FunPlus Phoenix

FunPlus Phoenix (FPX) is a Chinese professional esports organization owned by video game developer FunPlus. It has teams competing in League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Fortnite Battle Royale, and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. FunPlus Phoenix's League of Legends team competes in the League of Legends Pro League (LPL), the top level of professional League of Legends in China.[2] On 10 November 2019, the team won the 2019 League of Legends World Championship after defeating G2 Esports in the grand finals.[3]

FunPlus Phoenix
Nickname小凤凰[1] ("Little Phoenix")
Short nameFPX
DivisionsLeague of Legends
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Fortnite Battle Royale
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds
Founded20 December 2017 (2017-12-20)
LeagueLeague of Legends Pro League
Based inBeijing, China
CEOYang "Emily" Yan
Championships1× World Championship (2019)
1× LPL (Summer 2019)
Parent groupFunPlus

League of Legends

History

On 20 December 2017, FunPlus' esports division announced the creation of FPX and its acquisition of a spot in the League of Legends Pro League (LPL).[2] FPX's inaugural roster consisted of top laner Kim "GimGoon" Han-saem, jungler Hu "Pepper" Zhi-Wei, mid laner Feng "bing" Jin-Wei, bot laner Lin "Lwx" Wei-Xiang, and support Liu "Crisp" Qing-Song. The team's first tournament was the 2017 Demacia Championship,[4] which they placed ninth to fifteenth after losing to Team WE in the third and final round of Group E.

For the 2018 LPL Spring regular season, FPX was placed in the league's western conference. Despite adding veteran mid laner Yu "Cool" Jia-Jun,[5] FPX finished fifth in their conference with a 9–10 record and did not qualify for playoffs. Chen "Alex" Yu-Ming replaced Pepper as the team's primary jungler for the 2018 LPL Summer regular season.[6] FPX finished fourth in their conference with an 8–11 record, qualifying for playoffs as one of the bottom seeds. They were promptly defeated by JD Gaming in the first round.[7]

In preparation for the 2019 LPL Spring regular season, FPX revamped their roster, adding jungler Gao "Tian" Tian-Liang and veteran mid laner Kim "Doinb" Tae-sang.[8] The team massively improved, finishing first in the regular season with a 13–2 record and getting an automatic bye to the semifinals.[9] However, in an upset result, FPX lost 2–3 to JD Gaming in the semifinals, and advanced to the third place decider match rather than the finals.[10][11] FPX defeated Topsports Gaming 3–1 in the third place decider match.[12]

Going into the 2019 LPL Summer Split without making any roster changes, FPX once again finished first in the regular season and automatically qualified for the semifinals. In the semifinals FPX defeated Bilibili Gaming 3–1, qualifying them for the finals and the 2019 World Championship, as any result would have sent FPX to the World Championship (i.e., a victory in the finals would automatically qualify FPX as the first LPL seed, a loss would award them enough championship points to qualify as the second LPL seed).[13] FPX then defeated three-time champions Royal Never Give Up 3–1 in the finals, securing their first title.[14]

For the main event group stage of the 2019 World Championship, FPX was placed in Group B along with Splyce, J Team, and GAM Esports.[15] After defeating Splyce in a tiebreaker match, FPX qualified for the knockout stage as the first seed in their group.[16][17] In the quarterfinals FPX defeated Fnatic, which finished runner-up the year prior,[18] and in the semifinals FPX defeated fellow LPL team and defending world champions Invictus Gaming to advance to the finals.[19] FPX then swept G2 Esports 3–0 in the finals to win their first international title and the LPL's second World Championship title.[3][20][21]

On 30 November 2019, FPX won the award for "best team" at the 2019 China LoL of the Year Awards, held during the LPL All-Star event. In preparation for the 2020 spring season, several additions were made to FPX's roster: Two-time LCK champion Kim "Khan" Dong-ha joined from SKT T1,[22][23] while three players were promoted from FPX's academy team.

Roster
Nat. ID Name Role
GimGoon Kim Han-saem Top Laner
Khan Kim Dong-ha Top Laner
xiao7 Li Zhong-Qi Top Laner
Mingjing Xie Ming-Jing Jungler
Tian Gao Tian-Liang Jungler
Doinb Kim Tae-sang Mid Laner
April Zhang Jun-Chao Bot Laner
Lwx Lin Wei-Xiang Bot Laner
Crisp Liu Qing-Song Support

Tournament results
Placement Event Final result (W–L)
9th–15th 2017 Demacia Championship 1–2 (against Team WE)
5th 2018 LPL Spring Split (West) 10–9
4th 2018 LPL Summer Split (West) 13–6
7th–8th 2018 LPL Summer Playoffs 1–3 (against JD Gaming)
NQ NEST 2018 Qualifiers 1–2 (against Team WE)
1st 2019 LPL Spring Split 13–2
3rd 2019 LPL Spring Playoffs 3–1 (against Topsports Gaming)
9th–16th NEST 2019 0–3 (against SinoDragon Gaming)
2nd Rift Rivals 2019 LCK-LPL-LMS-VCS 1–3 (against LCK)
1st 2019 LPL Summer Split 14–1
1st 2019 LPL Summer Playoffs 3–1 (against Royal Never Give Up)
1st 2019 World Championship 3–0 (against G2 Esports)
3rd 2020 LPL Spring Split 12–4
3rd 2020 LPL Spring Playoffs 3–0 (against Invictus Gaming)

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

On 15 March 2020, FPX announced they had signed the former Danish roster of Heroic, consisting of Marco "Snappi" Pfeiffer, Casper "cadiaN" Møller, Johannes "b0RUP" Borup, Patrick "es3tag" Hansen, and Martin "Stavn" Lund, with Frederik "LOMME" Nielsen as their coach.[24]

After Patrick "es3tag" Hansen left the team to join Astralis, the organization dropped the roster and fielded North American team Bad News Bears, consisting of Michael "dapr" Gulino, Peter "ptr" Gurney, Jonathan "Jonji" Carey, Mitch "mitch" Semago, and Austin "crashies" Roberts.[25] This roster only lasted for the inaugural season of the Flashpoint league. Since then, FPX has not shown any interest in signing another CS:GO roster.

References
  1. "LPL半决赛前瞻：FPX迎战BLG 小凤凰取胜即进S9总决赛". China Sports Network (in Chinese). 31 August 2019. Retrieved 7 September 2019.
  2. "C9 Investor Funplus Ventures Rectifying COI with LPL Team". Unikrn News. 26 December 2017. Retrieved 5 August 2019.
  3. Esuguerra, Tyler (10 November 2019). "FunPlus Phoenix sweep G2 Esports to win Worlds 2019". Dot Esports. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
  4. "德杯青岛站预选赛赛程公布" (in Chinese). 英雄联盟职业联赛. 26 December 2017. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
  5. "我们荣幸地宣布，通过与中国著名电子竞技选手余家俊（Cool）@无状态COOL_ 进行了良好充分沟通后。..." (in Chinese). FPX电子竞技俱乐部 via Weibo. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
  6. "今天我们很高兴的向大家宣布，经过友好的沟通与交流，原J Team打野选手Alex（陈煜明）将以自由人身份加入FPX LOL分部。..." (in Chinese). FPX电子竞技俱乐部 via Weibo. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
  7. Penev, Boyan (7 September 2018). "JD Gaming wins 3-1 against FunPlus Phoenix to make quarterfinals". eSports.com. Retrieved 5 August 2019.
  8. "How to beat FunPlus Phoenix: shut down Doinb". ESPN. 13 March 2019. Retrieved 5 August 2019.
  9. Kolev, Radoslav (13 April 2019). "Monstrous Gangplank sends JDG to LPL finals over FPX". VPEsports. Retrieved 21 April 2019.
  10. Li, Xing (19 April 2019). "JD Gaming can finish a Cinderella run in the LPL final vs. IG". Dot Esports. Retrieved 5 August 2019.
  11. Kolev, Radoslav (14 April 2019). "Flawless talks about breaking into tears after upset win over FPX". VPEsports. Retrieved 5 August 2019.
  12. Oak, Yudae (17 April 2019). "League of Legends: FPX Doinb on the Reason Behind the Mid Renekton Pick: "Because my Renekton is OP."". Inven Global. Retrieved 5 August 2019.
  13. O'Dwyer, Samuel (31 August 2019). "FunPlus Phoenix defeat BiliBili Gaming to secure their first appearance at Worlds". Dot Esports. Retrieved 7 September 2019.
  14. Rand, Emily (7 September 2019). "Doinb earns his place as one of the LPL's best". ESPN. Retrieved 7 September 2019.
  15. Endres, Elena (17 October 2019). "FPX send J Team home to earn a spot in the Worlds 2019 quarterfinals". Dot Esports. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
  16. Esuguerra, Tyler (17 October 2019). "FunPlus Phoenix, Splyce top Group B at Worlds 2019". Dot Esports. Retrieved 3 November 2019.
  17. "Splyce and FunPlus Phoenix battle it out for Group B". ESPN. 17 October 2019. Retrieved 3 November 2019.
  18. Endres, Elena (26 October 2019). "Fnatic eliminated from Worlds 2019". Dot Esports. Retrieved 3 November 2019.
  19. Endres, Elena (2 November 2019). "FPX advance to Worlds 2019 finals after a massive throw by IG". Dot Esports. Retrieved 3 November 2019.
  20. "Chinese team FunPlus Phoenix wins League of Legends World Championship". CNN. Retrieved 24 December 2019.
  21. Cuthbertson, Anthony (10 November 2019). "Chinese team wins 'biggest event in eSports history'". The Independent. Retrieved 24 December 2019.
  22. Heath, Jerome (16 December 2019). "Khan joins FunPlus Phoenix as the team's top laner". Dot Esports. Retrieved 24 December 2019.
  23. Kolev, Radoslav (16 December 2019). "FPX confirm signing of Khan, are keeping Worlds 2019 championship roster". VPEsports. Retrieved 24 December 2019.
  24. "FunPlus Phoenix confirm Heroic roster signing". HLTV.org. Retrieved 15 March 2020.
  25. "FunPlus Phoenix swap Swole Patrol for Bad News Bears roster". Field Level Media via Reuters. 29 March 2020. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
Awards and achievements
Preceded by
Invictus Gaming		 League of Legends World Championship winner
2019
With: GimGoon, Tian, Doinb, Lwx, Crisp, and Warhorse (coach)		 Succeeded by
incumbent
Preceded by
Invictus Gaming		 League of Legends Pro League winner
2019 Summer
With: GimGoon, Tian, Doinb, Lwx, Crisp, and Warhorse (coach)		 Succeeded by
incumbent
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