Europe fell at the final hurdle in the League of Legends World Championship grand finals for the second year in a row.
Europe’s G2 lost 3-0 to China’s FunPlus Phoenix earlier today in Paris. It was a crushing result for the home region, which had high hopes this year going into the final.
In game one, FunPlus Phoenix started off with a few quick kills, focusing on making an early impact in the top lane with dives.
They looked to be on the front foot, but G2 fought back, keeping the gold split relatively even and even going ahead on the number of towers taken at one point.
It was the team fights that would let them down in the end game however, with FunPlus able to pick off G2 one by one at times. FunPlus ended up winning 22-7 at 41 minutes, with a 10k gold lead.
Game two was a swifter affair, with the Chinese team putting G2 to the sword 20-4 at 26 minutes, with almost a 14k gold lead.
Then, the third and final game, even though the kills were closer, with FunPlus winning 10-8, it’s fair to say G2 never really found their form or showed the world their true potential in the final.
It’s a real shame for Europe as a region, following Fnatic’s loss to Invictus in the final last year.
The stars of the show were arguably FunPlus jungler Tian, named the MVP (most valuable player) of the series, and ADC player LWC, who made history today in another way with perfect KDA (kill, death, assist) ratios in all three games:
Finals host Sjokz asked LWX why he thought FunPlus were better than G2 today as a team, and he responded by saying: “Today I don’t think it’s because we performed especially well, it’s because our opponents didn’t really perform.”
On the match, G2 mid-laner Caps said: “Going into today, we were obviously really confident, we’ve had a good year. But today wasn’t our day, I am super disappointed with the performance and I’m sure everyone else is on my team as well.
“We’re looking to bounce back and hopefully we can be better next year.”
G2 founder ocelote added:
“It was a very one-sided game, it was not good. It’s hard to see it right now, but there’s always tomorrow. There’s a next tournament, a next event, right now we are here at the bottom and hopefully tomorrow we’ll be here at the top. These moments make us powerful and allow us to progress, so let’s use [the experience wisely]. Thanks everyone for your support.”
Ocelote, G2
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
