The LoL pro Gao “Tian” Tian-Liang (19) became the world champion in 2019 and was the most valuable player in the finals as a jungler. He tells how his career in League of Legends began: with a dream when he was 15 and with Age of Empires.
Who is that? Just a year ago, even hardcore experts did not know Tian. He was the substitute jungler for Suning, a team in the 2nd Chinese league. After all, Tian is only 19, so he had hardly any time to make a name for himself in LoL.
In December 2018, Tian joined FunPlus Phoenix. They were only fifth in China in 2018 and were just reinventing themselves. With a roster of players who had actually already failed or were quite unknown, FunPlus Phoenix suddenly dominated the Chinese professional league and ultimately won the Worlds 2019.
In doing so, the 19-year-old Tian shone with consistently world-class performances in the jungle of LoL. He dismantled the world elite in the jungle position one after another, including Broxah from Fnatic and Jankos from G2 Esports. Tian led his team to victory. He was even crowned Finals MVP.
Career started with a dream
This is the story of Tian: Tian tells on “ThePlayerstribune” the story of how he became a professional eSports player. His passion for gaming was ignited early by his father, who was himself a gamer. Tian watched his father play Age of Empires when he was only 6 years old. Gradually, Tian got to play himself.
But the idea of becoming a LoL pro was actually far away. Tian says: Like all Chinese children, he was intensely focused on his education; everything revolved around school. Many in his family were doctors, and it was also expected that he would become a doctor – an idea that Tian did not like at all.
The turning point came in the spring of 2015. Tian was 15 years old and played League of Legends all the time. He was good, even very good, but the idea of becoming a pro was still far away.
At that time, the Chinese jungler Ming “Clearlove” Kai from EDward Gaming was Tian’s great role model. He oriented his own game by that.
Clearlove could:
- Carry a game when he had to – take control of the game with strong plays
- But he could also be a team player and support others with good communication when it was needed
EDward Gaming with Clearlove in the jungle played the “Mid-Season Invitational” in May 2015 in Tallahassee, Florida, and Tian watched every match of “his” team. They even won almost every game, except for one match in the group stage against SKT1, the Korean top team around superstar Faker. That was regarded as nearly unbeatable at the time.
In the finals, EDward Gaming and SKT1 faced each other again. Tian says he was so excited the night before the finals that he dreamed about it. This was not really unusual for him; he played so much LoL late at night that he often dreamed about League of Legends.
Tian dreamed the MSI finals would go to game 5. During the draft, Clearlove picked Evelynn and ultimately won.
When the series actually took place the next day, it went to match 5, and indeed, Clearlove chose the champion Evelynn, and EDward Gaming won the MSI tournament.
Tian says: From that day on, he knew he would become a LoL pro. His mother and relatives did not like the idea, but he found an ally in his father who supported him and was able to convince his mother that their son would become a professional LoL player.
I don’t know how he managed it… but he did.
Tian
And if the LoL career wouldn’t work out, Tian could still study and become a doctor.
Setback at 18
How did it go then? Tian ended up in the “LDL,” the 2nd Chinese LoL league with Young Miracles, which is considered a talent factory. Some excellent players come from there. Tian says:
My career started well, I shuffled through a few teams and had decent success.
Tian
In 2018, Tian played for Suning in the 2nd league, but had a difficult time here. They lost 3 games in a row with Tian as jungler, so he rotated out of the lineup while mid laner Knight became the star of the team.
Knight was the same age as Tian, and the two were friends. Tian says he was happy for his friend’s success, but he was also jealous, as things were not going well for him at all. He was sitting on the bench while another jungler started for him.
Tian’s career seemed to be over before it even began. Tian says he became depressed, couldn’t sleep anymore, and was plagued by fears. He saw no future for himself in League of Legends. After a disappointing end of the season at Suning, Tian was at rock bottom, but then came the offer to participate in a trial for FunPlus Phoenix.
The team was not particularly good at the time, but it was a new start, a chance.
Tian says:
“I would have played for FPX even without a salary. I would have done whatever it took. All I ever wanted was to show the world what kind of player I could be.”
The time at FunPlus Phoenix then went much better than expected. Tian says:
Slowly I realized, man, we’re good. I mean, really, really good.
Tian
Tian believes that what connects the players at FunPlus Phoenix is that they were all somehow cut, deemed failures, and had to hope for a new opportunity.
Ultimately, FunPlus Phoenix won the Worlds and Tian could hardly believe that he was now sitting in Paris and was a world champion while he had sat on the bench at Sunning a year earlier.
What’s behind it: The 2019 World Championship of FunPlus Phoenix is unusual. Normally, teams that consistently compete at the top and gradually improve win.
FunPlus Phoenix was only founded at the end of 2017 and hardly played a role in professional LoL in 2018.
In 2019, they put everything on the Korean mid laner “Doinb”. He has an unconventional style. He doesn’t stay in his lane but is found everywhere. He roams a lot. The until then unknown Tian was brought in as a jungler who could handle this unusual playstyle.
Somehow FunPlus Phoenix struck gold with these 2 recruitments: The two joined the team in 2019, which had achieved nothing in 2018. But suddenly they had an explosive cocktail and the best team in the world. Maybe there was indeed some fate at play.
For 2020, FunPlus Phoenix remains together in this form and adds another world-class player:
