FunPlus Phoenix (FPX) is a Chinese professional
esports organization owned by video game developer
FunPlus. It has teams competing in ''
League of Legends
''League of Legends'' (''LoL''), commonly referred to as ''League'', is a 2009 multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Riot Games. Inspired by '' Defense of the Ancients'', a custom map for ''Warcraft III'', ...
'', ''
Valorant
''Valorant'' is a free-to-play first-person tactical hero shooter developed and published by Riot Games, for Windows. Teased under the codename ''Project A'' in October 2019, the game began a closed beta period with limited access on April ...
'', ''
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive'', ''
Fortnite Battle Royale
''Fortnite Battle Royale'' is a free-to-play battle royale video game developed and published by Epic Games. It is a companion game to '' Fortnite: Save the World'', a cooperative survival game with construction elements. It was initially ...
'' and ''
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds
''PUBG: Battlegrounds'' (previously known as ''PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds'') is a battle royale game developed by PUBG Studios and published by Krafton. The game, which was inspired by the Japanese film '' Battle Royale'' (2000), is based ...
''.
FPX was founded on 20 December 2017 following FunPlus' acquisition of a spot in the
''League of Legends'' Pro League (LPL), the top level of professional ''League of Legends'' in China.
On 10 November 2019, FPX's ''League of Legends'' team won the
2019 ''League of Legends'' World Championship after
sweeping G2 Esports
G2 Esports (G2) is a European esports organization headquartered in Berlin, Germany, with players competing in ''League of Legends'', ''Valorant'', '' Counter-Strike: Global Offensive'', '' Hearthstone'', ''Rocket League'', ''Rainbow Six Sieg ...
in the grand finals.
''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).
FPX's inaugural roster consisted of top laner Kim "GimGoon" Han-saem, jungler Hu "Pepper" Zhiwei, mid laner Feng "bing" Jinwei, bot laner Lin "Lwx" Weixiang, and support Liu "Crisp" Qingsong. The team's first tournament was the 2017 Demacia Championship, which they placed ninth to fifteenth after losing to
Team WE
Team WE, formerly known as World Elite, is a Chinese esports organisation based in Xi'an. It is one of the oldest esports organisations in China.
''League of Legends''
Roster
Tournament highlights
* 2nd – Intel Extreme Mast ...
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" Jiajun, 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. 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
JD Gaming (JDG), officially JDG Intel Esports Club, is a Chinese professional esports organization based in Beijing. It has two ''League of Legends'' teams: a main roster that competes in the ''League of Legends'' Pro League (LPL), the top-lev ...
in the first round.
In preparation for the 2019 LPL Spring regular season, FPX revamped their roster, adding jungler Gao "Tian" Tianliang and veteran mid laner
Kim "Doinb" Tae-sang. The team massively improved, finishing first in the regular season with a 13–2 record and getting an automatic bye to the semifinals. 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. FPX defeated
Topsports Gaming
Top Esports, previously known as Topsports Gaming, is a Chinese esports organization. Its ''League of Legends'' team competes in the ''League of Legends'' Pro League (LPL), the top-level league for the game in China. It was founded on 21 Decemb ...
3–1 in the third place decider match.
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
Bilibili Gaming (BLG) is a professional esports organisation based in China. It was formed in December 2017, when Bilibili, Chinese video sharing website, acquired the I May ''League of Legends'' roster. The team expanded into ''Overwatch'' in ...
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).
FPX then defeated three-time champions
Royal Never Give Up
Royal Never Give Up (RNG) is a Chinese esports organization whose '' League of Legends'' team competes in the League of Legends Pro League. It was established in May 2015. RNG won the 2016 LPL Spring Playoffs, 2018 LPL Spring Playoffs and 2018 ...
3–1 in the finals, securing their first title.
For the main event group stage of the 2019 World Championship, FPX was placed in Group B along with
Splyce
Splyce (SPY) was a professional esports organization and media company based in Rochester, New York. Their ''League of Legends'' team was a franchise member of the LEC, Europe's top professional league for ''League of Legends''. Splyce announc ...
,
J Team
J Team is a Taiwanese professional esports organization owned by JY Entertainment with players competing in ''League of Legends'' and ''StarCraft II''. Its ''League of Legends'' team competes in the Pacific Championship Series, the highest l ...
, and
GAM Esports
GAM Esports is a professional ''League of Legends'' team competing in the Vietnam Championship Series (VCS), the highest level of competitive ''League of Legends'' in Vietnam. The team first rose to international prominence in 2017, after their ...
. After defeating Splyce in a tiebreaker match, FPX qualified for the knockout stage as the first seed in their group. In the quarterfinals FPX defeated
Fnatic
Fnatic (pronounced "fanatic"; also stylized as fnatic or FNATIC) is a professional esports organization headquartered in London, United Kingdom. Founded 23 July 2004, the team has players from around the world, across a variety of games, such ...
, which
finished runner-up the year prior, and in the semifinals FPX defeated fellow LPL team and defending world champions
Invictus Gaming
Invictus Gaming (IG, sometime stylized as iG, zh, s=iG电子竞技俱乐部, l=iG Esports Club) is a Chinese multi-game esports organization founded in 2011 by businessman Wang Sicong. They are primarily known for their ''Dota 2'', ''League of ...
to advance to the finals. FPX then swept
G2 Esports
G2 Esports (G2) is a European esports organization headquartered in Berlin, Germany, with players competing in ''League of Legends'', ''Valorant'', '' Counter-Strike: Global Offensive'', '' Hearthstone'', ''Rocket League'', ''Rainbow Six Sieg ...
3–0 in the finals to win their first international title and the LPL's second World Championship title.
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
T1 (previously known as SK Telecom T1 or SKT T1) is a South Korean esports organization operated by the T1 Entertainment & Sports, a joint venture between SK Telecom and Comcast Spectacor. At the end of 2003, SK Telecom took the StarCraft Te ...
, while three players were promoted from FPX's academy team.
Current roster
Tournament results
''Counter-Strike: Global Offensive''
History
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.
The team played a single match in Phase 1 of the tournament before Patrick "es3tag" Hansen left the team to join
Astralis
Astralis is a Danish esports organization. Best known for their '' Counter-Strike: Global Offensive'' team, they also have teams representing other games, such as ''FIFA'' and ''League of Legends''. The parent group of Astralis is the Astralis ...
. As a result of this, they had to forfeit the second match. For Phase 2, the organization 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. With 65 points, FPX advanced to the quarterfinals. After losing the first match to MAD Lions, the team fell to the lower bracket, where they played against
Gen.G
Gen.G Esports ( ko, 젠지), previously known as KSV Esports, is a professional esports organization with headquarters in Santa Monica, Seoul, and Shanghai. According to Forbes, Gen.G is the sixth most valuable esports organization in the world ...
. Despite an outstanding performance by the team's in-game leader Michael "dapr" Gulino, FPX lost the match and was eliminated from the tournament. This roster only lasted for the inaugural season of the Flashpoint league.
On 25 September 2020, FPX signed Serbian Petar "peca" Marković, who will be in charge of building the organization's new CS:GO team and split his duties between managing its CS:GO and VALORANT divisions.
On 25 January 2021, FPX confirmed that they signed the quartet of the former
Godsent roster. The next day their fifth player Chris "ChrisJ" de Jong was announced.
On 3 March 2021, HLTV.org reported that chrisJ would leave from the current FPX-roster, being replaced by the former ENCE eSports player, Miikka "suNny" Kemppi.
Final roster
Tournament results
''Valorant''
History
FPX built a Valorant team from CIS to compete in EMEA. They had won VCT 2022 stage 1 EMEA Challengers to qualify the
2022 VCT: Stage 1 Masters in
Reykjavík
Reykjavík ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói bay. Its latitude is 64°08' N, making it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. With a po ...
, but could not attend due to travel restrictions on their Russian and Ukrainian players related to the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. ...
and COVID-19 regulations.
At the
2022 VCT: Stage 2 Masters in
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
, FPX was forced to play with
Alliance
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
player SEIDER after SUYGETSU was unable to travel from Russia to Denmark due to visa issues. After three matches played, SUYGETSU got his visa approved and made his way into Denmark. With his complete starting 5 FPX went on to win the tournament after beating APAC side
Paper Rex
Paper Rex is a Singaporean esports organization based in Singapore. The organization was co-founded in January 2020 by Harley "dsn" Örwall and Nikhil "nikH" Hathiramani. The organisation is mainly known for their ''Valorant'' division, being ...
3-2, getting its first major win at
Valorant
''Valorant'' is a free-to-play first-person tactical hero shooter developed and published by Riot Games, for Windows. Teased under the codename ''Project A'' in October 2019, the game began a closed beta period with limited access on April ...
.
After the organization's application to be part of the
Valorant Champions Tour's new franchise system was denied in 2022, it released it's CIS roster and set up a new team in China.
Tournament results
Sponsorships
FPX is sponsored by
BMW,
Herman Miller
Herman Miller, officially MillerKnoll, Inc., is an American company that produces office furniture, equipment, and home furnishings, including the Aeron chair, Noguchi table, Marshmallow sofa, and the Eames Lounge Chair. Herman Miller is al ...
,
Huya Live
Huya Live ( zh, s=虎牙直播, p=Hǔyá Zhíbò) is a Chinese video live streaming service. The site is one of the largest of its kind in China, and also operates globally as Nimo TV. Similar to other streaming services like Loco, the site pri ...
,
OPPO,
PUMA, Oish, Cool Fish, and Bixin.
References
External links
*
{{League of Legends Pro League
2017 establishments in China
Esports teams established in 2017
Esports teams based in China
League of Legends Pro League teams
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds teams