All about DWG KIA: League of Legends’ best team (or not)

One of the most successful League of Legends teams in the last few years, DWG KIA, has gone through fundamental changes during the offseason. After losing their veteran top laner, DWG KIA decided to take a different route for 2022, only keeping their superstars, Canyon and ShowMaker. If you don’t know DWG KIA (DAMWON Gaming before sponsorships), this is the place for you to meet them.

After winning Worlds 2020 and becoming the most dominant team in the world, DWG KIA weren’t able to carry that success over to 2021, where they lost bost MSI 2021 and Worlds 2021 in the finals. This new roster, bringing veteran players together with youngsters who have potential, will aim to get DWG KIA and South Korea back to the top.

DAMWON Gaming roster changes

DAMWON Gaming, DWG KIA for sponsorship reasons, has announced their LoL roster a little while ago, and we already have an article for that. However, DK decided to add one more player to their roster after their original announcement, creating a 6-man roster for 2022. Hoya, a young top laner, will join the team in their pursuit for success.

Hoya

The 21 year old Korean top laner started his career in 2019 with Griffin as a trainer. Playing for Fredit BRION in 2021, Hoya had the LCK experience he needed, and now, he will compete with Burdol to get the starting position at DWG KIA. Both players have amazing potential, however, Burdol is significantly younger than Hoya as he is only 18 years old.

kkOma

While they work to earn their place in League of Legends back, DK will trust one man: kkOma. The legendary coach of SKT T1, after having a disappointing spell at Vici Gaming, came back to Korea with DAMWON Gaming and created the team which dominated LCK all year long.

Although he lost both MSI and Worlds grand finals 3-2, if he is the kkOma we know and love, this will only make him more passionate about winning them.

Daeny

This year, kkOma will have the help of Daeny, or you could say the opposite. Daeny, fired from T1 at the middle of summer split, joined DAMWON as an analyst in 2021. Veteran coach will take the head coach position this year, while kkOma works as an athletic director. Together with Zefa who also joined the team, Daeny created one of the most dominant teams in the history of League of Legends when he worked for DAMWON in 2020. He will be expected to do the same.

Image via LCK

Team statistics

Of course, after two years of being the superior LCK team, DWG KIA has incredible statistics. Let’s go through some of them.

Win rate

In 2021, DWG KIA accumulated around 75% win rate, which looks highly impressive. They played in KeSPA Cup 2020, LCK 2021 Spring and Playoffs, MSI 2021, LCK 2021 Summer and Playoffs and lastly, Worlds 2021 Main Event.

Match statistics

DWG KIA won 116 of their 155 games, BeryL, Canyon, Khan, and ShowMaker playing in all of them. Through a brief ten-game period, Ghost was benched, and Malrang played instead of him.

The team played 95 different champions throughout the year, with Kai’sa being the most played champion with 37. Syndra was the most played champion on mid lane, Sion on top, Leona on bot and Rumble on jungle.

Player statistics

The player with the highest KDA in DWG’s 2021 was ShowMaker, so let’s start with him. Of 29 different champions in 155 games, ShowMaker had a KDA of 6.56, an average CS (minions/monsters killed) of 287.85, a CS per minute of 8.77 and a kill participation of 67.7%. According to gol.gg, ShowMaker’s damage per minute was 534, giving 25.3% of his team’s damage.

Canyon, the next superstar, had a KDA of 5.01 on 29 different champions. He had 6.57 CS/M and 68.4% kill participation, highest on his team. Canyon had 389.2 damage per minute in 2021.

Next up, Khan on top lane. While playing 29 champions also, Khan had 3.62 KDA and 7.78 CS/M. He had 62.2% kill participation, while having 517.8 damage per minute, close to ShowMaker.

Ghost, the bot laner of the team, played 17 different champions in 145 games. Ghost has 5.6 KDA and the highest kill average on his team with 4.34. He had 8.64 CS/M, close to ShowMaker, and 67.7% kill participation, a very high record. His damage per minute stats was 492.8.

BeryL, the support of the team and the one to take the burden of four superstars, had 3.08 KDA this year. Playing 24 champions, BeryL had 8.55 assists average, just above Canyon’s 7.06. His kill participation is one of the lowest with 62.4%.

Past 10 match statistics

DWG KIA’s last 10 matches were against T1 and EDG, two full best of fives. The game durations were 35 minutes on average with the longest being 41:19 and the fastest being 29:09. The former was against EDG which they lost, and the latter was against T1 which they won.

DAMWON had a 50% win rate during these games, as they won five of them, which cost them the trophy. The team had 119 kills while their enemies had 100, but it wasn’t enough to win Worlds 2021.

Image via LCK

DWG Tournaments

From the start of the organization, DWG KIA won several tournaments. They won CK 2018 Summer and Rift Rivals 2019 before they started to dominate LCK. After getting third place in LCK 2019 Summer Playoffs and quarterfinals at Worlds 2019, DWG KIA’s luck turned around.

Prize pools

DWG won a considerable amount of money from the prize pools this year. From LCK 2021 Spring Playoffs, they won ₩200,000,000, $170,000 roughly. For their second place at MSI 2021, they won $50,000 and for the same result at Worlds 2021, they won $333,750.

© 2021 Riot Games, Inc. Used With Permission.

Results

DWG KIA, DAMWON Gaming formerly, had won several tournaments since their strength started to show itself in 2019 Summer. Find out their achievements below.

Achievements

After getting quarterfinals at Worlds 2021, they won LCK 2020 Summer and Playoffs, Worlds 2020 and KeSPA Cup 2020. 2021 was a better year domestically, they won LCK 2021 Spring and Playoffs, had second place at MSI 2021, won LCK 2021 Summer and Playoffs and lost Worlds 2021 in the finals, once again. Thus, internationally, it was a disappointing year for DWG.

Recent matches

You can find the last ten series of DWG KIA below, starting from the most recent one. Coincidentally, the first nine of them are from Worlds 2021.

  • DWG KIA 2-3 EDward Gaming
  • DK 3-2 T1
  • DK 3-0 MAD Lions
  • DK 1-0 Cloud9
  • DK 1-0 Rogue
  • DK 1-0 FunPlus Phoenix
  • DK 1-0 C9
  • DK 1-0 RGE
  • DK 1-0 FPX
  • DK 3-1 T1 (LCK 2021 Summer Grand Finals)

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