Followed by the fact that they attended the same high school, Kim #Deft Hyuk-kyu and Lee #Faker Sang-hyeok also made their #LCK debuts at the same time almost ten years ago. Although the international success between the two has varied greatly, both players have now carved out their own routes to become pillars of the professional #LeagueofLegends scene.
But tonight, the pair finally faced off in the World Championship finals, bringing together two LCK teams for the first time since 2017 in the championship round. Another nail-biting five-game series ensued as a result, capping out the 2022 season and giving the team—which was already the favorite at this year's Worlds—another victory.
DRX finished off the miraculous run today by defeating T1 3-2 in a series where it appeared, at various stages, that T1 would win handily. However, as was the case throughout their entire run, DRX thrived off of players' and fans' misgivings, inspiring them to surpass all expectations and, in the end, win the Summoner's Cup.
Bot Lane Cooperation
The bot lane has been a point of emphasis for several teams during the whole Worlds tournament so far. While some have focused heavily on champions like Sivir, Caitlyn, and Yuumi, others have turned their focus to the top half of the map in search of those with more potential for frontline play.
However, leveraging their bot lanes to the utmost extent was a component of the strategies that had propelled T1 and DRX into this finals battle. In an effort to restrict one another's access to resources, the teams spent each draft phase of the series focusing on the bot lanes' arsenals. Varus, though, stood out as a pick that was a big problem no matter which side it was on.
The Match Recap
In game one, Gumayusi was in charge of the Arrow of Retribution, and within the first 10 minutes, he established the tone for what would later turn out to be the most contentious pick in the series. Gumayusi stepped up with his own Smite—an empowered Q—that stole the objective and completely derailed their opponents' momentum, despite the fact that T1 had struggled early on to deal with Pyosik's roaming and almost gave DRX the first drake for free.
Both teams decided to liven up their bot lanes for game two, bringing out the odd pairings of Varus/Heimerdinger and Ashe/Lux, which had the potential to tie the series for T1. The cross-map help from Heimerdinger of BeryL allowed DRX to tie what had previously been a significant gold deficit. The importance of Gumayusi in game one was emulated by Deft's Varus, who quickly took use of this advantage by locking down the whole opposition team in the Baron pit to give his team its first series victory.
Varus remained on the winning teams of the swapped victories between the teams, despite the champion not having a significant impact in games three and four. This was highlighted by yet another Gumayusi snipe, this time on a game-winning Baron. As T1 approached match point, Aatrox, a fellow Darkin, was given higher priority for DRX in Varus' place. Kingen successfully piloted this selection, developing into a raid boss who, by virtue of just refusing to perish, refused to see DRX's streak end after four games.
At the crucial moment when both teams' matches were on the line, Caitlyn eventually entered the Rift under the control of Deft while Gumayusi again fired back with Varus. Lux has been one of the most frequently banned champions at Worlds up until Lux was banned, so DRX was forced to find another support alternative. Their response was BeryL's Bard, a champion that he has a 75 percent career victory percentage with through 12 games.
When it seemed as though T1 would never recover, Gumayusi once more grabbed the Baron—the third time in this series he had done so with an enhanced Q—and gave them the boost they required to regain the lead. DRX battled back by obtaining the Mountain Soul and Elder Drake, but they were rewarded for their outstanding Worlds performance by doing so since they knew victory was within their grasp and jumped at it headfirst.
