DAMWON Gaming is the 2020 World Champions after beating Suning

William Davis Published 31/10/2020

After weeks of high-quality games at the 2020 League of Legends World Championship, the 10th winner of the Summoner’s Cup has been crowned.

DAMWON Gaming won the trophy after the most intense Worlds final in years. Both teams were neck-to-neck for the most part, but the Korean overlords were too strong in a hard-fought series.

DAMWON GAMING ARE THE 2020 WORLD CHAMPIONS! ???? #Worlds2020 pic.twitter.com/5ugqBGJ0cs
— LoL Esports (@lolesports) October 31, 2020

Both finalists have had a crazy journey to the final. DAMWON went into the tournament as one of the biggest favorites and has been delivering as expected all the way through the tournament. DAMWON had only lost two games going into the final, the first being against JD Gaming in the group stage and the second being against G2 Esports in the semifinals.

Suning on the other hand has been the big surprise of the year. Very few people expected them to make a deep run at the tournament as the LPL’s third seed. Taking down LPL rivals JDG and Top Esports in the playoffs, Suning was the absolute best representative for the Chinese region.

DAMWON Gaming wins 2020 LoL World Championship

Suning went into the final as the underdog once again, but it didn’t prevent them from drafting a real Suning composition. Suning played their own style right from the first champion select by picking Wukong for top laner Chen “Bin” Ze-Bin and Shen for jungler Lê “SofM” Quang Duy.

DAMWON went with a more standard composition, which ended up being a good choice for the slow-paced game. Suning got the first blood after a nervous start, but DAMWON kept pressuring the objectives to stay completely even. Just like in the semifinals, Suning didn’t care much about the early dragons. This gave DAMWON a clear win condition that they took advantage of after an intense fight around the fourth dragon.

After DAMWON secured the Infernal Soul, it was expected that they could close out the game cleanly, but Suning didn’t go down without a fight. The LPL squad kept taking fights to make the game close and ultimately got the Elder Dragon but it wasn’t enough. In the end, DAMWON kept their heads cool and took the first Nexus in the battle for the Summoner’s Cup

The drafts got even wilder in the second game, when Bin picked the split-pushing Fiora, backed up by Rengar in the jungle. This is a pick that is rarely seen. DAMWON jungler Kim “Canyon” Geon-hu answered back with another assassin jungler, Evelynn.

The game started out slow once again despite the aggressive picks. Both junglers were waiting for the perfect moment to pounce. It ended up being Canyon that got the first blood after 12 minutes, which enabled DAMWON to take control of the game.

As a simulation of the first game, Suning kept fighting back and didn’t let DAMWON snowball the game out of control.

The picks for Suning started to grant them priority on the map, which turned into the Cloud Soul followed up by a great fight. For the first time in the series, Suning was heading towards a win and Bin didn’t hesitate after delivering the first pentakill of the tournament and in Worlds finals history.

For the first time since 2016, the Worlds final would not be a 3-0 sweep and fans were in for a treat. Despite being styled on with a pentakill in game two, DAMWON was back in the third game to punish Bin in the laning phase and get a big lead. Suning managed to come back into the game after a great fight at Baron, but DAMWON kept cool and waited to out-perform Suning in a deciding late-game teamfight.

It was do or die for Suning in game four, as Bin picked up his signature Gangplank for the top lane. For the first time in the series, Suning drafted towards late game team fighting so DAMWON was looking to punish early on.

DAMWON ended up getting the priority needed in the early game and once again Suning was on the back foot. Suning was looking for a way to come back into the game, but this time DAMWON didn’t let them. With a fed Canyon on Kindred, DAMWON successfully pushed their way to the final and deciding Nexus of the year.

DAMWON can now raise the Summoner’s Cup for the first time in the organization’s history and will look to defend the title in 2021.

The Summoner’s Cup returns to Korea

It’s the first time since 2017 that a Korean team lifts the Summoner’s Cup, after years of dominance in the past. DAMWON joins the LCK hall of fame after winning its first Worlds trophy, alongside teams such as Samsung Galaxy, Samsung Galaxy White, and of course SKT.

DAMWON has clearly been the strongest LCK team this year by a fairly big margin, which was enough to go all the way. LCK has been criticized for being weak in recent years, but DAMWON is here to save the region as a whole.

The talented roster entered the LCK in 2019 and has since then improved more than any other team in the world. DAMWON has also grown as an organization, from being a new amateur organization to being a name that everyone in the League of Legends world knows.

The offseason will tell if the roster stays together for another year, or if any other top teams will be looking to snatch some of the World Champions. Support Cho “BeryL” Geon-hee and top laner Jang “Nuguri” Ha-gwon have their contracts running out in November, so those two will be up for grabs.

This concludes the 2020 World Championship and the 2020 competitive season as a whole. Teams will now be heading into the offseason before returning to Summoner’s Rift in 2021.

William Davis

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