In what might go down as one of the great, if not the greatest, League of Legends World Championship finals of all time, DAMWON Gaming took down Suning with a score of 3-1.
Coming into the series, there hadn’t been a meeting between a Korean and Chinese team in a Worlds finals since 2014. Additionally, an LCK representative hadn’t won Worlds since 2017, when Samsung Galaxy raised the Summoner’s Cup.
That was, of course, until today, when DWG secured victory in emphatic fashion over a tougher-than-expected Suning team that played with heart and muscle throughout the course of today’s final four games.
The tone of the series was set early. Suning showcased unconventional picks like Wukong, Fiora, and Rengar to supplement an aggressive, fight-focused playstyle. While DWG had insisted on winning through objective-focused gameplay, Suning made it clear they would be bringing the fight to the opposition.
And at many points in the series, it worked wonders for the LPL’s third seed. Players like SofM and Bin, the latter of whom recorded the first pentakill on the stage of the Worlds finals, were able to stand out for Suning thanks to the team’s aggressive approach to this series. But even still, DWG’s control of the map was too much for Suning to handle during the series. The first game of the night saw DWG stretch Suning thin in a 45-minute affair—the longest game of the tournament—that saw three barons and six dragons (including two elder dragons) get taken on both sides.
But even after the two teams traded victories to start the series off, locking the best-of-five at one win apiece, DWG revved the engines in the later stages of the day. Games three and four saw the LCK champions concoct a lethal combination of precision and methodical gameplay, ultimately resulting in two decisive victories to close out the series, the tournament, and ultimately the season.
While DAMWON ultimately ended the season with the best victory of them all, they were the best team coming into the tournament and a huge burden was on their shoulder. Following their comrades defeat from the World Championship, they had to take it within their own hands to regain LCK’s domination on the international scene.
While LPL had four powerful seeds, they were no match for the might of DAMWON, who eventually took down one by one in order to win the World Championship. They even took out Europe’s favorites in G2 Esports, who were seen as one of the best teams at the tournament as well.