In an incredibly exciting best-of-5, DWG KIA prevailed over T1 to send themselves to the Worlds grand finals. They’ll play the winner of Sunday’s EDG-Gen.G semifinal.
Damwon KIA vs T1 has been the talk of the town since the culmination of the quarter-finals. The two best teams in the tournament going hammer and ton at one another. There are many storylines that have been highlighted. For T1, this is a shot at becoming a four-time World Champion. For Damwon Gaming KIA this is a chance to cement their own dynasty as back-to-back champions.
Game 1:Damwon cruised to victory in game one
Game one was a cool, calm, and collected performance all around by Damwon KIA. Starting with the draft, there were not too many odd picks. Damwon KIA smartly banned out Gumayusi's Aphelios and Jinx. Gumayusi has been a monster on both champions and DWK wanted nothing to do with either champion.
The game started out fairly slow, as is expected in most best-of-fives. This is the time when teams are just feeling each other and are shaking off the nerves. Damwon was slowly building a lead that was spearheaded by superstar jungler Canyon. By the fifteen-minute mark, DWK had a 2k gold lead as well as a lead in the Dragons.
There was a very little fighting going on with Damwon snowballing the game through a single pick. These advantages earned them the Baron. This was a very poor showing from a T1 side that has been dominant throughout the tournament. Sadly they had nothing to show in game one as Damwon KIA was able to close it out.
Game 2: DWG KIA is no longer undefeated with T1 game two win
Sadly for Damwon KIA they can no longer go undefeated at the World Championship as T1 puts together an impressive game two to tie the series. T1 shook things up as Faker was on Lissandra this game while Canna went onto the Yasuo to combine with Keria's Rakan and Oner's Lee Sin.
This game was much more in line with what a generic LCK match would look like. By the fifteen-minute mark, T1 had a marginal lead in both kills and the gold lead. Though Damwon KIA leads the game in the Dragons. Ten minutes had passed and it was still a marginal lead for T1, it was Oner's turn to have a strong performance on the Lee Sin while Faker was also having a good game for himself.
The game ended in a dramatic fashion, Damwon KIA believed they had no way of winning the game from the state they were in so they started off the Baron. Despite being headbutted away from the pit, Oner was able to flash in and secure the Baron for T1. T1 was able to ace DWG KIA and close out the game.
Game 3: T1 are one game away from Worlds final
In what has been a shocking string of events, T1 finds themselves just one game away from reaching the 2021 League of Legends World Championship finals. While many generic meta champions were picked in this game, the biggest surprise game was on the side of T1 who locked in Zilean.
For the first time this series it was Damwon Gaming KIA who raced out to an early lead. This was reminiscent of the 2021 LCK summer finals where T1 would often gain leads before DWK came alive later into the game. Come the fifteen-minute mark it was DWG KIA who was up 2k.
As the game progressed that lead slowly diminished as Faker and Gumayusi started to come online. On the side of Damwon Canyon was trying extremely hard to pull the game in his favor, putting up an impressive 3/0/4 at the start of the mid-game.
Although T1 did look sloppy in the team fights, they were doing enough to ensure Damwon KIA could never get back into the game, securing a Baron and exploding the gold lead wide open. It was lights out for Damwon KIA as T1 secured all three inhibitors before eventually closing out the game.
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Game 4: A dominant Damwon KIA sends series to Silver Scrapes
Damwon KIA showcased their resilience as they took the fight to T1 in what was a clean victory. Queue the Silver Scrapes as this best-of-five is going the distance.
There was tension in the air with both sides offering little aggressive action in the early minutes of the game. By the tenth minute mark, the gold was dead even with both teams tied at one kill apiece. Fast forward ten minutes and Showmaker was running the show with a monstrous 6/0/1 score on LeBlanc by the 20-minute mark.
T1 offered next to nothing in this game with Damwon KIA closing the game out with an 18-1 kill scoreline. This is setting up to be an exciting ending to what has been an awesome best-of-five.
Game 5: DWG KIA are headed to the grand finals
Game 5 was an incredibly tense affair to close out what had been a great series. Each team was relatively passive throughout the early and mid game, realizing that one mistake would end their year.
As the game went on, though, the poke from ShowMaker’s Zoe and Ghost’s Ziggs began to be too much for T1 to handle. On top of that, DK grabbed a mostly uncontested Mountain Soul. Pressure around Baron proved to be the deciding moments, as DK positioned and cut off T1 to grab an ace at 31 minutes.
While T1 respawned in time to save their base, they were now clearly behind. A clean Elder Dragon take from DK secured another ace and the series win. They now advance to play the winner of tomorrow’s EDG-Gen.G series in the grand finals of the 2021 World Championship.
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