Admir M. August 13, 2020
Reigning League of Legends world champion FunPlus Phoenix has announced the signing of its first professional Valorant roster.
The FPX Valorant roster is composed of players from Sweden's FABRIKEN and Russia's Party Parrots. Both squads were held among Europe’s best Valorant teams.
The roster was due to compete in the Allied Esports Odyssey tournament under the name Team ZypanGoKill, but a Twitter post from Allied Esports revealed the team would now play under the FunPlus Phoenix banner.
With this deal, the Chinese organization joins an ever-increasing number of teams, including Team SoloMid, Cloud9, G2 Esports and FaZe Clan who have invested in Riot Games’ new first-person shooter.
It might come as a surprise to see FunPlus Phoenix picking up a European team. The organization is based in China and has limited operations outside its League of Legends squad. The brand’s biggest foray outside of LoL came with its ill-fated journey into Counter-Strike: Global Offensive that saw the team effectively rent multiple squads in order to compete in Flashpoint Season 1.
Evidently, that bad experience wasn’t enough to scare the team away from competing in other esports titles.
FunPlus Phoenix’s roster stands as follows:
- Kirill "ANGE1" Karasiow
- Pontus "Zyppan" Eek
- Andrey "Shao" Kiprsky
- Johan "Meddo" Renbjörk
- Tobias "shadow" Flodström
Four of the players on the roster have a background in CSGO. The sole exception to this is Zyppan, who competed in Fortnite.
ANGE1 is by far the most experienced of the bunch, with a Counter-Strike career stretching back to 2005. Best known for his numerous CS 1.6 and CSGO tenures with Ukrainian organization Hellraisers, he is one of the most experienced to make the transition into Valorant.
FunPlus Phoenix is off to a solid start in the Allied Esports Odyssey tournament with a win over G2 Esports and a draw against Team Liquid. Although star-studded on paper, it remains to be seen if communication proves to be an issue with the mixed Swedish and CIS team.