COLOMBO (News 1st) – Chinese FunPlus Phoenix (FPX) crushed G2 Esports from Europe 3-0 on Sunday (November 10) who were hoping to break the domination of Asian players in the world championship finals of Dota 2’s yin to yang “League of Legends”.

With nearly USD 1 million up for grabs, China’s FunPlus Phoenix (FPX) swept the tournament, beating Europe’s G2 Esports in all three games before a crowd of over 15,000 fans in Paris.

The League of Legends commonly known as LoL was developed 10 years ago by Los Angeles-based Riot Games, sees teams of players face off in a virtual battle arena with one thing set in their mind: destroying their opponents’ “Nexus” base and defending their own at all cost.

After strong showings earlier in the series, the Europeans were the favourites to win the grand finale of the 10th edition of the championship, held this year in Paris’ AccorHotels Arena.

However, the Chinese team, FunPlus Phoenix (FPX) had their own plans as they smashed European hopes of ending Asia’s supremacy with their victory.

Throughout the Worlds (League of Legends Championship) history South Korea has won five of the six previous championships, with Chinese team Invictus Gaming winning last year.

Along with Dota 2, Playerunknown’s Battleground, Fortnite and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, League of Legends is one of the most popular games in the fast-growing esports arena.

The European and Chinese teams in Sunday’s finals were composed of five players each.

G2 Esports comprised of Martin “Wunder” Hansen, Marcin “Junker” Jankowski, Rasmus “Caps” Winther, Luka “Perkz” Perkovic, Mihael “Mikyx” Mehle, Hampus “Promisq” Mikael Abrahamsson as the substitute support and Fabian “GrabbZ” Lohmann as the coach, while on the other hand FPX had Kim “GimGoon”Han-saem, Gao “Tian”-Liang, Kim “DoinB” Tae-sang, Lin (LWX)Wei-Xiang, and substitute jungler Chang “Xinyi” Ping.

Gao “Tian” Tian-liang’s remarkable play which completely neutralized his opposition’s jungler, Marcin “Jankos” Jankowski hailed him as the MVP of the grand finals.

The only champion he used in the three games of the finals was Lee Sin.

In an interview with Sjokz following the tournament, Tian stated that he was proud of proving himself and said, “I often read comments in the communities when I was in China, and people often said that Tian plays like this player or that player. I think I proved myself today and showed the world what kind of player Tian is.”

The winning FunPlus Phoenix (FPX) went home with nearly $835,000, while less fortunate G2 Esports receiving more than $300,000. The tournament had a prize pool this year of about $6.5 million, making it the third-biggest after Dota 2’s The International and the Fortnite World Cup.

Riot Games declared that last year’s championship attracted close to 100 million viewers, putting it in the same ballpark as the National Football League’s Super Bowl, the biggest American TV event.

Sponsors for the tournament include French luxury brand LVMH’s Louis Vuitton, U.S. payment giant MasterCard and Chinese electronics company Oppo.

Riot Games also introduced a news band for League of Legends called True Damage. Their song “Giants” has over 5 million views after only being released yesterday(November 10) afternoon.

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