Ranking all 24 teams at the League of Legends World Championship
By Josh Tyler
9. DAMWON Gaming
Qualified via
LCK 2019 Regional Finals
Roster
Top – Jang “Nuguri” Ha-gwon
Jungle – Son “Punch” Min-hyuk / Kim “Canyon” Geon-bu
Mid – Heo “ShowMaker” Su
ADC – Sin “Nuclear” Jeong-hyeon
Support – Cho “BeryL” Geon-hee / Ryu “Hoit” Ho-seong
How they got here
Damwon came out of gates in their first split in the LCK with a lot of hype around their young talent. It was a rough start in the spring, though, as they finished the regular season in fifth place. They did manage to take their first playoff series over Sandbox before bowing out to Kingzone in the second round.
It was in summer, though, that Damwon started to show their talent level. They ended with the second-best record at 13-5 (28-16 in games) behind only Griffin.
Their performance in the summer playoffs, unfortunately, was not to the same level of spring. Though their regular-season placement placed them in Round 3 to start the tournament, but that was where they bowed out, getting swept by SKT.
This loss left them only one last chance at a spot at Worlds in the Regional Qualifier. Their performance in summer gained them enough championship points to put them at the end of the Gauntlet, setting up a rematch with the same Kingzone team that handed them their first playoff series loss with a trip to Worlds on the line. It was a back-and-forth series but Damwon eventually took the victory in five games.
Player to watch
Perhaps the best top laner in the world, and certainly the best in Korea, Nuguri will be the focus for a team that has firepower in both their solo lanes.
Best case scenario
They’re going to have a long road through the play-ins and main event group stages. That’s not only going to cause them to have to reveal a lot of strategies, but it also provides a lot of opportunities for Damwon to trip up and make mistakes. This team has the talent to make it to the finals, but given how hard the road it’s hard to see them make it past semifinals.
Worst case scenario
They don’t make it out of play-ins. They might be the best team ever to not make it out of play-ins if this happens.
Prediction
They’re on the bubble of making it out of groups (in the main events) but lose in a tiebreaker.