Dplus KIA

DAMWON Gaming logo
(2017–2020)

DAMWON Gaming was formed on 28 May 2017 by computer manufacturer Damwon after it acquired the Challengers Korea team Mirage Gaming.[5] The team's initial roster consisted of top laner Lee "Parang" Sang-won, jungler Kim "Crush" Jun-seo, mid laner Kim "TRY" Yeong-hoon, bot laner Cho "BeryL" Geon-hee, and support Ryu "Hoit" Ho-seong. Despite a strong start and the addition of mid laner Park "CooN" Jae-ha midway through the summer split, Damwon Gaming finished fifth in the regular season. The roster was subsequently revamped, with Jang "Nuguri" Ha-gwon, Noh "Alive" Jin-wook, and newcomer Heo "ShowMaker" Su replacing Parang, BeryL, and TRY respectively. The new roster did not see much success at the 2017 LoL KeSPA Cup, and so jungler Son "Punch" Min-hyuk and bot laner Kim "Veritas" Kyoung-min were brought in for the 2018 Spring Split.

During the spring regular season, BeryL briefly played for DAMWON Gaming as a substitute bot laner before swapping to support. DAMWON Gaming finished second in the regular season but lost to Ever8 Winners in the first round of playoffs. Crush, Alive, and Veritas left the team shortly afterwards, and bot laner Shin "Nuclear" Jeong-hyeon joined the team to fill in the bot laner position.

DAMWON Gaming dominated the summer regular season, finishing first and losing only a single series to Team BattleComics. DAMWON Gaming later qualified for the LCK after defeating Team BattleComics in the first qualifying match of the 2019 spring promotion tournament.[6]

Rookie jungler Kim "Canyon" Geon-bu was signed to the team prior to the 2018 LoL KeSPA Cup, which he debuted in. DAMWON Gaming was eliminated in the second round of the tournament by Griffin and ended third to fourth. Top laner Lee "Flame" Ho-jong joined DAMWON Gaming as a substitute player after he returned to South Korea from the United States, where he competed for two years. Bot laner Lee "Aries" Chae-hwan also joined from BBQ Olivers, which DAMWON Gaming helped relegate in the aforementioned promotion tournament.

DAMWON players competing in 2019 LCK Spring

DAMWON Gaming finished fifth in the spring regular season and fourth in playoffs after losing the third-place match to Kingzone DragonX. Despite receiving praise for his performance in the regular season, Flame was never subbed in during playoffs, a decision which earned the team considerable criticism from fans.[7]

DAMWON Gaming was one of four LCK teams that participated in Rift Rivals 2019; the LCK won the tournament after defeating China's LPL in the playoff stage. The team retained their entire roster for the summer split and finished second in the regular season and third in playoffs, losing to SKT T1 in the third round. DAMWON Gaming later defeated Kingzone DragonX in the final match of the regional finals to qualify for the play-in stage of the 2019 World Championship.[8] This was the first time where a team qualified for both the LCK and Worlds in the same year.[9]

DAMWON Gaming was drafted into Group D of the play-in stage, along with Turkish team Royal Youth and Brazilian team Flamengo Esports. The team finished top of their group undefeated,[10] and later qualified for the main event after defeating Vietnamese team Lowkey Esports in one of the qualifying matches.

DAMWON Gaming was drafted into Group D of the main event as well, along with China's Invictus Gaming, North America's Team Liquid, and Taiwan's ahq eSports Club. The team once again finished top of their group,[11] but were knocked out of the tournament by Europe's G2 Esports in the quarterfinals.[12]

DRX (formerly Kingzone DragonX), which had introduced several rookies to its roster prior to the 2019 LoL KeSPA Cup, eliminated DAMWON Gaming from the tournament in the quarterfinals.

Despite their performance in the 2019 LoL KeSPA Cup, Damwon's roster was kept in its entirety going into the 2020 spring split. Damwon later added Jang "Ghost" Yong-jun, an AD Carry player, to their roster in February. The team finished fifth in the regular season and fourth in playoffs, falling to DRX once again in a close series. DAMWON Gaming was one of three LCK teams that participated in the 2020 Mid-Season Cup; the team did not make it out of the group stage and finished fifth to sixth.

Without making any roster changes once again, Damwon placed first in the summer regular season with only two series losses, qualifying the team for the summer finals automatically. DAMWON Gaming swept DRX in the finals and won their first LCK title on 5 September.[1][2][3]

On 31 October, DAMWON Gaming defeated Suning 3–1 in the 2020 World Championship finals to become world champions.[4]

DAMWON Gaming announced in late December that it had partnered with Kia Motors and would rebrand as DWG KIA prior to the 2021 LCK season.[13]

DWG KIA logo
(2021–2022)

Coming into the 2021 season, Damwon Kia made changes to their roster by promoting one of its academy players, Kim "RangJun" Sang-joon as its midlaner, sharing the position with ShowMaker. They also replaced their star top-laner Nuguri with Kim "Khan" Dong-ha as he departed to FPX.[14][15] Nonetheless, they won the 2020 KeSPA Cup on 2 January 2021, sweeping Nongshim RedForce in the finals.

Damwon Kia ended the 2021 Spring Split regular season in first place with a record of 16–2. They were locked into the playoff semifinals against HLE, sweeping them and qualifying for their second LCK finals. They were met by Gen.G in the 2021 spring playoff finals on 10 April, ending the series with another sweep against their opponents. This gave Damwon their second LCK title, punching their ticket to the 2021 Mid-Season Invitational.[16]

Damwon Kia finished their group stage with a 5–1 record with one loss against NA's Cloud9 in the 2021 Mid-Season Invitational group stage. They headed into the Rumble Stage, dropping 2 games to China's Royal Never Give Up, ending with a 8–2 record. This gave them the 1st seed heading into the playoffs and they chose Europe's MAD Lions as their semifinals opponent, managing to narrowly beat them 3–2 to lock in a spot at the 2021 Mid-Season Invitational final on 23 May, facing off against China's Royal Never Give Up, the same team they dropped two games against in the Rumble Stage. Damwon Kia ended up losing the close series with a score of 3–2, crowning China's Royal Never Give Up their second MSI title.[17]

Damwon Kia continued their strong form during the 2021 Summer Split, having a 12-6 record in the regular season, before defeating T1 3-0 in the finals to secure a spot in the 2021 League of Legends World Championship.[18] They finished their group stage during the event with a perfect 6–0 run, completely dominating all competition. In the quarterfinals stage, they faced off against the European team MAD Lions, sweeping them 3–0, continuing their perfect run. Their perfect run would be ended in the semifinals by a fellow Korean team, three time world champions T1, who would become the first team to take games off Damwon, though Damwon did win the series 3–2.[19] In the final match, they faced China's Edward Gaming, who defeated them in a very close 3–2 series.[20][21]

DWG KIA at 2022 Worlds Media Day

The team went through various changes before the start of the regular season, with Ghost and BeryL departing the roster, while Khan announced his retirement from professional play as a result of mandatory military service in South Korea. To replace them, the team signed Seo "deokdam" Dae-gil and Kim "Kellin" Hyeong-gyu from Nongshim RedForce, along with top laners Noh "Burdol" Tae-yoon and Yoon "Hoya" Yong-ho. Damwon finished third in the 2022 Spring regular season with a 11–7 record. During the playoffs, The team swept Fredit Brion in the quarterfinals before losing 2–3 to Gen.G in the semifinals, finishing third to fourth overall.

In April 2022, DWG KIA announced the return of Nuguri, while Hoya departed from the active roster a month later.[22] The team put up a similar performance to Spring, finishing 4th following a loss against T1.[23] Due to their combined results, DWG KIA qualified for the Regional Finals, where they secured the third seed for the 2022 League of Legends World Championship by beating Liiv SANDBOX.[24] They finished second in their group, eliminating Evil Geniuses and G2 Esports, before losing their quarter finals match against fellow Korean team Gen.G.[25]