Europe's last hope at the 2021 League of Legends Worlds Championship has fallen. Defending champions Damwon Gaming (DWG) lived up to the standards expected of them, dismantling MAD Lions in the quarterfinal round. The LCK powerhouse left no room for doubt that they mean business, marching onwards to the Worlds semifinals. Despite the stomp, MAD at least fought tooth and nail, making the individual games a lot closer than the 3-0 sweep would suggest.
Worlds Quarterfinals: DWG 3-0 MAD
Damwon executes masterful opener
To no one's surprise, Damwon came out swinging from the get-go. The team put on an absolute masterclass in the opening game of the series, controlling the lanes and transitioning to a clean mid-game. In the sub-30-minute victory, the LCK giants were up 16 kills to MAD's three and claimed all three drakes.
Jang “Ghost” Yong-jun went deathless on Miss Fortune, ending with a 3/0/7 KDA. Meanwhile, Heo “ShowMaker” Su similarly put on a strong showing on Syndra, going 4/1/4. Both of them were up two levels over their lane counterparts, with Matyáš “Carzzy” Orság and Marek “Humanoid” Brázda struggling to find any opportunity that game. The MAD AD Carry saw the gray screen five times on Aphelios, while the mid laner's Orianna did not fare much better, surrendering four deaths. DWG knew what they had to do and picked their targets well, focusing on killing off the damage threats on the LEC squad.
In the final fight of the match, Cho “BeryL” Geon-hee initiated on Humanoid with his Rakan ult, allowing Miss Fortune to unleash Bullet Time and delete the Orianna right away. On Lee Sin, Kim “Canyon” Geon-bu chased after Aphelios towards the fountain, alongside ShowMaker landing Dark Spheres to take the ADC down. This opened up the rest of the base as Damwon proceeded to take the nexus off their baron push.
Khan comes up huge after 0-4 start
The European team will probably look back on the second game and wonder how it all went wrong. They will rue over the missed opportunity to tie up the series. MAD started off much better this time around.
The game plan was straightforward: camp Kennen, helmed by DWG talisman Kim “Khan” Dong-ha. Early on, the LCK top laner already went down 0-3 with only 84 CS past the 10-minute mark. He also trailed in gold, down nearly 3,000 gold to his counterpart. Meanwhile, Javier “Elyoya” Prades Batalla was having a fantastic early game on Jarvan, already with four kills not even 15 minutes into the match.
Even as Ghost and BeryL pushed into MAD's bot turret, getting very close to taking it down around 12 minutes into the match. Jarvan engaged with his cataclysm, followed up by Norman “Kaiser” Kaiser's Rakan ult to allow Carzzy to take down the opposing support. İrfan Berk “Armut” Tükek's Jayce also teleported into the lane, bringing down the hammer on Ghost. ShowMaker's Azir ult couldn't do much to stop his ADC from dying or even to get a return kill. This put MAD up 7-1 in kills.
EU's top seed continued to press their advantages, staying ahead in turrets and kills for the first 20 minutes. But Damwon were always chipping away at their advantage, trading kills and allowing their players to catch up. Around the 24-minute mark, DWG found a three-for-two fight in the red side jungle and mid lane, giving Khan's Kennen crucial shutdown gold.
Around the baron pit 30 minutes into the game, Khan lay in wait in the jungle, and as MAD grew impatient, Elyoya and Kaiser went to initiate on Damwon's Support. It presented the perfect opportunity for Kennen to flash over with his Slicing Maelstrom, alongside Azir Shurima Shuffling on the other side to erase Carzzy's Miss Fortune immediately. The LCK giants secured their ace, losing only ShowMaker.
DWG's top laner again came up huge in a fight in the mid lane five minutes later. Lee Sin started off by killing Humanoid's Orianna, but Damwon's mid, jungle and support had blinking red health bars. EU's representatives looked to win the teamfight, until Khan teleported in at the perfect time, again ripping through MAD with Kennen's ult. Stunning four and killing three, Khan—who is having the form of his life—enabled the Korean squad to grab a 2-0 advantage in the series.
Mad bloodbath ends in Damwon's favor
Backs against the wall, MAD Lions tried their hardest to hold off the LCK superstars. An insane 40-minute game turned into an absolute bloodbath, combining for 51 total kills, 32 of which were in Damwon's favor. By the end of the game, all the EU representatives had at least five deaths to their name, with Armut leading the unfortunate statline at 2/8/2 on Wukong.
On the other hand, Khan's Jayce had another monstrous 6/7/12 outing. Canyon and BeryL also had the games of their lives, with the Lee Sin going 2/1/18 and Pyke putting up a 10/3/11 record. The LCK support was absolutely everywhere, landing key stuns and pulling the enemies towards him. He was “Death From Below” personified this match.
After the messy back-and-forth affair, Damwon found their way to close out the game. Down to a three-versus-four in the LCK's favor, Damwon claimed the the infernal dragon soul and won the ensuing teamfight.
Canyon jumped in on Lee Sin to secure the smite, going golden to keep himself alive. BeryL stunned up the opposing support, allowing Ghost's Ziggs to land bombs and take the Rakan down. As Khan popped his stopwatch and went into his Guardian Angel, Pyke finished off Humanoid's Viktor. Ghost also kited upwards into the red side jungle, landing his long-range abilities to shut down Carzzy and secure the ace.
They marched through the mid lane, with MAD's ADC and mid laner still on long death timers. ShowMaker dished out the damage on Syndra to kill off Elyoya's Gragas, opening up the base so DWG could clinch the quarterfinal series.
With the clean 3-0 sweep, the defending champions remain undefeated in their Worlds 2021 campaign—adding onto their 6-0 group stage record. In the next knockout round, Damwon head coach Kim “kkOma” Jeong-gyu will be facing off against former team T1 and Faker, whom he helped steer to three World Championships in the past. This time around, he will have to take them down if they are to make a bid for the back-to-back Worlds trophy. The all-LCK semifinals takes place on Sunday, October 31.
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