League of Legends is one of the most popular eSports titles out there. The game’s competitive history stretches back to 2011, where its graphics were not the best out there, and lane swapping had yet to be discovered.  Times change, and so did the teams’ winning strategies across the years.

Recently, a new part of history has been made by the LPL teams Invictus Gaming (IG) and FunPlus Phoenix (FPX) as the first and second team from the league garnering the title of World Champion in 2018 and 2019 respectively.

This essentially writes a new chapter in League’s competitive history by finally eliminating the Korean dynasty and establishing a new Chinese dynasty.

How did this come to pass? We have to first look at the early history of the game’s competitive scene.

History of World Championships

The first World Championship (Season 1) was held from June 18 to June 20, 2011. This was a time where the game was fresh from Riot, there was no rigid format, and mostly Western countries filled the playerbase. Team Fnatic won $99,500 in a best-of-three, and as of writing, is the only Western team to ever win a World Championship.

The second World Championship (Season 2) gave rise to Eastern players as Garena finally gained rights to host League of Legends in the countries of operation. This time, the grand tournament was hosted in a best-of-three series format near the end of the year, to which the future World Championships followed suit.

At this time, Taipei Assassins won against Azubu Frost 3-1. Both teams hailed from the Eastern regions, specifically Taiwan and Korea.

Starting in the Season 3 World Championships, the name SK Telecom T1 would mark a significant moment in history and the rise of the Korean dynasty. This was also when the world would come to know and idolize the legendary mid laner Lee Sang-hyeok, otherwise known as Faker. They beat Royal Club in a 3-0 clean sweep, winning over $2 million dollars.

In the 2014 World Championships, another Korean team by the name of Samsung White snags the victory over the rebranded Royal Club with a 3-1 score. SK Telecom was beat by the same team, which is why they were not at Worlds in 2014.

However, starting 2015, SKT came back at full force to win more championships. That year, they beat KOO Tigers (formerly ROX Tigers, now Hanwha Life Esports) 3-1 for the trophy, mostly being undefeated across their Worlds run.

In 2016, SKT barely sealed their third win against Samsung Galaxy, with a 3-2 score. Samsung Galaxy is the sister team of Samsung White, who won the 2014 World Championships.

The following year, Samsung White was out for revenge. They were able to sweep SKT in a grand final runback, which ended the latter’s two-year streak for Worlds. SKT still holds the most wins in this regard, sitting at three World Championships under their belt.

The 2018 World Championships, however, took a different turn.

The Year of Invictus Gaming

2018 was a remarkable year not only for demolishing the Korean dynasty with Invictus Gaming, but also giving rise to European teams in the global scene.

In this particular year, IG welcomed JackeyLove into their roster as the main AD carry, and he was a prodigy during his entry into competitive play. This was the year iG would run double-digit win streaks across the Spring and Summer splits, only losing a few games to teams who they met more than once across the year.

During Worlds 2018, they snagged wins in the Group Stage, only losing to Fnatic in the tiebreaker for first. Against the rising G2 Esports, they defied predictions of a close match by beating them in a 3-0 clean sweep, doing the same upon a runback with Fnatic in the Grand Finals.

How did IG win their games so hard? They simply played harder than everybody else with sheer skill. Their roster composed of powerhouses like top laner theShy, AD carry JackeyLove, and mid laner Rookie. The team pushed for the trophy with the best of the best players in the LPL during that time.

The Unexpected Win from FunPlus Phoenix

In contrast to Invictus Gaming’s supreme display of talent, let’s take a look at FunPlus Phoenix.

During the team’s early years, they did not have any astounding records. In fact, they only qualified for playoffs once as the bottom seed in the 2018 LPL Summer split, but were beaten by JD Gaming in the first round.

Entering 2019, the team took in Gao “Tian” Tian-Liang in the jungle, and Kim “Doinb” Tae-sang in the mid lane. Particularly for Doinb’s case, he considered this as his final year in League eSports, after barely reaching first place in his previous team Rogue Warriors. This adaptation by the team was their key to success, dominating the 2019 LPL Spring and Summer split. They took third place in the Spring Playoffs, but immediately bounced back by taking 1^st place in the Summer season.

When Worlds 2019 came, things seemed shaky for this promising Chinese team as they had to win a tiebreaker caused by their losses in the Group Stage. They immediately jumped back into motion, beating both Fnatic and reigning World Champion Invictus Gaming with a 3-1 series. With all eyes on G2 to take the final win, FPX proved analysts wrong again by sweeping them in a 3-0 series.

If Invictus Gaming won with sheer individual skill, FunPlus Phoenix won with pure team play. Doinb utilized what was called “dark technology”, playing bruisers and tanky champions in the mid lane as some form of “second support” for the team. Every analyst was baffled in his playstyle, but his unorthodox gameplay supported the FPX powerhouses Lwx and Tian to victory.

Concluding Thoughts

At its core, eSports is a competition. China was able to overthrow the Korean dynasty by innovating and performing better, just like how Taiwan and Korea was able to initially take the championships from the West in Season 2.

For every competitive year that passes, every major region gets to spice up their game, with new names popping up in the winner’s announcement for different domestic tournaments. This has been proven time and time again as previous losing teams start to climb to the top three in their own regions.

In the Spring Season, our victors so far in the major regions are as follows: the LPL has JD Gaming, the LCK has T1, the LEC has G2, and the LCS has Cloud9.

Will these names appear again in the first placer for the Summer Season? Will there be another upset? As teams prepare for a new battle to come, new developments are bound to happen, and at this rate, upsets are very likely later down the road.