Top 5 Moments From DRX’s Reverse Sweep Against EDG at Worlds 2022

The Korean team of DRX made it to the semifinals of League of Legends Worlds 2022 after a breathtaking win against reigning champion EDward Gaming (EDG) in the final quarterfinal series. DRX made a resounding comeback after trailing 0-2 in the series, and will now take on League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) counterpart GEN.G in the semi-finals. This iconic series goes down as only the second reverse sweep in Worlds history, with the first being Top Esports’ win in 2020 against Fnatic. Making the victory even more memorable, the team celebrated its attack-damage carry (ADC) Kim "Deft" Hyuk-kyu’s birthday on stage along with the crowd in New York.

Here are the five most exciting moments from the DRX vs EDG series at Worlds 2022.

DRX Kingen split pushes relentlessly

The first match of the series was an absolute bloodbath with both DRX and EDG trading blows. For the most part of the game, DRX was in a comfortable lead, picking up dragons, and towers. However, after successful team fights, EDG was able to secure Baron Nashor and take down DRX’s structures. At the 31-minute mark, EDG was chipping down the Korean team’s base, but DRX’s top laner Hwang "Kingen" Seong-hoon, who was on the Fiora, split pushed top and secured the inhibitor tower. As a result, EDG’s top laner Li "Flandre" Xuanjun was forced to teleport to the base but eventually died to the Fiora under the Nexus towers. For a few minutes, Kingen backed off from the lane, but relentlessly walked back and secured the open inhibitor, showcasing the power of a split-pushing Fiora.

EDG’s 1 HP nexus survives 

The second match was just as chaotic with EDG leading the game in terms of objectives and advantages. The damage dealers of both teams collected kills and showed up big in team fights. At 39 minutes, EDG turned to Baron after killing DRX’s jungler Hong "Pyosik" Chang-hyeon. At this point, Deft and Kingen teleported into EDG’s base. However, a timely Sejuani ultimate canceled Kingen’s teleport, leaving Deft all alone in his pursuit of EDG’s Nexus. He took down both the Nexus towers and started chipping away at the Nexus, while EDG secured Baron Nashor and recalled. Just as the Nexus was about to fall, at 1 HP, an inhibitor respawned and foiled DRX’s plans of a backdoor win. After this, it was a race to DRX’s base allowing EDG to close out the game after securing the Elder.

Zeka solo kills EDG Scout

EDG surely found its rhythm in Game three and carried it forward onto Game 4 of the best-of-five (BO5) series. First bloods are always exciting and solo kills in the solo lanes always get the crowd going. DRX’s mid-laner Kim "Zeka" Geon-woo (Sylas) outplayed his lane opponent Lee "Scout" Ye-chan (Akali) and secured first blood. In the mid-lane brawl around 4 minutes, the Sylas took a big chunk of damage and was very low. This gave Scout the opportunity to kill Zeka but Zeka cleverly flashed under the safety of his tower, forced the flash out of Scout, and landed his E - Abscond/ Abduct, to confirm the kill. Incredibly, Zeka managed to pull this off when he was very low, possibly under 100 HP.

Phreak loses his voice casting Game 5

David "Phreak" Turley, one of the most popular members of the broadcast team at Riot Games, was casting the final game of the series. Everything was on the line for both teams and they were absolutely going toe-to-toe right from the get-go. However, DRX had a slight upper hand as it was ahead in terms of dragons and towers, and had a gold lead of 6K at 36 minutes. At this point, EDG tried to force the Ocean dragon and brought the monster to 500 HP, only for Pyosik to walk in and steal it from under its nose. After this crispy smite-play by Pyosik, DRX secured Ocean Dragon's soul. After this play, the five members of EDG fell like dominoes to Zeka's quadra kill and DRX won the series and punched its tickets to Worlds 2022 semi-finals.

Emotional birthday celebration for Deft

In the post-series interview with Eefje “sjokz” Depoortere, Deft and Pyosik showed their true emotions. Deft broke down into tears on stage at the question, “What does it finally mean to be back?” Pyosik helped his teammate calm down and comforted him as Deft replied, “My goal for this Worlds was, regardless of the result, even if I cannot win it, I just wanted to get this impression that I’m making progress and getting better. Throughout this five-game series, I realized that I am getting better. So, I am so happy.” DRX brought out a cake for Deft to celebrate his birthday post-match and the crowd sang “Happy Birthday” in unison and cheered on the player.

After trying out with different teams and in different regions, Deft has finally qualified for the semifinals of a World Championship for the first time since 2014.

Now that the quarter-final chapter of Worlds 2022 has come to an end, the semi-final matches are moving to Atlanta, Georgia, and will take place at the State Farm Arena. Fans will witness the clash between T1 and China’s JD Gaming on 29th October in the first semis.