FunPlus Phoenix Is Ready To Return To International Competition
The former World Champions at FunPlus Phoenix have been having a resurgence in the LPL recently. The League of Legends team has solidified its spot in the top of the standings before the New Year break and so far have only dropped two series and 4 total games across the first half of the split.
FPX did come into this year with high expectations but many were apprehensive about ranking them in the top three during the preseason. The organisation went through a World Championship hangover in 2020, missing out on international play and performing poorly in opposition to its normal standards.
But adding another World Champion, fresh off raising the trophy, in the 2021 offseason raised the team's stock. Jang "Nuguri" Ha-gwon joining FPX brought a level of carry that the team was lacking from a top laner in 2020 and has massively improved the team so far this season.
The FPX season so far
The path that FPX took to the second place spot in the LPL was fairly straight forward. The team is great at snowballing, exponentially gaining advantages across the map, and has steamrolled many of the LPL’s lesser teams. Like other LPL teams before them, FPX is also a fantastic team fighting squad, often fighting its way to comeback victories when it loses out in the early game.
A lot of that team fighting presence can be attributed to Nuguri, and his insane laning, and Liu "Crisp" Qing-Song’s return to form. Nuguri has been one of the best top laners in the LPL this season and has smashed many of his opponents in the early laning phase.
He averages a CS lead in the early laning phase in almost 90% of his games played and has an average lead of 600 gold over his opponents. Nuguri isn’t just impressing against the weaker top laners in the LPL either. In a league with players like Bai "369" Jia-Hao and Kang "TheShy" Seung-lok, Nuguri has dominated them all and put up impressive numbers throughout.
As for Crisp, the current meta of engage supports fits his playstyle extremely well, and he has regained his synergy with the team’s jungler Gao "Tian" Tian-Liang while also forging a new dynamic with substitute Zhou "Bo" Yang-Bo. Both junglers have different playstyles but still synergize well with the FPX support. Bo is more aggressive and likes to take the fight to the enemy jungler, while Tian is slightly more passive and saves his big plays for the mid-game.
As for the rest of the squad, Nuguri has seemingly jumpstarted Kim "Doinb" Tae-sang and Lin "Lwx" Wei-Xiang back into their 2019 forms. Both players took a dive in terms of performance in the 2020 season, getting hit by the championship hangover the most, but have bounced back significantly in 2021. Lwx specifically has reaped the rewards of the Nuguri acquisition as his team is back to focusing on his lane in the early game. FPX likes to leave Nuguri on an island in many games, trusting him in one-on-one scenarios, while focusing its attention on the bottom lane.
Click to enlargeTian, or Bo, along with Doinb on either Ryze or Rumble will normally take a few trips to the bottom lane in the early game and play off of whatever engagement Crisp can get off. This accelerates Lwx, piloting the hyper carries that are popular in the current meta, and kicks off the team’s snowball strategy that is also enhanced every time Nuguri wins his battle on the opposite side of the map.
The RNG matchup
While FPX have claimed a top spot so far this season, the team still has half of the split to go before it can fully claim a top placement. One of the teams that are looking to knock FPX down a peg is RNG. The prestigious Chinese organisation is currently one spot below FPX at third place and are in prime position to jump them in the rankings. FPX was handed its second loss of the season to WE recently so when the two squads meet FPX will have a 7-2 record to RNG’s 6-1.
The matchup will be an exciting one as RNG have come up as a macro heavy team that rely on Li "Xiaohu" Yuan-Hao to direct them around the map while also holding his own in his new top lane role. The key matchup in this game is going to be around the top lane as the two teams clash of styles will be highlighted most in that position.
RNG normally lose early in the top lane, thanks to Xiaohu’s inexperience, and often gain a lead through sidelaning in the mid-game. FPX, on the other hand, are probably going to try and bully Xiaohu early with a strong top lane champion for Nuguri and hope to beat RNG quickly.
The New Year break for the LPL gave many teams a chance to reorganize and adapt to the current state of the league. This matchup for FPX will be a great tone setter for the rest of the split as it will show whether the team can adapt and maintain its form, or will other teams close in the standing surpass FPX as the split moves along.
Images via lolesports