First play-in team to win the League of Legends World Championship
Before 2022, only qualifying teams won one of the previous 11 League of Legends World Championships. The wildcard for non-qualifying teams was first introduced in 2013 before being replaced by the play-in stages in 2017. Only four teams out of twelve from the play-in will make it to the next phase to play in the World Championship, and DRX was one of them. With the past failures of previous play-in teams, many people gave DRX, a team that barely got into the play-in stage, little chance of winning the tournament, let alone advancing past the group stage.
Instead, DRX went 4-2 in the group stage, tying team Rogue with the best group C record. DRX would beat Rogue in the tiebreaker, and up next was the defending champion EDward Gaming, EDG, in the quarterfinals. Things looked bleak for DRX when EDG took a 2-0 lead in the best-of-5 series. DRX would reverse sweep the 2021 World Champion to face the tournament favorite, Gen.G. Gen.G was the number 1 seed from Korea, while DRX was considered the fourth-best in Korea and the worst Eastern team in Worlds. DRX would prove everyone wrong again by beating Gen.G 3-1 to advance to the finals.
The last opponent standing in the way was T1, a team that had won the most World Championships with 3, and the League of Legends GOAT in Faker. Fittingly, the series would reach a Hollywood-ending take-it-all game 5, where DRX became the first play-in team ever to win the League of Legends World Championship.
Social Media
The most important thing is the unbreakable spirit.
— LoL Esports (@lolesports) June 5, 2023
Celebrate Juhan, BeryL, Pyosik, Zeka, Kingen, and Deft with skins for DRX's 2022 World Championship win. pic.twitter.com/k3GMJgfTaX
Quotes
It was fun to go up one by one as an underdog, [and] if people think that we are the underdog, we are fine.
Kim "Deft" Hyuk-kyu
References
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Fandom
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DRX win League of Legends' Worlds 2022
DRX came into Worlds 2022 as a Play-In team — unexpected by most fans and analysts to be a contender for the title.
Inven Global
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‘If people think that we are the underdog, we are fine’: Deft and DRX are comfortable being the Worlds 2022 Cinderella story
At one point, the constant failures and mental stress he had from a back injury he suffered earlier in his career made him think about hanging the keyboard and mouse up for good.
Dotesports
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DRX's miracle run at League of Legends Worlds 2022 continues as underdogs demolish Gen.G to book Grand Finals clash with T1
This was a result that was bound to blow everyone's minds, as many did not even expect DRX to make it past the Group Stages. In fact, this is a team that analysts believed would fall to the likes of Rogue or Top Esports.
Sportskeeda
