DAMWON Gaming could be the biggest threat to LPL teams at Worlds

DAMWON Gaming has been dominating the 2020 LCK Summer Split and is currently sitting in first place with the league’s best overall record. But will they have enough to challenge the top LPL teams at the upcoming world championship?

DAMWON started out the summer split well, but with a few teams still ahead of them in the standings. Going into week 5, DAMWON found its momentum and suddenly no team was able to stop them. 

They have now won nine best-of-three series in a row, only dropping one game along the way to Gen.G in week 8. The team has been showcasing a phenomenal early game, with a tempo that few teams in the world would be able to match. 

DAMWON is by far the fastest team among the major League of Legends regions, with an average game duration of just 28 minutes and 13 seconds. The second fastest team is Invictus Gaming, sitting at 29 minutes and 53 seconds on average. 

The LCK is not known for being a fast region, so the fact that DAMWON can snowball early games effectively has been a big advantage. Even against the other top teams in the league, DAMWON has not shown any weakness. The sqaud’s most recent win was against T1, in which Heo “ShowMaker” Su and the rest of DAMWON ended T1’s six-series winning streak. 

Going into the 2020 World Championship, the clear favorites are the LPL teams. Chinese teams have won the past two world championships and the LPL has several very talented teams. The battle for the LPL trophy is more unpredictable than ever now, which speaks to the overall level of competition in the region. 

DAMWON could be the biggest contenders to end the LPL era, but it will require them to keep up their form all the way to Shanghai. Talented LCK teams have previously dominated domestically only to disappoint when they hit the international stage. 

ShowMaker and Nuguri are the best solo laners in the LCK

DAMWON has had a lot of success because of its world-class solo laners. With assistance from Kim “Canyon” Geon-bu, the top and mid lanes have been the key for DAMWON. 

Jang “Nuguri” Ha-gwon is known for his aggressive play style in the top lane, but sometimes it has been his biggest weakness. This split, he has succeeded and carried several games on such aggressive champions as Jayce and Renekton. Nuguri is currently the top laner with the highest KDA in the LCK, and he has the highest average kills per game. 

In the mid lane, ShowMaker has consistently bettered his opponents. ShowMaker has a wide champion pool and is able to carry on all of his picks. The young talent has the second-highest KDA of all players in the LCK with 15.5. He rarely dies more than once per game, while his damage output is up there among the best players in the world. 

DAMWON is currently tied with DRX for first in the LCK, meeting KT Rolster in its last game of the regular split.