Damwon Gaming and Suning to clash at LoL World Championship finals

South Korea’s Damwon Gaming took down Europe’s G2 Esports in a convincing 3-1 win at the League of Legend World Championship semifinals on Saturday.

This is the first time a Korean team has made the finals in three years at the biggest esports event of the year. For the past two years, Chinese teams have played against European teams at the finals, including the 2018 finals in Incheon.

Damwon looked unstoppable as they finished the last game of the series against G2 in just 19 minutes and 3 seconds, the fastest game in Worlds history.

In multiple interviews this year, Damwon had vowed revenge against G2, who knocked them out in the quarterfinals of the 2019 Worlds. After Saturday’s win, Damwon copied the winning pose of the four players carrying one player that G2 did after beating Gen.G, another Korean team, rubbing salt in the wound.

“I’m happy because we took revenge from last year, and I am even more pleased that we were able to take revenge for the LCK since G2 has been beating LCK teams for a while,” said ShowMaker of Damwon.

One thing that stood out Saturday was how G2 recognized Damwon as the better team during the loser’s interview held after the game.

“The biggest reason (that we lost) is that they (Damwon) are the better team. I think we can be sincere in saying that,” said GrabbZ, the head coach of G2, after Saturday’s match. “I think they are going to have a really good chance in the finals.”

G2’s interview stood in stark contrast to the failure of two Gen.G players to attend the interview after their loss against G2 in the quarterfinals. Gen.G was the only team knocked out of quarterfinals whose players did not attend the interview. In the interview, Gen.G’s head coach took responsibility for the loss, saying it was his fault.

On Sunday, Suning Gaming of China pulled off a 3-1 upset against Top Esports in the other semifinals game. Suning came into the tournament as the third seed of China, but beat second seed JD Gaming in the quarterfinals and first seed Top Esports in the semifinals. This is the team’s first time in the Worlds.

The final match between Damwon and Suning on Oct. 31 will be the first time in six years that Korea and China are squaring off in the finals. The finals will be held at the Pudong Football Stadium in Shanghai and will be the first Worlds event before a live audience since the COVID-19 pandemic forced the games to go online. Around 6,000 people are expected to attend.

By Lim Jang-won (ljw@heraldcorp.com)