The Q4 action at the 2019 Madrid World Championship just stopped, but the remaining teams have no time to rest on the event. The final four will be competing for the grand finals in Paris this weekend. So China’s top seed FunPlus Phoenix so defending world champions Invictus Gaming will be the first two teams to start the semifinals.
This year, both FPX and IG took a round against each other, and FPX prevailed in the fall. Nonetheless, in the spring, IG just managed FPX their defeat. The two teams never came face to face in one of the five best matches but you can predict it to be one of the most exciting matches of the competition, no matter how long this series takes.
Of starters, they had more than one kill per minute during their strongest three LPL episodes, the Spring and Summer Splits, with their 2019 Spring Split series killing 84 people over 82 minutes and their 2019 Summer Split series killing 98 people over a total of 88minutes.
The two teams like to fight quickly and often in classic LPL style and never get back down from a skirmish. They should be able to note the sum of talent on both sides. But at the end of the day, who stands high?
Although there are large matches between IG’s jungler Gao “Ning” Zhen-ning and FPX’s Gao “Tian” Tian-liang, the important thing to watch out for is the one. Every game is strongly influenced by the rivalry between these two teams. All teams must remain one step ahead of the other in a five-game series to take advantage of this.
Tian has been arguably the world’s best jungler so far. He has the sixth-highest kill in the competition, has impressive early-game numbers, and the highest damage estimates from the other jungles. He has a great ability and outstanding technical skills to decipher the opposing jungling. But most of all his teamwork is with Kim “Doinb” Tae-sang as super-star mid laner. You can almost rest assured, if Doinb is going to become the pioneer in the FPX win. But it needs a little help to get there.
Ning wasn’t almost as reliable, on the other hand. Various fans and analysts have put it into a coin-flip jungle’s perfect definition. He can make incredible plays on the chart one second. And he makes an unwelcome dive the next moment or he takes part in the incorrect time. IG will hope not turn like this against FPX, as their rivals will overwhelm them, if it is not capable of pushing the envelope fast enough.
All junglers know exactly how they can help their team win, but how quickly they can perform their design— whether they get Kang “TheShy” Seung ahead for IG, or gather 4 people for a downhill dive for FPX. Although it may not be the most exciting of games, the show will probably decide.
Let’s get it right: TheShy is the world’s best top laner. At the 2019 Worlds, he has the largest KDA and a whopping 71,3 proportion of participants kills. He has the best early game statistics and the best damage statistics of all the top left laners in the tournament.
Shaking enemies behind your computer screens can be the power of TheShy to overpower anybody on the lane irrespective of the game. IG won many of their games this year–on the run and in teamfights–and the Worlds are no exception for their pure firepower. For example, in their quarterfinals matchup TheShy outclassed Griffin’s Choi “Sword” Sung-won. After 15 minutes, he had a total gold difference of 1,072 and he had seven single kills.
Luckily, Han-saem, for FPX supporters, should be able to fight a stronger war than Sword. In fact, this roster is likely to send its powerful jungle-midfield combo into the top line to put TheShy behind Ning’s attempts. Griffin failed to do this during their quarter-final match and this was one reason the Shy got so powerful.
Finally, TheShy is better than GimGoon ever could be. But the remainder of FPX will help reduce their effect right from the beginning of the game. The effort to try and lock an in-fashion TheShy will be monumental, but FPX showed that they can stand up against the best.
With this final match between the finest in China, so many things are at stake. Doinb wants to prove himself to be a mid-level world class laner by playing in the FPX final, while Song “Rookie” Eui-jin is trying to defend his IG championship.
Ning wants to prove to his family that he is a gift, not a burden if they really need him. In the meantime, Tian needs his teammates to lead them to the Worlds Finals. Can he take the underlying lane and perform that FPX so much loves four-vs-two-style play? Or will Ning trigger TheShy effectively and unleash a beast at the remainder of the rift of the Invoker?
So many questions can only be answered when these two powerhouses of China clash with one another this weekend. All of this is likely at the end of Saturday, 2 November at 6 am CT of the 2019 World Semifinals.
