JD Gaming, after their stellar performance with a remarkable 7-win streak during the Spring Season, skipped the first two rounds of the LPL Spring Playoffs. They began their title journey in the semifinals, eagerly waiting their opponents. It turned out to be none other than the 2019 World Champions FunPlus Phoenix. With their first match against the renowned champions themselves, what brought JD Gaming to closing with an extremely clean 3-0 series?

GAME 1:

Bans:

[JDG] Galio, Rumble, Aatrox, Trundle, Blitzcrank

[FPX] Sett, Ornn, Syndra, Jayce, (No Ban)

JD Gaming – Blue Side

Top: Zoom (Gangplank) Jungle: Kanavi (Graves) Mid: Yagao (Corki) Bot: LokeN (Varus) Support: LvMao (Thresh)

FunPlus Phoenix – Red Side

Top: GimGoon (Mordekaiser) Jungle: Tian (Lee Sin) Mid: Doinb (Kassadin) Bot: Lwx (Kalista) Support: Crisp (Nautilus)

Game 1 was undoubtedly the longest game in the Playoffs without First Blood status. Both JDG and FPX played calm and collectedly. In the early game, JDG was on the constant offensive while FPX always managed to escape their clutches. Likewise, FPX took whatever objectives they can get (Mountain and Infernal drakes in 6 and 11 minutes respectively), and avoided being picked.

JDG managed to gain a substantial lead without killing through constant tower pushing and map pressure. By 15 minutes, they earned themselves a 3.5k gold lead after they took down the bottom and middle lane outer turrets, in addition to the plates and the first tower bonus from the former. They themselves also took a Cloud drake for the cooldown reduction that especially benefitted Gangplank’s Cannon Barrage global ultimate.

Famous for employing sidelane pressure, FPX answered back to JDG’s lead with Doinb splitpushing in the toplane because they knew they could not have contested the objectives out of sheer item differences. JDG on the other hand continued to assert map pressure in the midlane and took two Cloud drakes all between the 20-minute and 30-minute mark.

By 31 minutes, JDG now sat at a 7k gold lead. Massive teamfights started to break out as both teams raced to tip the scales in their favor. At 33 minutes, at the cost of FPX securing the Cloud drake, first blood and another kill was finally given to JDG. More gold was tipped on JDG’s favor.

JDG managed to siege FPX’s middle inhibitor, but FPX also managed to take LvMao down during the second siege on FPX’s toplane inner turret. At 37 minutes, a teamfight ensued where both teams took one enemy each. They then immediately shifted to objectives ideal to them; FPX secured the Cloud soul, while JDG secured the Baron buff.

A final teamfight happened in FPX’s base. Having the Cloud soul was not enough for FPX, because JDG was able to outdamage FPX through the sheer amount of AoE their composition could muster. Game 1 closed out with JD Gaming at 1-0, 3.0 KD ratio with 9 kills to 3 deaths, and 13.7k gold advantage. Yagao’s Corki gained the MVP for Game 1 for dealing the most damage to champions.

Game 2

[FPX] Ornn, Graves, Kalista, Blitzcrank, Leona

[JDG] Rumble, Galio, Varus, Aatrox, Mordekaiser

FunPlus Phoenix – Blue Side

Top: GimGoon (Renekton) Jungle: Tian (Lee Sin) Mid: Doinb (Ryze) Bot: Lwx (Aphelios) Support: Crisp (Thresh)

JD Gaming – Red Side

Top: Zoom (Sett) Jungle: Kanavi (Trundle) Mid: Yagao (Syndra) Bot: LokeN (Miss Fortune) Support: LvMao (Nautilus)

Game 2 was less peaceful than Game 1. In the early game, no death occurred until the 6^th minute. Before then, most of the aggression and gold advantage came from Kanavi’s proactive jungle pathing and farm rotations. The CS (creep score) difference between junglers in the early game is crucial, for it shows how much camps and gold they earned.

At 6 minutes, a skirmish broke out in the topside river where JDG finally claimed first blood on Doinb and then two more kills on Tian and Gimgoon. This shifted the tempo in JDG’s favor.

During the latter segments of the early game, Tian took the Rift Herald at 10 minutes while JDG quickly took down the Cloud drake at 12 minutes. FPX skirmished Zoom in a 3v1, and then pushed the toplane outer turret which created opportunities for GimGoon to start roaming.

At 16 minutes, JDG had a 1k gold lead against FPX. The latter team took down the Mountain drake, but barely escaped JDG’s forced teamfight strategy. FPX may have had the Mountain drake, but they gave up their tempo in doing so. From here on, JDG was able to take down the toplane and midlane outer turrets, then picked off Crisp right under his tower. JDG was too deep in the shove, and FPX retaliated by taking three kills and JDG’s midlane outer turret.

During the midgame, JDG now started to progress towards the Dragon soul win conditions. They gained the Mountain soul after killing the dragon at 22 and 28 minutes and led them to dominate the immediate teamfight that occurred.

At 32 minutes, Tian managed to snag the Baron buff from JDG at the cost of his life. JDG immediately moved to take down the Elder Dragon. Out of sheer item difference, JDG managed to siege the bottom inhibitor and one nexus tower, then immediately reset their tempo.

At 39 minutes, JDG drove FPX away as they took the second Baron of the game. FPX was now pressured to defend the base or succumb to JDG pushing with Baron and Elder buffs. As FPX stood on an ultimatum, Tian and the rest of FPX had to force into the Elder, but failed miserably. JDG now moved to destroy the enemy Nexus, putting them at match point 2-0, 1.72 K/D ratio with 19 kills to 11 deaths, and 9.1k gold lead. LokeN won the MVP for this game by being the second to deal the most damage to champions, losing to Lwx by mere hundreds.

Game 3

[FPX] Ornn, Graves, Kaista, Thresh, Leona

[JDG] Rumble, Galio, Varus, Aatrox, Renekton

FunPlus Phoenix – Blue Side

Top: GimGoon (Gangplank) Jungle: Tian (Trundle) Mid: Doinb (Ryze) Bot: Lwx (Miss Fortune) Support: Crisp (Nautilus)

JD Gaming – Red Side

Top: Zoom (Mordekaiser) Jungle: Kanavi (Lee Sin) Mid: Yagao (LeBlanc) Bot: LokeN (Aphelios) Support: LvMao (Sett)

Game 3 started with a more aggressive tone from JDG, but could not amount to much as opposed to the previous games. Kanavi stole Tian’s red buff in an attempt to delay Tian’s powerspike. Despite this, FPX were able to take first blood this time, and this led to Tian taking the Cloud drake at 7 minutes.

Despite the takedowns FPX was able to do, there was even gold at 10 minutes. This changed when Doinb teleports to the botlane to kill LvMao again and push the bottom outer turret, which gave the tools for Lwx to start snowballing. At 13 minutes, Tian stole the Infernal drake from JDG at the cost of giving them two kills.

The leads went back and forth between FPX and JDG, and at 15 minutes, the gold was still insignificantly even between both teams. Yagao started to become proactive at this time, picking off Doinb in FPX’s redside jungle at 17 minutes. JDG was now starting to gain the lead once again as they took the Ocean drake at 18 minutes.

Yagao once again moved to pick someone off, and GimGoon was the unfortunate target. Separated from his team in the JDG’s blue side, Yagao landed a lethal LeBlanc combo while FPX and JDG engaged in a 4v4 to no result.

At 23 minutes, this was the big swing JDG needed to close out the series. JDG immediately secured Baron and turned around to wipe FPX with a triple kill for LokeN. This power move brought them to a 4k gold swing in their favor. They proceeded towards the Ocean drake right after.

JDG now sieged FPX’s base at 27 minutes, while Yagao pressured the toplane. With LeBlanc’s Distortions and burst combo, he outplayed Tian right under his own base and escaped towards his other allies at FPX’s bottom inhibitor tower.

FPX’s resolve showed that they did not want to end the game right here. They turned around against JDG without a proper formation and prioritizing LokeN without any hesitation. With JDG’s main damage source down, there was little effort needed for FPX to clear the teamfight and potentially end the game. Unfortunately, as they get to destroying the nexus, the idle time was ample for LokeN to revive and start bursting down all three of FPX’s pushers with Aphelios’ extreme solo-target damage through Calibrum and Crescendum (rifle and chakram weapon, respectively). JDG’s nexus was left with a mere 500 HP to losing the game.

JDG took their third Ocean drake while FPX sought to push the bottom inner turret to pressure more areas for FPX. At 35 minutes, it was time for everyone to go all-out. Lwx managed to pick LvMao while kiting, but Kanavi moved to burst Lwx down right after. Meanwhile, LokeN’s Calibrum-Crescendum combo paid massive dividends as he calmly bursted down the retreating FPX members. All was said and done, and JDG now closed out the series against the renowned World Champions at a 3-0 clean sweep.

Concluding Thoughts

It’s no secret that JD Gaming were proficient at teamfighting, even being dubbed the “Moshpit” team who were ready to duke it out anywhere and anytime to only come out on top.

Besides LokeN, who took the MVP twice for this match, Zoom and Kanavi should be given utmost praise for their proactive and dominant playstyle. Kanavi in the regular Spring season tied with Doinb for the most MVPs, at 13 different games. He was deserving of the award, for it was apparent during the fights against FPX how much he moved towards Tian’s jungle and cleverly stole some camps. Jungle difference is no meme, and it was clear in this series.

Zoom’s performance is commendable as well, especially during Game 1 with his iconic Gangplank. For those who are unaware, Zoom has a clean record of 16 wins to 0 losses ever since he rejoined the Spring season on April 4.

FPX did put up a good fight, but one particular play was devastating for both the team’s standing and potentially their morale. 39 minutes in Game 2, Doinb Realm Warped three of FPX’s players near the side brush beside the Baron pit. Unfortunately, JDG was kiting in and out of the pit and immediately recognized the impending portal. They prepared to engage, zoning Crisp away and picking him while the other four members ran away with a huge tempo loss.

JD Gaming moved towards the Finals, and FunPlus Phoenix moved to the Third Place match, with Invictus Gaming as their opponent for Third Place in the LPL 2020 Spring Playoffs.