FunPlus Phoenix dismantled G2 Esports in record fashion Sunday in the League of Legends World Championship final.
The 3-0 series was the most dominant seen in the entire tournament, as no other team lost three straight games in the knockout stage. FunPlus Phoenix AD carry Lin "Lwx" Wei-Xiang never died, their top laner Kim "GimGoon" Han-saem didn't die until three seconds from the end of the series and the largest gold lead G2 Esports ever had was plus-1.8K, 26 minutes into Game 1.
The world title was the second straight for China's League of Legends Pro League, coming off a 2018 victory by Invictus Gaming over another European squad, Fnatic. Europe has now dropped to 31-56 all time against Chinese opponents, and G2 Esports itself fell to 0-5 against Chinese opponents this year. In fact, since the last time G2 Esports beat a Chinese team (2018 worlds quarterfinals vs. Royal Never Give Up), it is 0-8 against those teams.
FunPlus Phoenix came into the tournament with a roster full of young, inexperienced players.
None of the starting five had ever played in a game at the international level prior to this tournament, yet they powered through that inexperience to become the first team to win a world title in its worlds debut since SK Telecom T1 in 2013.
Nineteen-year-old jungler Gao "Tian" Tian-Liang claimed MVP of the series with his exceptional play on Lee Sin in all three games.
While his overall KDA (kills/deaths/assists) of 9/7/27 was one of the worst on his team, he was constantly the player initiating the plays for his team, including a Game 3 flank onto G2 midlaner Rasmus "Caps" Winther's Veigar that put the game out of reach for G2 Esports.
Acclaimed midlaner Kim "Doinb" Tae-sang did not fail to impress throughout the series, and despite getting counter-picked in every game, he managed to neutralize Caps while finding ways to impact his other lanes.
His 76.9% kill participation was second to only his own mark of 77.9% in the quarterfinals for highest in a series this tournament. He continued his unstoppable performances on Ryze in Game 2 (6/0/11), improving his tournament KDA on the champion to 27.3.
In Game 3, Liu "Crisp" Qing-Song burned his own Flash to force an early Flash from Luka "Perkz" Perkovic, effectively putting pressure on the bottom lane throughout the entirety of the early game.
FunPlus Phoenix converted that advantage into an extremely early First Tower in the bottom lane at 7:45. It was the fastest First Tower across international play since the 2017 world final, when SKT took First Tower in 7:12. That record, however, was set before turret platting was implemented.
Both GimGoon and Lwx also put up record performances throughout the series.
Prior to Sunday, the fewest deaths in a worlds best-of-five series was one: Samsung White's Jang "Looper" Hyeong-seok in the 2014 semifinals and Samsung Galaxy's Jo "CoreJJ" Yong-in in the 2016 quarterfinals. GimGoon matched that feat, dying only once in the waning seconds of Game 3, well after the game was already decided. Lwx bested them all, posting three straight deathless games on three different champions.
He is now the only player to post an "infinite" KDA in a worlds best-of-five series.