DWG and DRX faced off for the first match of the knockout stage. During the LCK Summer, the two teams rivaled, switching places frequently for first place. But by defeating DRX 3-0, DWG stands as the decisive winner, concluding DRX’s chapter for the season.
Game 1
The matchup between DWG and DRX started as a close game of chess. The score was 2-1 for the first twenty minutes, with both teams playing cautiously. The beginning determined the tides of the rest of the game, and neither team wanted to risk giving the advantage.
Thanks to Geon-hee “BeryL” Cho’s excellent warding and rotations, DWG managed to cut jungle objectives off from DRX, suffocating them of map control.
Ha-Gwon “Nuguri” Jang sat patiently under the fog of war, preventing DRX from making drastic game-changing plays. Any misstep, and Nuguri could potentially flank and decimate the team.
DWG eventually overwhelmed the objectives, acquiring Elder Soul and Baron.
At the Elder Dragon fight, DRX carelessly rushed the objective. At this point, Chang-hyeon “Pyosik” Hong runs from the fountain, far away from the action. Neither map control nor team numbers are in DRX’s favor, and DWG capitalize and decimate DRX.
[click here to see the exact play]
This results in Elder Dragon and Baron toward DWG’s favor, allowing them to close out the game with ease.
Game 2
At this point, DRX realizes that they need more crowd control in their team composition. The picks in the last game relied too heavily on poke and did not have the necessary engage potential to make plays happen. They pick more crowd control heavy picks, such as Galio, Jax, and Tahm Kench.
But their biggest mistake was leaving Twisted Fate open.
The game starts off in DRX’s favor, with two consecutive teleports top side resulting in DRX’s Ji-hoon “Chovy” Jeong, on Galio, acquiring first blood.
Chovy gets carried away and oversteps his bounds by flashing into DWG’s bot lane.
Su “Showmaker” Hu, on Twisted Fate, ults in.
Capitalizing on the single mistake from Chovy, Showmaker rotates the map, and flashes in with a yellow card, taking down Chovy and destroying his lead.
Nineteen minutes into the game, DRX pick an excellent fight. Hyeon-joon “Doran” Choi on Jax destroys DWG’s back line, and the rest of DWG falls apart thereafter.
But DRX are unable to capitalize on this small victory.
After losing a member on his team, Showmaker flashes forward once again. Catching out Hyuk-kyu “Deft” Kim on Senna, the single gold card crumbles DRX’s defenses.
Showmaker follows his own engage up with an offensive ultimate, reaching DRX’s backline. DRX members fall like dominoes and DWG secure Dragon alongside Baron.
[click here to see the exact play]
DRX lose their lead and DWG choke out DRX using vision control, taking game two.
Game 3
At this point in the tournament, DRX are desperate. During the draft, they decide to pick up Vladimir and Velkoz, both very unconventional picks.
The Vladimir pick farms up the early game, in hopes to carry the mid to late game, while the Velkoz pick provides a strong damage source from the backline.
Initially, Vladimir gets quite big. Doran gets three kills and manages to trade with Nuguri well enough in the early game to justify the pick.
Unfortunately, it is not enough to carry DRX through the game. Pyosik clearly feels the pressure of the game. Min-seok “Keria” Ryu, following Pyosik up, get caught out and give DWG a hefty lead.
When three members of DRX go down at the seventeen-minute mark, Doran simply does not have enough resources to salvage the game.
DWG look towards Doran next, camping a bush and bursting him down, acquiring the shut down gold and destroying DRX’s last hope of survival.
[click here for the exact play]
DWG snowball the game from then on, and DRX frantically engage in hopes of finding something to get them back into the game.
But their frantic engages yield no results, and DWG finish the match 3-0.
In Conclusion
DWG has proven to be a terrifying team to play against. Moving onto Semifinals for Worlds 2020 after completely sweeping DRX, DWG stands as one of the most likely to win the entire cup.
Will DWG continue to destroy other teams, or will another formidable team stop their reign of terror? Keep up with Worlds 2020 to find out!
