EDward Gaming vs FunPlus Phoenix Prediction: FunPlus Phoenix Need a Miracle

• In the group stages, EDward Gaming has five wins and six losses. While this may not be impressive on its own, it is a significantly better run than FunPlus Phoenix’s four wins and nine losses. 
• While this will be the first match between the two teams, EDward Gaming have won nearly as many games as they have lost, while FunPlus Phoenix will have to work hard to recover some positions and advance to the playoffs.
• Neither of the two teams are having a remarkable season. Their upcoming contest is bound to be a war of attrition, with FunPlus Phoenix having much more to lose than EDG. 

EDG is so highly touted to win that some bookies have FunPlus Phoenix rated as a five-to-one underdog. Read on to find out more about the two teams, their recent performances, and insights into upcoming games in the Summer split of LPL 2023. 

EDward Gaming vs FunPlus Phoenix Pick 

• Pick: EDward Gaming to win

EDward Gaming vs FunPlus Phoenix Predictions 

EDG and FunPlus Phoenix will be facing off for the first time in this season of the LPL on July 9. Both teams have not had exceptional performances this season, with FunPlus Phoenix struggling to get some momentum going against some of the top League of Legends teams in the world. EDward Gaming, on the other hand, has seen some success in the group stages so far. However, only time will tell whether it will be enough to carry them through to the later stages of the tournament. 

FunPlus Phoenix has had a fairly uneventful 2022 so far. Their last major success came in 2021 when they won both the Spring and Summer splits of the LPL. The team’s recent performances hardly resemble those that carried them to a first-place win in the 2019 LPL Summer Split and the World Championship later that year. 

EDward Gaming, like their Chinese counterparts in FunPlus Phoenix, has struggled to find consistent winning form. However, unlike their rivals, they found more success in the recent past with third-place finishes in the last two splits of the LPL. EDWard Gaming also finished the 2022 World Championship in eighth place, while FunPlus Phoenix failed to qualify for the World Championships that year. 

In 2023, FunPlus Phoenix had several roster shakeups, with haoye, Xingye, fearness, and Lele all leaving the team. In 2022, the team had seven organizational members leaving. The instability caused by the roster and management shakeups is evident as the team has since struggled to put in any strong performances in any S-tier competition till date.

However, they have shown their potential in the A-tier by taking home a couple of second-place finishes in the last two years.  

FunPlus Phoenix Need a Miracle

FunPlus Phoenix have come a long way since their formation at the end of 2017, when the roster consisted of GimGoon, Y1HAN, Bing, LWX and Crisp. With their history marred by controversies of match-fixing and resulting player suspensions, the team overcame some steep odds to bag second place in both seasons of the LPL in 2021. 

Top laner xiaolaohu has been taking the heat to rival teams by dealing an average damage per minute of 428.9 across the current season. His kills + assists per minute currently stand at a modest 0.15. Unfortunately, the high amount of damage dealt is not translating well into game wins, as the team has a win rate of only 36.7% so far. However, these stats are not very far off from his performances in the 2022 season, where he had similar damage statistics and a maximum win rate of 50%. 

His jungler Teammates H4cker and Bonnie both joined the squad recently: H4cker in July 2022 and Bonnie in May 2023. H4cker has dealt more damage per minute in this leg of the LPL compared to the last two, with 288.9 DPM with his kills + assists standing at 0.24, which is slightly higher than xiaolaohu. Alternative jungler Bonnie has only been in two games in the Summer split so far; unfortunately, both were losses. Statistically, he is not very far off from H4cker, with 225.5 damage per minute and 0.17 kills + assists per minute.    

As we mentioned earlier, FunPlus Phoenix is in the midst of a tumultuous time with several roster and management shake ups. We don’t expect them to be able to turn their fortunes around against EDward Gaming, who have consistently put in stronger performances in the current season. 

EDward Gaming Are Strong Favorites

Regardless of their rivals' misfortunes and shake ups, EDG still deserves credit for their consistent performances in the current split, even if they have not been able to win as many games as they probably would have liked. After all, they won the World Championship in 2021, taking the Summoner’s Cup back to China. 

The 2023 Summer split of the LPL has given EDG a mixed back of results, with seven wins and six losses. The team is only two spots away from advancing to the top six. A win over FunPlus Phoenix will greatly increase the chances of them advancing to the next stage of the tournament. 

In early 2023, the team had only a few changes to its roster, with Ziv leaving and KenZhu joining the management team in January. In February, doG8 left for the EDward Gaming Youth Team while Monki joined the squad as a jungler. At the head of the EDG effort is Ale, who has dealt a massive 511.9 damage per minute in the current tournament so far. 

How to Watch EDG vs FunPlus Phoenix

• Teams: EDG vs FunPlus Phoenix
• Location: China
• Time: Sunday, July 9, 2023
• How to watch: Twitch