In Berkeley, there are a lot of reasons your neighbors might be screaming at 5 a.m. Maybe they’re having a party that’s gotten way out of hand, or maybe they’ve just received an email that their 9 a.m. class is canceled. Or, consider this: They could be nerds who stayed up late to watch the League of Legends World Championship.

The best place to watch LoL Esports and earn rewards! The 2020 World Championship is the crowning event of League of Legends esports for the year. The tournament welcomes 22 teams from all regions of the game in a months-long race for the Summoner’s Cup. This year’s world championship will be held exclusively in Shanghai, China to reduce travel throughout the tournament and control the show environment under the coronavirus pandemic. 2018 Worlds winners Invictus Gaming are one of those teams that just always seems to be at Worlds. As well as its 2018 victory, IG continued to impress on the global stage and reached the semifinals last year where it was defeated by eventual winners FunPlus Phoenix.

Around 7 a.m. Oct. 31, DAMWON Gaming took down Suning 3-1 to become the 2020 League of Legends world champions. After beating out 21 other teams in the monthlong tournament, DAMWON became the first Korean team to lift the Summoner’s Cup since 2017.

Of the 6,000 fans who watched the final battle in Shanghai’s Pudong Soccer Stadium, many hoped that Suning, of China’s League of Legends Pro League, would take an underdog victory in the team’s home country.

The first three games (including Suning’s win in Game 2) were extremely close, but DAMWON firmly shattered the home crowd’s dreams by the fourth and final game of the series, completely shutting out Suning in a 27-minute stomp. DAMWON jungler Kim “Canyon” Geon-bu, who was awarded MVP of the series, looked especially dominant, handily building early leads for his laners to snowball the team to victory.

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“In an interview during Worlds, I had said that my goal was to win the championship and to get the finals MVP,” Kim said in a post-match interview, translated by Inven Global. “Now that I really got it, it’s unbelievable and I feel amazing.”

DAMWON’s journey to the championship was nothing short of incredible. The team has become the best in the world in an extremely short period of time, signaling a new rise of Korean strength with its aggressive, adaptable play style.

DAMWON is a young team by any standard; it qualified to compete in League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK), the highest-level Korean regional league, in spring 2019.

“Last year, DAMWON was full of rookie players that played around their mechanics. But this year, with Coach (Yang “Daeny” Dae-in’s) feedback, the players gained a lot of understanding of the game and absorbed it really well,” said Lee “Zefa” Jae-min, DAMWON’s head coach. “That’s why they were able to win Worlds.”

Bot laner Jang “Ghost” Yong-jun, who was once a notoriously weak player in the Korean competitive scene, had never been to Worlds before 2020.

“A message to the other (pro) players who are having a tough time: They can just look up to me and think, ‘This kind of guy can also win Worlds,’ so I hope they can cheer up, never give up and accomplish the goals they have,” Jang said in a press conference after the match.

Suning, with a second-place finish, came out of the tournament with achievements of its own. The team was constantly underestimated, with many predicting that Suning would fall in the first round of the knockout stage. Yet, the team proved to be fierce competition.

League Worlds Champions

The series has been hailed as the most exciting finals in the last four years, breaking the streak of 3-0 series that began in 2017. Suning top laner Chen “Bin” Ze-Bin also wrote his way into history with the first-ever pentakill in a finals series, wiping out all five of DAMWON’s players on Fiora in Game 2.

League Of Legends Worlds Winners 2020

Like everything else in 2020, the tournament was marked by the effects of COVID-19. Players spent 14 days self-isolating in a government-run converted hotel, reminiscent of the famous NBA bubble.

But even under unusual circumstances, nothing can take the shine away from DAMWON’s crowning achievement.

“The message that I want to say to the players is, you guys are the best players in the world,” Lee said.

Julia Shen covers esports. Contact her at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @yinglol.

DAMWON Gaming (DWG) of League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) defeated Suning (SN) of League of Legends Pro League (LPL) 3-1 in the final match of this year's League of Legends World Championship (S10) in Shanghai on Saturday night, winning the LOL top honor.

This was the first world title claimed by DWG. The last time an LCK team won the World Championships, in 2017, DWG was not even in the league.

Kim 'Canyon' Gunhoo, the DWG team member that plays the jungle position, was named the MVP of the final.

This year's Worlds is very different from those in the past because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced all Vietnamese teams out of the event, allowing a total of four Chinese mainland and European teams to enter.

But the fourth seeds did not meet fans' expectations, with EU team MAD Lions not even making it out of the play-in stage.

League Of Legends Worlds Winner 2020

The Chinese mainland team LGD failed to make it out of the group stage.

But Suning, the third seed of LPL, managed to turn down second seed JD Gaming and first seed Top Esports (TES) to enter the grand final.

SN's versatile playstyle and careful choice of characters to play with helped them to become the second-best team of the year.

World Champions League Of Legends

DWG also carried a lot of hope from its origin country South Korea, with Gen.G losing to EU team G2 and DragonX losing the derby with DWG.

One of the main reasons behind DWG's success is mechanics. The team is clearer about its objectives and often finds the right strategy to go with.

They also bested other teams at precisely executing their plan.

This win marks the ending of LPL's two-year winning streak and reestablished LCK as the best region of the competitive LOL.

The South Korean region used to dominate the competition, winning all the world championships from 2013 to 2017.

Lol Worlds Champions

Now, with DWG winning, their domination may restart after the Chinese mainland 2018 and 2019 wins.