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DAWNBRINGER: Worlds Daily, October 30 – SF1

Tim Sevenhuysen

Welcome to Dawnbringer, your daily recap of the 2021 League of Legends World Championship.

Every day of Worlds competition, I’ll post a brief rundown of each game, along with some larger takeaways about the team and player performances we’re seeing and what it might mean for the rest of the tournament.

For live updates, make sure to follow me on Twitter!

Game Recaps

GAME 1: DK win
DK Lucian Lee Sin LeBlanc Jhin Maokai
T1 Jayce Poppy Ryze Miss Fortune Leona

Faker nice early TP top for FB. BeryL and Canyon do great work bot to outplay a gank, dive later for FT. DK pick off Canna during dragon setup. Game snowballs from there.

GAME 2: T1 win
T1 Yasuo Lee Sin Lissandra Jhin Rakan
DK Graves Xin Zhao Leblanc Draven Alistar

T1 beauty FB dive mid. Tense mid-game, Ghost building Draven stacks, huge cash-in at dragon. T1 catch Ghost, ace DK at 3rd dragon. DK force Baron, Oner steals, T1 ace and end.

GAME 3: T1 win
DK Lucian Jarvan IV Syndra Miss Fortune Maokai
T1 Kennen Xin Zhao Ryze Jhin Zilean

Canyon Oner trade ganks. Kills traded, DK slightly up, take drakes. T1 scaling starts to kick in. Huge fight mid, T1 4-1, Baron. Gumayusi Keria take over. T1 make DK break.

GAME 4: DK win
DK Gragas Qiyana LeBlanc Jhin Rakan
T1 Jayce Jarvan IV Ryze Lucian Lulu

DK pick on Faker mid, Oner gets one back but DK up in tempo. Canna FTs top. DK accelerate mid-game; ShowMaker pops off, solo Ks Faker. Firm closure. ShowMaker 11/0/3 btw.

GAME 5: DK win
T1 Kennen XZ Azir Aphelios Zilean
DK Graves Talon Zoe Ziggs Rakan

Oner FB top. T1 get H1. Slow macro mid-game; DK stack drakes. Footsies for soul/Baron, Canyon solo Ks Oner, dies; DK soul. T1 force Baron; DK ace them. Canyon Elder smite->DK win.

Takeaways

Faker vs. ShowMaker; Any Takers?

The storylines for this series were incredibly rich, as the broadcast pointed out. Specifically, the Faker vs. ShowMaker storytelling opportunities were really amazing, and produced this great quote from ShowMaker in the opening hype piece.

For several years now, various Korean mid laners have been put forward as the “next Faker,” from ShowMaker to Chovy to Bdd. I’d argue that Rookie is on that list too, but it depends how much you’re attaching the LCK aspect to the story, since Rookie’s peak results came in the context of an LPL team.

Rookie has his own legacy to celebrate, but ShowMaker is easily the closest anyone has come to breaking through within the LCK. Winning Worlds is the biggest differentiator, and he’s one series away (as a strong favourite against either possible opponent) from cementing that differentiator with back-to-back wins.

Much has been made of ShowMaker vs. Chovy for the title of current best mid laner in Korea, and those in the Chovy camp will make apologies for the quality of his teammates and other contextual factors, but one of the key attributes of a superstar player–and especially a superstar mid laner–is being able to bring the best out of your teammates. ShowMaker has proven that capability to a much greater extent, and in my opinion he did it again today, with his stellar individual play helping to gloss over occasional minor mistakes from some teammates, and setting up openings for Canyon. Don’t get me wrong here at all! Canyon, Ghost, BeryL, and Khan all brought their own strong play into this series. I’m not criticizing them. But I don’t think any of them (excepting Canyon) would look quite so good without ShowMaker.

Faker, for his part, proved this year that he can still contend with the best. Speaking of bringing the best out of your teammates, Faker brought two rookies to the Worlds Semifinals, and one very tense game away from a favoured position in the Finals. He was not a withered, legacy contributor to this year’s event; he was a legitimately strong player on a legitimate contender.

The ShowMaker vs. Faker storyline absolutely delivered today. What a series.

Quick Hits

I could spend a lot of time talking about this series but as quick notes: