DWG 2020: the COVID era

A ghost Worlds

Worlds 2020 was played in a Shanghai bubble: no crowds, masks, daily tests. Only the final filled the Pudong Football Stadium. Everything felt strange, silent, unreal.

And amid that silence, one team made noise: DAMWON Gaming.

The perfect machine

Nuguri, Canyon, ShowMaker, Ghost and BeryL played the LoL of the future: eight-minute heralds, millimetre dives, a tempo that drowned everyone. Canyon was by far the best jungler of the tournament and ShowMaker the complete midlaner.

In semis they crushed 3-1 the G2 that had knocked out Gen.G, coldly avenging Korea.

The final vs Suning

Suning — Bin, SofM, Angel, Huanfeng, SwordArt — was fun chaos: creative-jungle SofM and a Bin Fiora that scored a pentakill in a Worlds final in game two.

But DWG were too much team: 3-1, with a textbook game four, and a first cup for the organisation.

Legacy

DWG 2020 invented modern tempo: play fast, play together, never apologise. Almost every later champion drinks from that manual.

The silent Worlds that forever changed how League of Legends is played.