Chinese esports organisation FunPlus Phoenix, most known as the reigning League of Legends World Champions, are entering VALORANT's esports scene and are expected to be signing players from the two best unsigned European teams in Fabriken’s Johan "Meddo" Lundborg, Tobias "ShadoW" Flodstrom and Pontus "Zyppan" Eek, plus the duo of Kyrylo "Ange1" Karasiow and Andrey "Shao" Kiprsky who previously played for CIS side PartyParrots. Multiple sources have told haloofthoughts.
Fabriken and PartyParrots were the two remaining unsigned squads in Europe's top five prior to their disbandment and rebuilds, behind G2, Ninjas In Pyjamas and Fish123, who have been heavily linked with Team Liquid. The move into the European VALORANT scene by FunPlus Phoenix might come as a surprise to many, but it comes after their failed attempt to sign European CS:GO roster, Heroic last year and at a time where most of Europe's big organisations are scouting to see how VALORANT progresses as an esport. This has made it an ideal time for FunPlus Pheonix to make the move into the scene and strengthens the idea that European teams want to create rosters that can not only get results but have either a well known or potential star player of the future that ESPN's Tyler Erzberger tweeted recently, categories that both Ange1 and Zyppan fit respectively.
Fabriken’s Zyppan has quickly shown that he is one of the scenes most talented and rising stars early in the lifecycle of the game. Having been a stand-in for NIP during multiple tournaments, he then joined Fabriken and became the catalyst for their push towards being one of the scenes best teams. He has the stats to back it up in professional play according to vlr.gg as he is averaging 1.00 kills per round, a 1.40 kill to death ratio and an average combat score of 301.9 in 1084 recorded professional rounds, making him the top European player in all three categories. Meddo has quickly become Fabriken's second fragger playing Cypher and has struck up a great early partnership with Zyppan and Support player ShadoW, who he played with previously in CS:GO.
Ange1 is probably the most known player out of the five as he previously played for Virtus.pro, Astana Dragons and Hellraisers in CS:GO before making the switch to VALORANT in the beta. He is well known for his ability to IGL and is expected to continue this role with FunPlus Phoenix. His former Party Parrot teammate Shao will be joining him and has quickly made a name for himself as one of the best Opers in Europe, a role he is also expected to continue for FunPlus Phoenix.
Fabriken Head Coach Erik "D00mbr0s" Sandgren is also expected to join FunPlus Phoenix as their coach.
Both Fabriken and PartyParrots showed how good they were with consistent tournament placings. Fabriken won the Rise of Titans tournament, as well as 2 weeks of the Valorant Academy weeklies. They also finished as runners up in Take The Throne #8 and were third in the Vitality European Open. Party Parrots themselves found wins in the Wave Esports Invitational Cup with a 2-1 win over Fabriken and the Epulz Valoran Prodigies tournaments, while finishing fourth in the Vitality European Open when they lost to Fabriken 2-1. The two rosters are well versed with each other and they already established themselves as some of the best players in their roles in the region
FunPlus Phoenix is looking to make a statement early and by combining elements of the two rosters into one, it is expected that they will revival the likes of G2, NIP, Fish123 and Bonk as the best team in the region and show their worth against the top teams in the world once LAN events are able to resume in the future.
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(Images credit: FunPlus Phoenix))
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