The legacy continues: The last 7 Worlds winners have one thing in common

After a month and a half of fighting over the fabled Summoner’s Cup, the 2022 League of Legends World Championship is finally over, with DRX engraving their name in the cup. Now that they are a part of history, it’s time to look at what they have in common with the previous Worlds champions.

The last seven Worlds winners have one defining quality in common: they all had South Korean mid laners, as spotted by esports journalist Tyler Erzberger on Twitter.

In 2016, there was Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok, who won with his team SK Telecom T1. 2017 was the year of Lee “Crown” Min-ho as Samsung Galaxy won. In 2018, South Korean mid laner Song “Rookie” Eui-jin, who moved to China and learned Mandarin to such proficiency he could communicate with his Invictus Gaming teammates, came out on top.

2019 was yet another year when a European team tried and failed to meet the greatness of the South Korean mid laners as G2’s Rasmus “Caps” Borregaard Winther simply couldn’t keep up with the then FunPlus Phonenix’s Kim “Doinb” Tae-sang. In 2021, Korean DAMWON and Chinese Suning met on the grand stage, with Heo “ShowMaker” Su’s Twisted Fate simply dominating Summoner’s Rift. Last year, EDward Gaming and Lee “Scout” Ye-chan had the honor of holding the Summoner’s Cup in their hands.

And lastly, this year, Kim “Zeka” Geon-woo, with his team DRX, beat the tournament favorite and secured his spot in history as the seventh South Korean mid laner to win Worlds since 2016.