T1 vs. DRX recap: 2022 Worlds Final

In the biggest Cinderella run in "League of Legends" esports history, LCK fourth seed DRX won the 2022 Worlds Final in a 3-2 nailbiter on Nov. 5 at the Chase Center in San Francisco, California.

DRX become the first fourth seed to win a Worlds trophy, as well as the first Play-In team. DRX toplaner Hwang "Kingen" Seong-hoon won OnePlus Finals MVP for his performance in the series.

Game 1: T1 wins

T1 won 15-5 against DRX in a 31:10 game, the first of the 2022 Worlds Final. Legendary T1 midlaner Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok became the first player to win 10 Worlds Final games and went 6/1/4 on Azir, leading his team to numerous skirmish wins in a game featuring two teamfight compositions. Superstar T1 botlaner Lee "Gumayusi" Min-hyeong stole the first dragon of the game with a Varus Q, and DRX only found one major objective in the game: an Ocean Drake to slightly delay T1's Dragon Soul. While T1's players were caught out in several teamfights, the team never relinquished control of the map, and their final push secured all three inhibitors, Dragon Soul, four kills and the game — despite DRX midlaner Kim "Zeka" Geon-woo's three-man stolen Azir ult. T1 toplaner Choi "Zeus" Woo-je went 4/1/5 and found another victory on his undefeated Yone.

Game 2: DRX wins

DRX evened up the Final with a 17-13 win in 46:12, the longest game of the tournament. The first ten minutes were full of teamfights, but no one died until a botched DRX dive top led to a three-kill advantage for T1. DRX focused T1 Faker heavily, diving him in multiple lanes until they accrued a 4k gold lead off of a 5-for-1 teamfight and a Baron. After T1 tied up the drake score at 3-3 and evened the gold, they grabbed Dragon Soul but lost a 3-for-1 teamfight to allow DRX to run it down mid lane and win the game. T1 Gumayusi's Ashe 1/2/5 Ashe pick was ineffective, while legendary DRX botlaner Kim "Deft" Hyuk-kyu went 6/1/6 on Varus and Zeka's 5/2/2 Sylas was worlds apart from his Game 1 performance on the pick.

Game 3: T1 wins

On the back of a Gumayusi Baron steal, T1 moved to match point over DRX with a 32:11 win in which both teams had 12 kills. While T1 looked shaky at points, their opponents looked even shakier; DRX's Deft and Kingen were caught out for no reason after T1 took the first Baron and allowed T1 to take the bot lane inhibitor turret. After DRX delayed T1's Dragon Soul on the back of Hong "Pyosik" Chang-hyeon's dragon steal, Zeka's careless play in the Baron pit led to his death and allowed Gumayusi to steal Baron. T1 wore purple as they pushed down mid lane 4v3, and they found the victory. The most interesting and impactful matchup was the battle between T1 support Ryu "Keria" Min-seok's 3/0/8 Karma and DRX support Cho "BeryL" Geon-hee's 1/2/11 Renata Glasc.

Game 4: DRX wins

The underdog DRX struck back and pushed the series to five games with a 14-4 win over T1 in Game 4 that lasted 28:45. T1's composition relied on Zeus to carry on Fiora, but DRX effectively shut down the pick with their early game play. DRX Pyosik's 4/0/6 Maokai and Kingen's 5/0/5 Aatrox were huge reasons behind the win, securing objectives and kills all across the map. The end game was all DRX, as they found two Barons and used the latter to muscle down T1 in an unlikely final nexus assault.

Game 5: DRX wins

DRX won the organization's first world championship with a 19-10 win in 42:09 in Game 5. Despite Games 1 through 4 being won by teams on blue side who picked Varus, both streaks were broken by DRX's strong teamfighting and macro, as T1's sloppy play and uncharacteristic greed doomed them in the end. T1 Gumayusi was able to find his second Baron steal of the series, but DRX Deft's 5/0/4 Caitlyn got the better of the young botlaner and won his first world championship.

Featured image by Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games.