Struggling to reach the World Championship (Worlds) as the fourth seed, WBG is the most underrated representative among the eight teams from the LPL and LCK, overcoming a series of rounds to reach the finals, where they will face T1. Many viewers will surely find these factors very familiar, even feeling a sense of “Déjà Vu” (the feeling of experiencing something that one feels they have seen before). This is exactly the journey of DRX in 2022 and Weibo Gaming this year.
In fact, WBG and DRX also share many other similarities, such as TheShy in 2023 and Deft in 2022 both celebrating their birthdays after defeating an LPL opponent. Both DRX and WBG have a support player who has won a World Championship, and neither team appeared in the Worlds music video during the year they won. All of these things show that WBG truly shares many commonalities with the reigning world champion, DRX. However, if that’s all there is, everything would be fine. The only issue is that WBG lacks three of the most crucial elements that DRX possessed.
Korean Mid Laner
In the history of the World Championships, when an LPL team became champions, they always had a Korean mid laner on their roster (Rookie, Doinb, and Scout). In contrast, Chinese mid laners who have made it to the Worlds finals in the past have all been comprehensively defeated with a score of 1-3 against LCK representatives. This is the first difference and has been mentioned in the League of Legends community many times since WBG just got past BLG.
High-Performing Bot Lane
Deft may not be the most standout factor, but 2022 was truly a stellar year for him, especially when paired with the genius support BeryL. This duo almost never lost their lane or made serious mistakes throughout DRX’s journey. Meanwhile, Light and Crisp do not provide the same level of assurance. For example, during their recent match against BLG. If TheShy hadn’t shone at the right moment, WBG might have suffered a crushing defeat against the second seed of the LPL.
Miraculous Journey
Speaking of this and comparing the journeys of WBG and T1 to the finals, it is actually the LCK representative that has the “miraculous journey”. By going up against WBG, T1 is the second team at this Worlds to face all four representatives from the LPL (the first being KT Rolster), but only Faker and his teammates made it to the finals. Meanwhile, WBG only had to face weaker opponents from the LEC and LCS. The two strong names from LCK and LPL that WBG faced were KT and BLG. And in these two matches, WBG lost to KT.
Conclusion
Of course, every comparison will be disproportionate. But if we take DRX as a reference point, it seems that WBG currently only shares the fact that they were underestimated before entering the tournament. However, that may not be enough to believe that WBG can replicate the miracle of DRX last year, especially when T1 is showing that they are much more alert and focused.