Invictus Gaming, the Wang Sicong-backed esports team who last year became China’s first ever League of Legends World Champions, delivered another reminder of their strength this weekend after sweeping fellow Chinese esports unit JD Gaming 3-0 in the finals of the 2019 LPL (League of Legends Pro League) Spring Split on Sunday.
FIRST-TIME WORLD CHAMPIONS
FIRST-TIME #LPL CHAMPIONS@invgaming sweep @JDGaming666 and win the 2019 #LPL Spring Split!Twitch: https://t.co/DXGkdffdYQ
YouTube: LoL Esports pic.twitter.com/YlYKO17Ek2— LPL (@lplenglish) April 21, 2019
As underdogs at the outset of the tournament, JD’s journey to the finals had been described as a “Cinderella story”, but they were swept aside by Invictus, despite the latter having put in some unconvincing performances en route to their first ever LPL title.
Invictus will now progress to the Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) in May where they’ll take on Korea’s SKT, the Netherlands’ Team Liquid, and Spain’s G2.
The LPL Spring Split tournament had attracted significant attention in Chinese gaming circles, with front row seats at the finals in Guangdong supposedly going for as much as 4,000RMB (around 600USD).
Related:
Esports is big business in China, which is set to overtake the US as the highest-earning esports country in the world this year. In February, authorities in China officially recognized “esports operator” and “esports professional” as formal professions, prompting more support and subsidies from local governments for both teams and tournaments.
In 2018, China won the first ever Asian Games gold medals in esports, though as demonstration events only these medals did not count toward the country’s overall haul. However, China has been instrumental in ensuring that esports will be seen as a fully-fledged event at the 2022 Asian Games, set to to take place in Hangzhou.
