The success of Royal Never Give Up's international success and the ascension of reigning world champions Invictus Gaming has brought new domestic and international attention to China's LoL Pro League. Last year marked a season of tremendous growth for the LPL including successful initial georelocation tests in Chongqing (Snake Esports), Hangzhou (LGD Gaming), and Chengdu (Oh My God) that led to summer expansions into Xi'an (Team WE) and Beijing (Royal Never Give Up, JD Gaming).
eague of Legends is not only alive and well in China, but still growing. This was also reflected in the 2018-19 offseason power moves made by organizations like FunPlus Phoenix, Suning, and Topsports Gaming.
With RNG and iG retaining most, if not all, of their winning lineups from 2018, there are still questions as to whether these new rosters can stack up against LPL's stalwarts, especially when playoffs come around. Here are some way too early LPL predictions based on these three teams' pre-Lunar New Year performances.
FunPlus Phoenix
FunPlus Phoenix weren't ever expected to be bad. They just weren't expected to be this good this early, which is why it's still shocking to see them undefeated at the top of the LPL standings. The premier offseason addition to this team was Kim "Doinb" Tae-sang. Doinb teams tend to play in strange and mysterious ways depending on their other players, with Doinb frequently moving from mid lane to help his jungler or side lanes. On 2018 Rogue Warriors, this evolved into a playstyle centered around Han "Smlz" Jin in the bottom lane while Chen "Mouse" Yu-Hao took up his normal, resourceless tank position in the top lane.
Doinb looks a lot different on FunPlus, a team that has much more flexibility. They can play through any lane or part of the map if need be. Lin "Lwx" Wei-Xiang and Liu "Crisp" Qing-Song are making a strong case for themselves to be included in the discussion of best LPL bot lanes. Kim "GimGoon" Han-saem has been a solid top laner for a while, and looks better with jungler Gao "Tian" Tian-Liang and Doinb performing well. Tian was cited as this team's weakest link on paper, but has come alive recently thanks in large part to Doinb in the mid lane. FunPlus looked like a team that would overly-rely on smashing opponents early, but in recent series against JD Gaming and Suning, FPX proved that they can not only slow the pace of a game down, but choose their pace well to play around various compositions and key item power spikes.
The real test for FunPlus' consistency should come in the playoffs when the team will have to take on their opponents in longer series. Doinb has been knocking at the door of an LPL title for the past few years only to fall just (or at some points in 2017, significantly) short. He's also the only player with recent international experience -- IEM Season 10 Cologne and the IEM Season 10 World Championship in 2015-16, 2018 Rift Rivals -- although GimGoon did appear at the International e-Culture Festival 2013. They has strong players in every position, but whether they will represent China internationally will likely come down to how well Doinb can lead the team.
Are FunPlus Phoenix the real deal? Yes, but their flexibility and coordination will be tested in playoff best-of-fives. It's difficult to see them winning an LPL title given the large amount of talent vying for it.
Suning
This is a team that was built to win the LPL and represent China internationally. Given the thought put into this lineup and the big name offseason acquisitions of Smlz and the former Flash Wolves duo of mid laner Huang "Maple" Yi-Tang and support Hu "SwordArT" Shuo-Chieh. This is not a team that was built for domestic performances as much as Suning are already looking past that as they continue to work on their coordination.
Like FunPlus, Suning have come together more quickly than expected, especially given how disjointed the team looked in their first appearance together at the Demacia Cup 2018 Winter. It makes sense that they would eventually be able to coordinate with each other. Maple and SwordArT are veterans with significant international experience. Smlz has been in the LPL since 2013. Top laner Xie "XiaoAL" Zhen-Ying and jungler Yang "H4cker" Zhi-Hao played large parts in Suning reaching playoffs last year.
If Suning had pulled off their recent Game 3 win over FunPlus Phoenix, they would be at the top of the standings instead. Maple would have earned his own "flu game" from dragging himself onstage with a large white mask while dripping with sweat. His team manager said that he was highly contagious, so hopefully Maple and the rest of Suning have recovered over their two weeks off. Whether this was the right call or not for Maple's health, it was another indicator of just how serious the organization is about making every series count. Their aspirations may look larger than the LPL, but they also should be commended for taking things one match at a time, and working on improvement game by game.
Are Suning the real deal? Yes. We fully expect Suning to be contending for an LPL title, if not this spring, then this summer provided that they stick with the same lineup.
Topsports Gaming
Recipients of the largest amount of offseason hype due to blockbuster signings like former Suning mid laner Zhuo "Knight" Ding, former JD Gaming bot laner Lee "LokeN" Dong-wook and former Team WE support Nam "Ben" Dong-hyun. However, Topsports didn't forget that it was raising native Chinese talent like Xiong "Xx" Yu-Long that accompanied their unlikely rise through 2018 LPL Summer.
One of the most interesting additions to the team has been rookie top laner Bai "369" Jia-Hao, who just turned 17 years old in December and previously played in the LoL Development League on Topsports' sister team, King of Future. 369's Teleport flanks haven't always worked out, but they're well coordinated by him and the team, and show that TOP are never willing to give up a game, even if they're at a deficit. Watching this team play is a bit like watching iG at the beginning of last year. They rely on a strong, vicious early game and often pick champions to support this - 369 along with FunPlus' GimGoon has been partially responsible for the recent Renekton resurgence.
The biggest knock against Topsports is that, similar to FunPlus Phoenix, four of their starting five have little to no playoff experience, never mind having played internationally. Only Ben, a somewhat underrated pickup for Topsports given the hype around Knight's return to the LPL stage, can bring that type of veteran voice from his time with Team WE in 2017. There's also the fact that they have been buoyed by an easier schedule with wins over Victory Five, OMG, and LGD, all of whom have losing records. The one time they faced a team with a winning record was in the LPL opener against iG and they were swept.
Are Topsports the real deal? Signs point to yes given the sheer amount of talent they have in every position. Like FunPlus, they will be tested by more veteran and experience organization in longer best-of playoff series.