FunPlus Phoenix (FPX) have progressed to the quarterfinals the 2019 League of Legends World Championship after ousting J Team.
FPX had a practically uncontested run during the LPL Summer Split before the tournament. They quickly claimed first place despite dropping one game in addition to their first-place finish in the spring.
They didn’t perform up to expectations as fans expected them to destroy the group stage competition. After dropping games against J Team and Splyce, their real definitive matches were against GAM Esports. With this performance, they might be shown the exit door sooner or later.
In this competition, upsets are likely to happen against FPX. The Chinese team, however, showed up in their final day of the group stage today to secure their passage to the next round.
FPX didn’t struggle to get a win by taking an early lead and wasted no time to defeat J Team. The Chinese team locked in a seemingly passive lane with Tahm Kench and Varus by using the duo to dive J Team’s bot tower. They repeatedly ganked bot lane and quickly snowballed their lead. FPX had a 7,000 gold lead and showed no signs of stopping in the 16-minute mark. They had a gold difference of 21,294, by the end of the game. With this performance, FPX has broken the record for the largest differential at Worlds.
After finding a decisive team fight against J Team in the dragon pit, FPX sealed their lead and were able to take and win any fight they forced. J Team hands were tied as they had little to no response throughout the game, and FPX ran them down until it was over.
Although J Team’s expected performance was underestimated as they came into the tournament as the LMS first seed, having been known to underperform in recent years, this has lowered expectations for the team. The weakness in the region came to bare when Riot merged with the LST.
They didn’t let that affect their game by proving doubters wrong in their first match at Worlds, where they upset FPX and ended with a 3-3 record. But they failed to get the needed win to push them into the quarterfinals against their Chinese counterpart.
Written by: Oladipupo Mojeed
