The two teams that many expected to see in this year’s LPL Spring Playoffs Finals instead took each other on for third place today. Odds were close to dead even pre-game, which was befitting of the caliber of both sides – who were the world champions in 2018 and 2019.
Here’s how the series between Invictus Gaming (IG) and FunPlus Phoenix (FPX) went.
Game 1:
Bans:
[IG] Varus, Rumble, Nautilus, Ryze, Thresh
[FPX] Kallista, Lucian, Trundle, Ezreal, Tahm Kench
Invictus Gaming – Red Side
Top: TheShy(Jayce) Jungle: Ning(Lee Sin) Mid: Rookie(Sybdra) Bot: Puff (Miss Fortune)Support: Southwind(Braum)
FPX – Blue Side
Top: Khan (Ornn) Jungle: Tian (Graves) Mid: Doinb (Galio) Bot: Lwx (Aphelios) Support: Crisp (Leona)
It didn’t take look for the action to start, with Khan falling for FPX while TheShy and Rookie got taken out in the fourth minute for a 2-1 early kill lead for FPX.
The eighth minute saw Khan take out TheShy in a solo effort, while Rookie went down in a team fight. A minute later Ning was taken out as well to make it 5-1 for FPX.
TheShy fell in the tenth minute after getting ganked, and Puff followed in a team fight. They got a consolation kill on Lwx but it was 7-2 for FPX when it was all over.
TheShy again got tripled teamed in the 12th minute, making it 8-2.
15 minutes in, FPX were in heavy control of the game. They had a 4K gold advantage on top of the kill score and were also ahead two dragons and one tower.
Rookie was on the wrong end of a 4v1 in the 17th minute to make it 9-2.
IG couldn’t get it rolling, and this led to a third dragon for FPX by the 20th minute. FPX started the baron, and IG tried to pick a fight but lost Ning, Puff, and Southwind, pushing the lead to 12-2.
A midlane 5v5 broke out as IG knew they needed to contest the dragon, but it led to a full team deletion, along with a fourth dragon and the baron for FPX in addition to the 17-2 score. FPX were already ahead 11K gold by the 27th minute, too.
Game 1 ended in the 29th minute, with a 22-3 kill lead and 17K gold
FPX outplayed IG in every department. Their lane pressure was top-notch, they kept finding the ganks, controlled the jungle, and rotated onto objectives with great precision. The team fights consistently went their way as well.
FPX spread out the kills pretty well, with four members getting more than 10K damage.
TheShy (0/6/2) was going to be an important component of an IG victory, and he was soundly outplayed by Khan (5/1/11).
Game 2:
Bans:
[IG] Rumble, Galio, Graves, Ornn, Irelia
[FPX] Varus, Kallista, Lucian, Leblanc, Syndra
Invictus Gaming – Blue Side
Top: TheShy(Jayce) Jungle: Ning(Lee Sin) Mid: Rookie(Azir) Bot: Puff (Aphelios)Support: Southwind (Thresh)
FPX – Red Side
Top: Khan (Aatrox) Jungle: Tian (Trundle) Mid: Doinb (Twisted Fate) Bot: Lwx (Miss Fortune) Support: Crisp (Nautilus)
IG banned Ornn, Graves and Galio in response to Game 1, but that opened up Trundle and Nautilus for FPX, and switched to the blue side.
Ning wanted to grab first blood after stealing the opposing team’s red buff, but Tian somehow survived with a sliver of health and that put Ning out of position and in a 3v1 for a 1-0 start for FPX.
Khan and Tian took out TheShy in the top lane in the sixth minute to make it 2-0. Ning and Puff went down in the eighth minute to make it 4-0 for FPX.
IG grabbed the first dragon in the 10th minute, at the cost of TheShy’s second death in the top lane.
TheShy again fell in the top lane as FPX dove in, giving Khan’s Aatrox an astounding fifth kill in the 13th minute of the game to make it 6-0.
IG finally won a fight in the 14th minute, taking out Khan and Tian at the cost of Ning, making it 7-2. They then took out Lwx to make it 7-3, along with a second dragon.
At the 15 minute mark, FPX were ahead 8-3 in kills, but the gold lead was only 1.5K and they were behind two dragon souls. It was definitely a much closer match, with Rookie’s Azir and Puff’s Aphelios having a CS advantage over their FPX counterparts.
FPX started the dragon and successfully got their first soul in the 21st minute, but lost Khan, Tian, Lwx and Crisp while IG only lost TheShy and Puff. That made it 10-7 and opened it the baron for IG. Khan and Doinb teleported to defend the baron, but it came at the cost of another Khan death to make it 11-8.
Puff found himself caught out in the 23rd minute to make it 12-8 for FPX, which was answered by an IG dive that took Khan out again to make it 12-9.
IG grabbed their third drake in the 26th minute, and got the big fight that IG wanted, cutting the FPX lead to 14-13. Tian got caught after respawning but then Lwx managed to steal the baron. It was 15-14 in IG’s favor after the baron fight, which saw Khan taken down.
30 minutes in, IG were ahead 15-14 in kills, 1K gold, and 5-3 in towers downed. TheShy, Rookie, Puff, had CS leads too, and were just dealing too much damage.
FPX were able to burst down the dragon for their second soul, but came up on the wrong end of the engagement afterwards to push IG’s 19-15 ahead.
FPX went for the baron in the 35th minute and got it down before IG could reach them. Another 5v5 broke out at the dragon, which FPX was able to take along with downing Ning and Southwind to even the souls at three apiece.
FPX went in for the siege at the 37th minute with a triple cloud soul and the Baron buff and were able to send IG packing in game 2.
That was a phenomenal game, which ended with both sides having 20 kills. Lwx had a great game with 25K damage and a 9/2/3 performance – and grabbed a triple kill for the second game in a row.
TheShy will be disappointed to have lost that game, as he had a stronger performance in game 2, finishing 4/6/11. Rookie also went 7/1/11 for IG in the losing effort.
Game 3:
Bans:
[IG] Galio, Rumble, Graves, Kassadin, Twisted Fate
[FPX] Varus, Kallista, Lucian, Lee Sin, Jarvan IV
Invictus Gaming – Blue Side
Top: TheShy(Aatrox) Jungle: Ning(Zac) Mid: Rookie(Azir) Bot: Puff (Aphelios)Support: Southwind (Thresh)
FPX – Red Side
Top: Khan (Fiora) Jungle: Tian (Trundle) Mid: Doinb () Bot: Lwx (Miss Fortune) Support: Crisp (Nautilus)
On the ropes and on the verge of getting swept by FPX, IG needed a drastic change after that demoralizing game 2 loss.
FPX pulled out his Fiora for the potential deciding game, and Doinb picked up Viktor in the midlane.
Ning went with Zac for a change on the IG side, and TheShy picked up Aatrox while Crisp took Thresh.
FPX got first blood by taking out Ning in the third minute. Khan got baited into a 3v1 in the top lane, making the kill score 1-1 with five minutes complete.
That same minute, Lwx and Crisp went down to give the 3-2 lead to IG. Shortly after, Rookie got taken down to make it 3-3.
Tian grabbed the first dragon in the seventh minute. Puff and Crisp traded deaths in the eighth minute to make it 4-4. Ning went in too deep to make it 5-4 shortly in FPX’s favor after.
FPX won a 4v4 in the midlane in the 12th minute, taking out Ning and Rookie to make it 7-4. Khan followed up with a solo kill of TheShy, pushing the lead to 8-4.
A fight in the botlane pushed it to 10-5, and by the 15th minute it looked like FPX were on the way to snowballing. They had a handy CS lead and a 4K gold advantage.
FPX pushed toward the midlane T2 turret and the 5v5 ended five deaths for IG and two for FPX as their lead rose to 14-7. The reigning world champs then grabbed their third dragon of the game shortly after.
FPX pushed their kill lead further to 18-8 by the 21st minute, and then took out the baron.
They started the siege in the bot lane in the 22nd minute, and it was the beginning of the end for IG. The dominating performance made it a clean sweep for FPX in the third-place playoff series.
Concluding thoughts
Bringing in Khan to the starting lineup made a huge difference, he really showed up to play today and compiled a 15/9/19 performance over the three games.
FPX had a better game plan, and had superior coordination. While IG were able to win a number of chaotic fights in game 2, their ‘win lane, win game’ strategy was negated by FPX.
A number of picks just didn’t work out for IG as well, like Ning’s choice to pull out Zac in the final game.
IG, who seemed so dominant on the way to their first seed finish in the LPL Spring 2020 Split, flamed out of the tournament in spectacular fashion. They finished with a combined record of 1-6 in the two series that they played. They’re going to be faced with a lot of questions moving forward.
