While previewing the grand final of Worlds 2021 on ‘The Jungle’, Christian ‘IWillDominate’ Rivera declared that he didn’t want to see a 3-0 series as it would highlight how bad the tournament’s title deciders have been in recent years.
With the League of Legends World Championship title decider between DWG KIA and EDward Gaming looming, all eyes are on Iceland.
Whether Damwon make it two in a row or EDward Gaming stake a claim on the world stage for the LPL, it’s set to be a fantastic final.
However, League of Legends icon IWillDominate is not looking for a one-sided match.
Sharing his views on ‘The Jungle’, the Dexerto-produced Worlds show he co-hosts with Christopher ‘MonteCristo’ Mykles and Daniel ‘dGon’ Gonzales, the retired player turned streamer said that he is firmly against a 3-0 sweep.
“I hope we get something interesting because if it’s another 3-0, how bad are Worlds finals?” he asked his co-hosts.
A brief history of Worlds finals
The only Worlds final to go to all five games dates back to 2016, when T1, then SK Telecom 1, beat Samsung Galaxy 3-2. Aside from the first-ever Worlds final in 2011, which was played in a best-of-three format, 2016 was the only year when the Worlds final went the distance.
- 2011: Fnatic beat against All authority 2-1
- 2012: Taipei Assassins beat Azubu Forst 3-1
- 2013: SK Telecom T1 beat Royal Club 3-0
- 2014: Samsung White beat Star Horn Royal Club 3-1
- 2015: SK Telecom T1 beat KOO Tigers 3-1
- 2016: SK Telecom T1 beat Samsung Galaxy 3-2
- 2017: Samsung Galaxy beat SK Telecom T1 3-1
- 2018: Invictus Gaming beat Fnatic 3-0
- 2019: FunPlus Phoenix beat G2 3-0
- 2020: Damwon Gaming beat Suning 3-1
(Timestamp is 1:14:27 for mobile viewers)
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“It shows to me that the format is not getting the best teams to the actual final of the tournament,” IWD continued.
This later led to co-host MonteCristo calling the Worlds format “garbage”.
- Read More: It’s time Riot changed the Worlds format
IWD went as far as to point out the irrelevance caused by the Worlds format, especially how teams are ranked and seeded.
“Second through eighth [ranked teams in the world] is f*cked. If you want to go deeper, there have been times when the Worlds final has come out of a group,” he went on to say.
This has only happened once, in 2018, but given the dominance of China and Korea in recent years, there is every chance it could happen again. It would have happened in 2021 if T1 had beaten Damwon in the semifinals.
If the 2021 Worlds final does follow the trend of recent years, it will likely add fuel to the debates about the competitiveness of Worlds and whether the tournament’s format needs to be changed.
You can catch every episode of ‘The Jungle’ on Dexerto’s League of Legends Youtube channel.