FunPlus Phoenix, the reigning League of Legends world champions, swept today’s series against Invictus Gaming to take third place in the LPL’s Spring Split and a bonus of 10 championship points.
Despite entering the playoffs as China’s top-ranked team, IG haven’t displayed anywhere close to their regular split form. But that seems to be the ethos of this team. Whether they’re dominating the opposition or being dominated, their games are always chaotic—and this game was no exception.
The first match was an absolute mess for IG. They were outdrafted and then outplayed. IG’s top laner TheShy has been insistent on playing Jayce recently—no matter his top lane opposition—and has subsequently looked terrible because of this stubbornness.
Although the second game went back and forth for a while, IG’s jungler Ning lost two Smite battles for a Baron and Ocean Drake that led to a game-ending teamfight loss moments later. The final match, similar to the first, was just over 20 minutes of IG being ran over.
In all three game wins today, FPX’s bot lane—and especially LWX—consistently outperformed their opponents. LWX secured a triple kill in each of the three games, stole a Baron in the second game, and solo killed the opposing ADC on multiple occasions. And that’s just a few of his more notable highlights in this series. If there was one takeaway from this final match, it’s not to let Khan get fed on Fiora. His riposte outplays were incredible.
While both Invictus Gaming and FunPlus Phoenix played really well this season, they were outclassed by Top Esports and JD Gaming in the end. Invictus Gaming fell short due to TheShy inning his life away in multiple games against worse teams. FunPlus Phoenix on the other hand did not play with one main top laner, swaping between GimGoon and Khan in multiple games. Have they sticked up with a single top laner and developed him properly, they would’ve most likely managed to reach the finals. Even though they won the previous world champions, the top laner fell short and that’s the core reason why FPX acquired a substitute top laner. While in theory, it should’ve helped them play better, the practice was different.
The LPL playoffs concluded on May 2 between underdog teams Top Esports and JD Gaming. They met in the finals to fight for the title of the best Chinese team. Stay tuned for the review of that match in the upcoming days.
