to IG.  With a combined record of 27-3 in the regular season, that means they did some work.

FunPlus Phoenix then proceeded to dominate Billibili Gaming 3-1 in the semifinals. This set up a meeting with RNG in the finals, which ultimately went 3-1 in favor of FunPlus to take the top seed at worlds for the LPL. It wasn’t easy, but they showed up against the favored teams in the best region in pro League of Legends and took them down on the way to the top.

2. Consistency

Often times teams use one great split and one good, or mediocre, split to seize enough points to make the world championship. These teams often lack consistency. It’s like you never know which team is going to show up good or bad.

Fun Plus isn’t one of those teams. 13-2 and first place in the spring, 14-1 and first place in the summer.  That’s an 87 % win rate in spring and 93 % in summer. Overall they finished with a 90 % win rate during regular season play. With playoff finishes of third and first I don’t feel like this isn’t a team that always has their A-game on.

3. Doinb

Mid laner Kim “Doinb” Tae-sang won the man of the match award seven times, which was the fourth-highest total in the LPL and second among mid laners. He also won four weekly all-pro team honors during the split and ended the LPL 2019 Summer Split all-pro second team.

He had a strong split and should be fun to watch him go head to head with the other world’s mid laners. Yet I feel he can more than hold his own against anyone in the mid lane and help FunPlus win a world championship.

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