FunPlus Phoenix’s Doinb Becomes the First Korean Player to Receive Chinese Residency

by Jason Parker in League of Legends | Dec, 12th 2019

We’re seeing a world-first, well, a China-first for League of Legends. Today, we learned that Kim “Doinb” Tae-sang has attained residency in China, for the LPL. Doinb is the first player in LoL history to be granted residency in China in this esport.

Why is that such a big deal? Wasn’t he already living in China? He has been, for the past four years. But this frees up a slot on the team for an import player! If they feel like it (and they probably do), there’s potential to make the team even more terrifying for the 2020 LPL season.

Doinb Is Doing Big Things

Look, they can’t all be winners. Doinb’s mid-lane antics were instrumental in FunPlus Phoenix’s domination of the LPL last year. One thing we learned, courtesy of LPL journalist Ran, is that it is not easy to become a Chinese resident either. “LPL residency is the most difficult to get from my knowledge and has already stopped given out to players who joined in after 2016. It will require you to stay inside China physically for four years, your days staying outside the country will be deducted.”

As Doinb has already lived in China for five years, has a wife there and fluently speaks Mandarin, he was an ideal candidate. Plus, it seems like China really wants to get heavy into esports. Having such an all-star player there can only be a benefit.

Another reason I am not surprised, he is different from other various import players. Doinb’s entire career has been in China, unlike some of the others, like Song “Rookie” Eul-jin. Doinb has hinted at retirement before, but it seems less likely now.

Most of the residency transfers I’ve seen were from Korea and EU to the NA region, but this is new and exciting. Perhaps the LPL teams are now looking at keeping some of their players in the region as residents, as this means they can import even more talents.

I wonder if other players in the Chinese region will attempt to stay as well. I can only help but wonder if their orgs will try to push players that way, so again, importing more talent. I’d rather see the Chinese talents shine instead of imports that become residents, but I feel the same about NA Region.

Regardless of how I feel about that, Doinb was a LoL force of nature, if you’ll pardon the pun. He has incredibly weird picks for midlane, roamed and shot called like no other. FunPlus Phoenix went nearly undefeated in the summer split, smashing all their foes into dust.

Now, if FunPlus Phoenix brings in another all-star from Europe, Korea or America, we could see some fun times for the LPL as 2020 rolls forward.