China continues to rule supreme in the League of Legends world. LPL’s spring split runner-up TOP Esports took the championship over current world champion FunPlusPhoenix 3-1 on Sunday.
Fans had been looking forward to the clash between Korea and China’s best after the cancellation of the Mid-Season Invitational 2020. In the end it turned out to be an all Chinese affair as only one Korean team made it to the playoffs.
THE #MSC CHAMPIONS: @TOP_Esports_! pic.twitter.com/IGPHzIvgk3
— lolesports (@lolesports) May 31, 2020
T1 eliminated early
As two of LoL’s best regions went head to head the expectations of the fans were high. Many were especially looking forward to see Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok’s T1 square off against LPL’s best. T1 had just come off a strong spring split in the LCK and were considered one of the favorites.
In their opening match against FunPlusPhoenix the Korean squad fulfilled the expectations as they defeated the current world champions, but the rest of the groupstage turned into a disaster. Losses against TOP Esports and DAMWON Gaming meant an early groupstage exit for T1.
아쉽게도 4강에 진출하지 못했으나 값진 경험을 쌓을 수 있었습니다. 이번 대회를 토대로 더욱 단단한 T1이 되어 돌아오겠습니다.
We couldn’t make to the Semifinals, but earned what we need to learn and fix. Please look forward to our Summer.#T1WIN #T1Fighting pic.twitter.com/loUmbSJGXn
— T1 LoL (@T1LoL) May 29, 2020
Chinese domination
Throughout the Mid-Season Cup the Chinese teams had a stronger showing. Although Invictus Gaming failed to win a single game, the other LPL teams made up for their failings and eliminated the majority of the LCK teams in groups. Only Gen.G made it to the playoffs where they got swiftly demolished by TOP Esports with a clear 3-0.
On the other side of the bracket FunPlusPhoenix took down the reigning LPL Spring split Champions JD Gaming to meet up with TOP in the grand finals. Making the Mid-Season Cup a Chinese affair continues the trend of Chinese teams stepping it up over the last couple of years. Starting with Invictus Gaming’s first Worlds title in 2018 the LPL has time and again shown rapid improvement with another Chinese world champion last year and the show of force during this Mid-Season Cup.
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