How one minion helped beat Korea’s best League of Legends team
Gen.G and DAMWON KIA are two of League of Legends’ most decorated organizations. With DAMWON taking home 2020’s World Championship title and Gen.G always falling just short of greatness, there’s a lot of history between these two teams.
But this year, the script has flipped. Gen.G is on top of the LCK, and they look poised to win their very first domestic title, even over T1.
However, DAMWON KIA made a crucial roster pickup that managed to win a game for them.
League of Legends’ most unexpected carry
Meet DAMWON’s newly-signed caster minion, or, as the English casting team affectionately dubbed him, Steve. Joking aside, this caster minion really did win the game for DAMWON here.
His role in this clip may seem minor, but there’s something about the fact that this caster minion stayed alive that’s more important than you’d think.
In League of Legends, structures have backdoor protection. This mechanic was implemented so that players can’t just walk up to towers and take them in the late game. But, if you have a minion wave (or even just a single minion) walk into the range of a tower, it removes that layer of protection.
Enter Steve, the lone caster minion with a sliver of HP.
Notice how DAMWON played around Steve and made sure neither the minions nor the towers were able to target him. If Steve had taken a single hit, Damwon wouldn’t have been able to destroy those towers and get the win.
By the skin of their teeth
With Gen.G’s respawn timers counting down fast, keeping that one caster minion alive enabled DAMWON to secure their victory in Game 2 of the set.
However, despite DAMWON’s momentous victory in Game 2, GenG still won the series 2-1.
It’s a shame for DAMWON fans that they didn’t see them beat Korea’s best team, but the story of Steve’s heroism is one we won’t forget anytime soon.