Thought I’d list some fun facts I found floating around KR forums and Reddit for your enjoyment
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This is the first Riot-organized international tournament in 9 years where the winning team was from the host region (last time was Samsung White at 2014 Worlds)
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Keria has attended every Worlds since his debut in 2020, and for the first 3 years his team was knocked out by BeryL’s team, in progressive fashion (2020: DRX 0-3 DWG in quarterfinals, 2021: T1 2-3 DK in semifinals, 2022: T1 2-3 DRX in finals). This year, however, BeryL failed to qualify for Worlds, and Keria became a champion without his natural predator in his path!
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Xiaohu is the second player (after Uzi, his former teammate) to be eliminated by Faker and T1/SKT at every possible point in Worlds main stage: group/Swiss stage in 2019, quarterfinals in 2016/2022, semifinals in 2017, and now finals in 2023. (For reference, Uzi was eliminated by Faker in group stage in 2019, quarterfinals in 2016, semifinals in 2017, and finals in 2013)
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This is the first Worlds Faker has won without Bengi as his jungler, and Faker finally stands alone as the only player/coach to have 4 Worlds titles (previously he was tied with Bengi and Kkoma, his former teammate and coach, at 3). The only other players with more than one Worlds title as starters are Bang & Wolf (also former teammates), and BeryL (is he the GOAT support or what?).
Let me know if there are any other interesting facts about this Worlds, and I’ll add them to the list!
> If you think that’s a knock on Duke, you’re the one who believes that winning as a sub is inherently less impressive than winning as a starter.
You’re the one that’s implying that by not including Duke. You are saying he isn’t a 2 time because he subbed and that he didn’t carry, though I understand you may lack critical thinking skills since you’re trying to karma farm with wiki stats.
It doesn’t matter, a person who plays and contributes is a member of that team. He literally subbed in many times throughout the year and during 2018 Worlds because of TheShy’s hand injury. Even Riot acknowledges this, Duke has an iG skin. Is Easyhoon not a world champion according to you? He didn’t carry SKT across the finish line, but he played games because Faker struggled on certain champs.
> Or do you want me to lie and say that Duke carried IG in 2018?
No one is forcing you to lie, just don’t omit basic facts to further whatever agenda you have.
Bro, all I said was that Duke wasn’t a starter for IG in 2018. Why can’t I make a list of people who won multiple Worlds titles as a starting player? Why do you think that me making that list is me trying to “erase” Duke’s second trophy? Clearly you think there’s something inherently negative about winning a tournament where you are benched for most of it.
And why can’t I argue that objectively speaking, Duke didn’t contribute nearly as much as TheShy in 2018? All statistics indicate that Duke was an inferior player at the time and got most of his playing time because of TheShy’s injury. Do you remember any plays by Duke in S8? No, but we can make a 20 minute TheShy montage just from that year. Duke’s obviously a two-time world champ, but his second trophy is just as impressive as Juhan’s from last year, or Blank’s from 2016.