[KeSPA Cup] DWG proves why they're world champions by going 2-0, AF fails to pick up a victory and goes 0-2.

Dec 21, 2020

On Dec 21st, day 1 of the 2020 KeSPA Cup Ulsan took place in an online format. With group A playing their first set of matches, DAMWON Gaming took two match victories under their belt, and proved why they’re currently the strongest team in the world. The other teams in group A, DRX, Nongshim RedForce, and Liiv SANDBOX, all went 1-1, previewing a fierce competition in the standings. Meanwhile, Afreeca Freecs failed to pick up a victory, going 0-2 in Group A.

Through today's performance, DWG once again proved why they were the 2020 world champions. They created huge gold leads in a manner that they do best: Superior teamfighting for objectives. Jang “Ghost” Yong-jun’s Samira, was the clear ‘Player of the Game (POG)’, as he cleaned up one teamfight after another. In game 2 against DRX, Kim “Canyon” Geon-bu’s Graves was able to get DWG’s upper laners to snowball the game.

Liiv SANDBOX had a great start to the day, as they were able to overcome early game disadvantages that Afreeca Freecs created during the laning phase. Lee “Effort” Sang-ho proved to be a key player in skirmishes that took place in the upper half of the map, and while AF tried to come back by taking the Baron Nashor, SANDBOX was able to successfully stop them and was able to take the win.

SANDBOX’s momentum came to an abrupt halt by Nongshim RedForce. NS overcame their early game deficit through a successful teamfight victory for the Rift Herald. From that point on, Lee “Rich” Jae-won’s Gragas was able to successfully pull aggro over multiple teamfights, which led to NS taking the match victory, which led to both teams going 1-1 for the day.

In the last match of the day, which determined the team that went 0-2 in the tournament, DRX came out on top. Even when DRX fell behind on dragon stacks, they continued to open teamfights to catch up on kill score. The shift in momentum came after DRX let AF take the infernal dragon soul, as DRX raked up multiple kills, took Baron Nashor, and one-sidedly pressured AF. Song “SOLKA” Su-hyeong’s Zoe was one of the key players in the match, as he was able to get unorthodox, yet important kills throughout the match. With Hong “Pyosik” Chang-hyeon stealing the Elder dragon for his team, DRX was able to take a precious win in their tournament run.