Faker’s dream gets crushed by DRX in the Worlds 2022 Grand Final

This was one of the most epic League of Legends World Championships we’ve ever seen. And the Grand Final was truly spectacular.

The MVP of the match was none other than Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok. At the start of the season, it looked as though this would be his year.

T1’s season

T1 finished LCK Spring with a group stage record of 18 W – 0 L, followed by an almost perfect playoffs run. They only lost one game in two best-of-three matches. Meanwhile, in other regions, most of the big teams were either struggling or looking weaker than the year before.

In LCK Summer, T1 finished the group stage with a record of 15 W – 3 L. They took second place and went on to take second place overall, after losing against Gen.G Esports in the Grand Final (0-3).

During all this time, DragonX were not even in the top four. They finished LCK Spring 2022 in fifth place and LCK Summer 2022 in sixth place.

Worlds 2022

At Worlds 2022, DRX did well in the Play-In Stage, ending it with five consecutive wins. But in the Group Stage, their results were not that spectacular: 4 W – 2 L. There was absolutely nothing in their way of playing the game that suggested the possibility of them winning the trophy.

In group A, T1 won with a record of 5 W – 1 L. And one of their rivals was EDward Gaming, a very powerful Chinese team.

In the Playoffs, T1 played near-perfect matches against Royal Never Give Up and JD Gaming. They only lost one game in total and looked unstoppable.

DRX had a good run as well, defeating EDG (3-2) and Gen.G (3-1). But still, nobody gave them a chance. This was Faker’s trophy for sure!

Grand Final

The Grand Final of Worlds 2022 started with a relatively easy victory in favor of T1 and it looked as though Faker’s team would end the match in just three games.

But in game two, T1 lost a substantial early game lead and the battle lasted for more than 45 minutes. We generally see such matches only in Dota 2, but LoL proved capable of delivering high-intensity battles. At a nearly perfect score, the game was decided in one team fight around Baron.

The third game was won once again by T1 without much resistance from DRX. The team picked Azir just as they did in game one. And they won with it.

What they didn’t consider, however, was the possibility of DRX stealing their champion, their strategy, and their trophy. But that’s exactly what happened in games four and five. DRX picked Azir for themselves and went on to crush T1 with him.

Header: DragonX