2019 World Champions, FunPlus Phoenix, played three matches this week against Team WE, Suning, and Royal Never Give Up, winning all three and extending their win streak to five.
On the opposite end of the scale, Royal Never Give Up had a miserable week, losing to both FPX and Vici Gaming.
Will the tides change for RNG once Jian “Uzi” Zi-Hao returns?
Week 3 Results
- eStar 2 – 0 Victory Five
- Bilibili Gaming 1 – 2 Oh My God
- JD Gaming 2 – 1 Vici Gaming
- Rogue Warriors 2 – 1 Edward Gaming
- FunPlus Phoenix 2 – 0 Team WE
- LNG Esports 2 – 1 Victory Five
- Top Esports 2 – 1 Vici Gaming
- Bilibili Gaming 0 – 2 JD Gaming
- Team WE 2 – 0 Dominus Esports
- Invictus Gaming 2 – 1 LGD Gaming
- FunPlus Phoenix 2 – 0 Suning
- Rogue Warriors 0 – 2 LNG Esports
- JD Gaming 1 – 2 Edward Gaming
- Vici Gaming 2 – 0 Royal Never Give Up
- Oh My God 2 – 0 Dominus Esports
- Bilibili Gaming 1 – 2 eStar
- Top Esports 0 – 2 Invictus Gaming
- Rogue Warriors 2 – 0 Victory Five
- Suning 2 – 1 LGD Gaming
- FunPlus Phoenix 2 – 0 Royal Never Give Up
Match of the Week: Vici Gaming vs Royal Never Give Up
Prior to this match, Vici Gaming only had one win. On the other hand, Royal Never Give Up was on a roll, securing three straight victories last week.
The odds were against VG before the series started.
It didn’t look good for VG right from the start, as RNG’s Li “Aix” Yang tried to gank top at the three-minute mark.
Instead, clutch Qs from Xie “Langx” Zhen-Ying’s Aatrox prevented him from dying, and he reaped first blood off Aix instead.
Things got worse for VG before they got better. They gave up four more kills and trailed by 5,000 gold.
The turning point came in the mid lane twenty minutes into the game. As RNG pushed in and took down the second tier turret, Shi “Ming” Sen-Ming went in too deep with Leona’s Zenith Blade.
VG took advantage of RNG’s over-commitment, and swiftly punished Lu “Betty” Yu-Hung’s Kalista for overstepping.
As the action took place, mid laner Deng “Forge” Jie teleported right into the middle of RNG’s formation, finishing off Leona.
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Building on this momentum, VG took their second Baron at 28 minutes.
But despite VG’s multiple pushes, RNG had enough wave clear to defend their base. It wasn’t until a final team fight ten minutes later that sealed the deal.
All it took was two auto attacks and one Double Shot for iBoy to kill Elise. From there, VG wiped RNG and took the lead in the series.
Game two was a role reversal for the two teams. VG focused their efforts top, taking out Langx’s Aatrox three times and started to build a gold lead.
RNG decided to pull the trigger at Rift Herald, taking out four of VG’s members and narrowing the gap.
The scale tipped much earlier this game for VG however, as they executed a superb wombo combo, layering Miss Fortune’s Bullet Time with Qiyana’s Supreme Display of Talent into Nautilus’ Depth Charge.
With the numbers advantage, they broke open mid lane and secured dragons after.
In the last team fight around Cloud drake, VG once again pounced on Ming’s Leona who overstepped. By taking out RNG’s front line, there was nothing much Betty could do to salvage the situation.
With the ace, VG pushed into RNG’s base for a convincing win.
Player of the Week: Kim “Doinb” Tae-san
Our player of the week for the second week in a row is FunPlus Pheonix’s mid laner, Doinb, who earned MVP status in all three of FPX’s matches.
On Kassadin, he dealt a massive 22,609 total damage to champions against Team WE in game one, 10,000 more than his AD carry.
In their series against Suning, Doinb pulled out his signature Kled mid. Despite being ganked by Hu “SwordArt” Shuo-Chieh in a 2v1, he used Jousting’s bonus movement speed with the combined threat of his team mate’s teleport to escape.
If FPX can keep up this standard of play, they will very likely finish in the top three by the end of Spring Split.
Standings
1. Invictus Gaming (6-0)
2. eStar (6-1)
3. FunPlus Phoenix (5-2)
3. JD Gaming (5-2)
5. Oh My God (4-2)
6. LNG Esports (4-2)
7. Edward Gaming (3-3)
8. Royal Never Give Up (3-3)
8. Suning (8-8)
10. Team WE (3-3)
11. Top Esports (3-3)
12. Rogue Warriors (3-4)
13. Vici Gaming (2-5)
14. Bilibili Gaming (2-5)
15. LGD Gaming (1-5)
16. Dominus Esports (1-5)
17. Victory Five (0-6)
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