The Worlds 2022 Finals matchup has been decided.
In the battle between LCK Summer Split champions and DRX, who’s been surprising everyone after finishing the Split in 6th, the underdogs came out triumphant. Even after a strong performance against the reigning World Champions in EDG, not many people gave DRX a strong chance to win the Bo5 against Gen.G. But DRX managed to shock the doubters once again, as they found another surprise win, this against a bigger goliath with the 3-X end score.
DRX vs GEN (Game 1)
While Game 1 wasn’t bloody or action-packed in the early game, there was a lot of activity in the macro sense. We saw a lot of movement from Gen.G as they tried to utilize their Herald to the best and DRX had a quick-paced drake stacking. We also saw Gen.G banning Akali and picking Sylas away from Zeka, who has been shining on both picks. This meant although Zeka was on Azir, another strong pick, he didn’t have much playmaking potential during mid-game. So, they greatly struggled once Gen.G started pushing the tempo and DRX had to give up all objectives, including a Baron, and they couldn’t find any angles back into the game.
- Teams: GEN 1 – 0 DRX
- Time: 29:33
- Kills: 12 – 2
- Turrets: 10 – 2
- Gold: 58.5k – 44.9k
- Dragons: 2 – 2
- Barons: 1 – 0
DRX vs GEN (Game 2)
Game 2 draft took an interesting turn as multiple player-specific bans came into the picture such as Singed, Ryze and Heimerdinger. As a result, DRX secured themselves a Caitlyn/Lux lane, which was near permabanned against LCK teams, and Gen.G managed to draft Graves for Peanut. The trade wasn’t as positive as DRX hoped as an early failed gank put their bot lane 30 CS behind while Peanut was able to power farm while denying marks from Pyosik’s Kindred. Down but not out after a bad early game, DRX recovered once their solo laners got involved. Kingen and Zeka were monumental in finding picks and bringing their teammates back into the game. As the game went on, Ruler’s poke Varus started to fall off and Deft kept getting more and more stronger. Still, the game came down to a Smite fight at the Elder Dragon. A great ultimate from Pyosik secured the objective and gave DRX their first win over Gen.G in 2022.
ZEKA, REMEMBER HIS NAME! #Worlds2022 pic.twitter.com/9GYMaxWi38
— LoL Esports (@lolesports) October 30, 2022
- Teams: DRX 1 – 1 GEN
- Time: 39:18
- Kills: 9 – 2
- Turrets: 8 – 5
- Gold: 70.2k – 62.6k
- Dragons: 5 – 1
- Barons: 1 – 0
DRX vs GEN (Game 3)
So far there weren’t too many kills in the early minutes of this series. But DRX looked hungry for blood as they dove top very early and then kept forcing fights at every objective. They gave up some early objectives to Gen.G, but it did not matter as the top side of DRX got too ahead with their early kills and the LCK champions had no way to challenge the underdogs in the mid-game fights. DRX even managed to ace Gen.G in a 4v5 after Deft got picked off, leading to a Baron and Soul point. But it turned out they didn’t even need the Soul as Gen.G’s one last attempt in the mid lane turned to disaster as DRX turned the fight around in a blink. The second ace of the game gave DRX the series point to make it into the Worlds 2022 Finals.
TRIPLE KILL FOR ZEKA! #Worlds2022 pic.twitter.com/FpYIubIY1n
— LoL Esports (@lolesports) October 30, 2022
- Teams: GEN 1 – 2 DRX
- Time: 30:03
- Kills: 5 – 20
- Turrets: 3 – 8
- Gold: 48k – 59.2k
- Dragons: 1 – 3
- Barons: 0 – 1
DRX vs GEN (Game 4)
After failing to find anything that worked in the last two games, Gen.G went back to Ryze for Chovy, while Zeka passed on an opportunity to get Sylas for the first time in the series. Instead opted into Galio. We saw how important teamfighting has become in the series as there was a 5v5 at 11 minutes for the second drake, which went DRX’s way. Also without a Graves on the enemy team, Pyosik’s Kindred had a much better time farming his marks, reaching four under 15 minutes. Gen.G could only fight back thanks to Doran, as kept stunning Pyosik and preventing the Kindred Ultimate, which led to his team delaying the enemy Soul. But his efforts went fruitless as couple of big positioning mistakes gave DRX opportunities to take two Barons, the Soul and start pushing for the Nexus. With the gold lead now massive, DRX just forced their way into the enemy base and accomplished one of the biggest upsets in the Worlds history.
SO CLOSE! #WORLDS2022 pic.twitter.com/MyoU7fv3Bb
— LoL Esports (@lolesports) October 31, 2022
- Teams: GEN 1 – 3 DRX
- Time: 37:43
- Kills: 8 – 15
- Turrets: 2 – 10
- Gold: 60.2k – 69.8k
- Dragons: 2 – 4
- Barons: 0 – 2
The victory is guaranteed for LCK in Worlds 2022 Finals
With DRX advancing to the Finals in San Francisco, and T1 already waiting, this will be the first LCK vs. LCK finals since the 2017 Finals, Samsung Galaxy vs. SK Telecom T1. Back then SSG was the victorious team, stopping the T1 domination, and giving Faker his first Worlds Finals defeat. In 2017, it was Ruler who found the famous pick on Faker to end the series 3-0. This time, Ruler and SSG’s successor, Gen.G, couldn’t get past DRX who will face T1 in the Finals. The Worlds 2022 Finals will be played next Sunday, November 5, at 7 PM CST (1 AM CET).
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Image credit: Riot Games