FPX Announce Emi Signing

FunPlus Phoenix have completed the signing of former Valiance and c0ntact member Luka “⁠emi⁠” Vuković on a free transfer, the Chinese organisation said on Monday, ending the team’s protracted saga to find a new in-game leader.

emi will occupy the spot that has been vacant since Kevin “⁠kRYSTAL⁠” Amend‘s benching in November, when the team still represented GODSENT. He was one of the three players – along with Chris “⁠chrisJ⁠” de Jong and Miikka “⁠suNny⁠” Kemppi – that the team considered for the in-game leader role.

emi takes the reins of FPX as the new in-game leader

“I am thrilled to get an opportunity to play for such a big brand as FPX,” emi said in a statement. “The atmosphere on TeamSpeak has been amazing and I am really looking forward to playing and competing with my new teammates.

“I will definitely do my best as always to make this team a title contender as FPX is a household name that deserves to be among the top in the CS:GO ecosystem.”

Petar “⁠peca⁠” Marković, FunPlus Phoenix‘s general manager, added: “We strongly believe that emi’s deep CS knowledge and experience can kick-start our season and help us to achieve the goals that we set at the beginning of 2021. We were looking for a dedicated, hard-working, aggressive in-game leader who fits our playstyle, and with emi we found our last piece of the puzzle.”

FunPlus Phoenix turned to emi after once again failing in their efforts to sign chrisJ, who is on mousesports‘ bench. Three weeks ago, team member Martin “⁠STYKO⁠” Styk said on the ‘HLTV Confirmed’ podcast that he was hopeful of a positive outcome after negotiations with the Dutch player had been resumed.

The team played their last two tournaments – ESL Pro League Season 13 and the Fantasyexpo Spring Cup – with suNny, but any hope that they had of signing the Finnish player evaporated when he and Robin “⁠flusha⁠” Rönnquist formalised their project under the temporary name GORILLAZ.

emi, who has been without a team since he was released by c0ntact in October, played with FunPlus Phoenix for approximately a month in late November and early December, helping them to a semi-final appearance in DreamHack Masters Winter following victories over Astralis, Heroic and North. In January, he told HLTV.org that the team “had some other options and they wanted to evaluate them”, adding that he would wait for the right opportunity to return to action.

According to FPX, emi will make his first appearance as an official member in the closed qualifier for IEM Summer, scheduled for April 26-28. Next month, the team will be competing in Flashpoint 3, the first Regional Major Ranking (RMR) tournament of the year in Europe, which will run from May 10-30.

With emi‘s signing, FunPlus Phoenix now have: