IT HAS been three years in the making, but Korea is once again champions in League of Legends after LCK team Damwon Gaming beat China’s Suning Gaming 3-1, at the League of Legends World Championship, or Worlds, last weekend.
The win marks a return to form for the Koreans, a powerhouse country that has unfortunately missed the previous two Worlds finals.
Damwon was also the most dominant Korean team since 2015, dropping only 3 games in the whole tournament.
Breaking down the games
It was a close game one, with Damwon securing an Infernal Soul 22 minutes in, and Suning grabbing key team fights, including a 27-minute one that secured Baron and evened up the game.
It was a 42-minute pick-off of Suning’s jungler and midlaner which led to a Baron secure and a game-ending push.
Suning bounced back in the second game, thanks to their pocket pick Rengar (jungle) and last pick Fiora (top), their counter to Damwon’s surprise Evelynn and Aphelios picks. In true Suning fashion, their top laner Chen “Bin” Ze-Bin’s Fiora proved too good, securing the Worlds’ finals first-ever Penta Kill en route to the 35-minute victory.
The loss was the wakeup call Damwon needed, returning to meta picks Graves and Jhin for the third game. With jungler Kim “Canyon” Geon-bu on his signature Graves, Damwon looked much more comfortable with their comp, cruising to a 35-minute win of their own.
Game four showed Damwon’s dominance. The Koreans were ahead a mere 3K gold at 19 minutes in, but Suning, sensing an opportunity, tried a four-man gank on Damwon’s Syndra in the bottom lane.
This was their costliest mistake, as the Koreans leveraged their great positioning to turn the fight around and ace Suning in the process. They extended the lead by securing an Infernal soul at 22 minutes, and won another team fight immediately after to secure Baron.
Damwon would only need 27 minutes to win Korea’s first world championship in three years. The team’s ADC Jang “Ghost” Yong-jun finished with a 9/1/5 KDA while their jungler Canyon finished the game with an 8/0/7 KDA.
Canyon would be named the Worlds 2020 Finals MVP.
The win also gave Damwon 25% of the total USD 2,340,000 prize pool, or about USD 526,500 (about PHP 27 million).
The Suning and Damwon finals was also the second most watch game in esports history. The game peaked at 3,882,252 viewers, a hundred thousand shy from last year’s semi-finals between SKT and G2, which currently has the record at 3,985,787.
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