FunPlus Phoenix

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 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 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 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 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 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, J Team, and GAM Esports. 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, which finished runner-up the year prior, and in the semifinals FPX defeated fellow LPL team and defending world champions Invictus Gaming to advance to the finals. FPX then swept G2 Esports 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, while three players were promoted from FPX's academy team.