League of Legends

World champions FunPlus Phoenix sign two top laners for their 2020 roster

12/16/2019

With the Chinese League of Legends transfer window closing today, many teams are revealing their final signings for the 2020 season. The current World Champion team, FunPlus Phoenix, announced earlier today that they have managed to re-sign their star top lane player Kim “GimGoon” Han-saem. In addition, the team has also signed Kim “Khan” Dong-ha, the former top laner of SK Telecom.

The importance of the import slots

Khan League of Legends

Earlier this week, we covered the story of the mid laner for FPX, Kim “Doinb” Tae-sang, obtaining official residence for China. With Doinb now considered a Chinese resident, he will no longer count towards the two import player limit. Because of this, it became possible for the FPX organization to sign a new import player for its 2020 roster, which turned out to be Khan.

The use of substitute players is much more common in the LPL scene. Given this, the addition of a top laner with a different playstyle makes a lot of sense. Historically, Khan has received a lot of support from his team, most notably his junglers. In contrast, GimGoon is more often than not left on his own. With this duo now able to switch places in the FPX roster, it opens up different strategies to play around the weaknesses of the opponents for each series.

The current FPX roster

While there are still many roster moves unannounced, this is the FunPlus Phoenix roster thus far:

Top: GimGoon, Khan
Jungle: Gao “Tian” Tian-Liang
Mid: Kim “Doinb” Tae-sang
Bot: Lin “Lwx” Wei-Xiang
Support: Liu “Crisp” Qing-Song

There are several things to note about the roster so far. Compared to other bot lane players, Lwx has looked very weak. However, as his contract runs until the end of 2021, it is unlikely to see him go just yet. Still, there are rumors circulating about Yu “JackeyLove” Wen-Bo, the ex-bot laner for Invictus Gaming. If these rumors are true, chances are he could join the FPX roster as a substitute or starting player.

Throughout the day, we will continue to cover the new roster changes happening in League of Legends and the LPL. For now, be sure to read about the signing of the new star jungle player for Royal Never Give Up.