It is an unprecedented development: in 2021 DRX had missed the qualification for the League of Legends World Championship with 16 defeats and only two victories as the last in the table. About a year later, the team is suddenly world champion after a strong 3: 2 success against T1.

Everyone agreed that such a "Cinderella story", as the commentators repeatedly called the unexpected success, had not existed before. "It's the biggest underdog story in League of Legends history," analyst Andrew "Vedius" Day said on the stream after the game. "There has never been such an underrated team at the Worlds as DRX.»

LoL-World champion started in the play-ins

However, Vedius said it was understandable that the team had not been given a chance to win the title before the tournament.

In the playoffs of the Korean League, DRX had finished in sixth place, and only made it to the World Cup via the regional qualifying tournament. As a consequence, DRX started at the bottom of the play-ins - and later became the first team ever to make it to the finals from there.

LoL Worlds: DRX also beats Korean favorites

In his own group, DRX took first place in front of the European champion Rogue, but faced difficult tasks in the knockout stage. True, the team showed itself in better and better shape, and even beat the strongest Korean team on paper in the semifinals with Gen.G.

But in the final, DRX was again not considered the favorite - after all, T1 had lost only two matches in the tournament before. "Even at the beginning of this day, no one predicted her as the winner. And that's what makes the run so special," said analyst Emily Rand.

Deft failed six times in the quarterfinals

Especially Botlaner Kim "Deft" Hyuk-kyu was in the foreground, who, like T1 star Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok, is one of the veterans of the scene. But while he already had three World titles in his pocket, Deft's record looked much more sobering: his previous best result, the semi-final with Samsung Galaxy Blue, was already eight years ago. Since then, he failed six times in the quarterfinals.

With the spectacular final victory, Deft has arrived at the top. On stage, he was moved to tears. "Apologies to everyone - I'm too old to cry like that," he said surrounded by thousands of fans in the post-match interview, according to a translation. "I know that League of Legends is my greatest talent. I told myself: if I could not become the best player, I would not succeed anywhere in the world. That's why I didn't want to give up.»

Another Path for Faker and Deft uncertain

As with Faker, it is uncertain how things will continue for Deft next year. At the age of 26, both are among the older players in the scene, and like all male citizens in South Korea, they still have to do their military service.

While the careers of the two are therefore bound to come to an end sooner or later, one thing is certain: Deft walked out of the arena in his "Last Dance" with DRX as world champion - a title that no one will take away from him even after his career.