Damwon Gaming emerged from Week 1 of LCK Summer on top, sweeping SeolHaeOne Prince and Sandbox. Cho “Beryl” Geon-hee’s Pantheon played a big part in both victories, although the 23-year-old has warned not to follow in his footsteps.
Damwon Gaming are the unlikely leaders of the LCK after Week 1’s action. They looked on another level as they stormed through the bases of Sandbox and SP, defeating both teams in series that lasted less than an hour.
A lot of their success can be pinned to their star support, Beryl. After spending Spring working together with new starter AD carry Jang “Ghost” Yong-jin, the bot laner fired up in both series with some quirky picks.
Across the four games Damwon played, Beryl picked Pantheon three times and Maokai once, straying away from the conventional Korean support picks of Nautilus and Bard. The Damwon support looked head and shoulders above his competition, piloting the off-meta picks perfectly to help his team end the first week undefeated.
However, he’s warned against other supports from following in his footsteps. He boasted that while he’s good at Pantheon, in the current meta he’s not a strong pick — it just works for him.
“If you look at the stats, [Pantheon] is a good champion in solo queue. However, Pantheon as a support has a low win rate. I believe Pantheon support is not a thing, it’s just me that plays it really well,” he said after their victory over Prince on Sunday.
Beryl has racked up a total statline of 15-6-21 across his three games of Pantheon, including two POG performances — one against Sandbox and one against SP. He currently sits in second on the MVP tally, admitting that he never expected to rack up this many votes.
“I never imagined I would be getting this many POG votes, so I’m a little flustered,” the star support said. “My teammates were setting everything up, and I was just stealing it.”
[2020 LCK SUMMER 1ROUND DWG vs SP]
— DWG_Official (@DamwonGaming) June 21, 2020
2세트 POG #BeryL
바텀을 넘어~ 미드를 지나~ 판테온으로~ 1위에 갈거야😎😎#POG #DWGWIN pic.twitter.com/wDRc71fNOk
Damwon’s aggressive play style is different from the Korean brand of League of Legends fans had gotten used to over the years.
While it’s still quite meticulous, sometimes it can be reckless too. Damwon mid laner Heo “Showmaker” Su admitted the team still has a lot to work on in regards to their style before they face off against tougher opposition.
“We fought a lot, so it was a little bit hard [to win], but we enjoyed it,” he said.“We loved [all the fighting], but in the middle, we made a lot of mistakes so it was a little bit risky.”
With Gen.G and KT Rolster on the card next week, there’s still lots to work on. Damwon are pursuing perfection in Summer 2020 to lock in their second straight Worlds appearance, and until they lift an LCK trophy — or the Summoner’s Cup — for themselves, they won’t stop.
“I don’t think we are perfect yet, so we aren’t satisfied. We still have a lot of mistakes to get rid of,” Beryl stated.
