From Play-In team to World Champions, a historic night for DRX in San Francisco
After a historic Worlds run, DRX wins the 2022 League of Legends World Championship. The LCK fourth seed began the tournament from Play-Ins and clawed their way series by series into the main tournament. They reverse-swept defending champions, EDG and defeated LCK champions, Gen.G to make it to the finals.
The win marks DRX's first-ever Summoner's Cup and makes them the first team to ever win Worlds as the fourth seed and a Play-Ins team. DRX's win also sees the return of the Summoner's Cup back to Korea after losing the title in 2021.
"Ever since my debut I've been dreaming of winning the championship," Kim "Deft" Hyeok-gyu said in the post-game interview. "It was only a dream but now I made it."
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A full five-game Worlds finals
T1 began the series on the front foot with control of the laning phase and the first three dragons. They broke the mid-lane open and picked up more kills afterwards. This gave them total control of the game with objective bounties up for DRX at just 21 minutes. DRX were able to stop the ocean soul with a pick onto Keria. However, this only delayed the inevitable as T1 still secured the soul and marched down mid lane with baron-empowered minions to end the game.
The early game in Game 2 was not that different as T1 took control of the bot lane. They secured three kills with no response in the top lane and looked ready to run away with the game. However, DRX fought back with a pick onto Faker in the top lane and quickly converted this to a Rift Herald and a dragon. DRX continued to find picks and opened up the game by taking down their first tower in mid-lane. T1 denied DRX the dragon soul but could not survive the fight afterwards.
DRX turned their attention to the Baron after wiping out the T1 squad. They destroyed T1's inner turrets with a 3,000 gold lead and baron. T1 clawed their way back into the game with a pick onto Kingen and picked up the dragon soul for themselves. However, Deft's Varus arrow onto Faker in the baron pit decided the game in favour of DRX.
Furthermore, T1 returned to the Varus on the blue side in Game 3 and continued their dominance in bot lane. While DRX kept the game close, Oner and Gumayusi's baron steal was enough for T1 to end the game.
The fourth game was all about Kingen as the DRX top laner put on a show. His early game advantage and gap helped take over the game and force game five. T1 allowed DRX to pick the Aatrox again in the final game but picked Gwen to counter it instead. While Kingen still performed incredibly well on the pick, it was simply not enough to quickly end the game. DRX fumbled on the first baron but made up for it with the ocean and dragon soul. DRX killed off four T1 members and marched down mid lane to end the game with dragon soul.
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