CHINESE SMASH EUROPEAN HOPES OF ‘LEGENDS’ GLORY ESPORTS

Paris—chinese video gamers crushed a team from Europe on Sunday who were hoping to break the domination of Asian players in the world championship finals of online game “League of Legends.”

With more than $1 million up for grabs, China’s Funplus Phoenix (FPX) swept the tournament, beating Europe’s G2 Esports in all three games before a crowd of 15,000 fans in Paris.

The game, developed 10 years ago by Los Angelesbased Riot Games, sees teams of players face off in a virtual battle arena with one main goal: destroying their opponents’ “Nexus” base.

After strong showings earlier in the series, the Europeans were the favorites to win the grand final of the 10th edition of the championship, held this year in Paris’ Accorhotels Arena.

However, the Chinese team smashed European hopes of ending Asia’s supremacy with their victory.

South Korea won five of the six previous championships, with Chinese team Invictus Gaming winning last year.

“FPX is a really good team, so even if we had played better it would have been rough,” said G2 Esports coach Fabian “Grabbz” Lohmann.

Along with Dota 2, Fortnite and Counter-strike: Global Offensive, League of Legends is one of the most popular games in the fast growing esports.

The tournament had a prize pool this year of about $6.5 million, making it the third biggest after Dota 2’s The International and the Fortnite World Cup.

The winning team got $835,000, with the runners-up receiving $300,000.