Samsung Galaxy claimed the League of Legends World Championship crown after a dominant 3-0 sweep over SK Telecom T1.

As Korea's third seed, nobody rated Samsung highly at the start of the World Championship, especially when compared to their LCK counterparts also in attendance. A rough group stage performance followed, and all hope seemed to be lost for Samsung. Faced against LCK champions and tournament favorites, Longzhu Gaming in the quarterfinals, many predicted an early bracket stage exit for Samsung.

But Samsung not only defeated Longzhu Gaming but also Team WE, in two surprising best-of-five victories. Suddenly Samsung had reached the World Championship finals, and earned their rematch against 2016 world champions, SKT.

Game 1

Winner: Samsung Galaxy

This wasn’t a perfect game for Samsung Galaxy, but it might as well have been. SKT were held to just one tower and no kills as SSG completely dominated every phase of the game. Not only did SKT never have a chance back into this game, they were never even given a true teamfight that they could have gotten lucky with. This game was all about Samsung’s absolute control.

Game 2

Winner: Samsung Galaxy

One of the popular narratives coming into this series was the idea that SK telecom T1 were far superior to Samsung in terms of teamfighting. Based on this game, it seems that SKT may have thought so too, as they drafted a split pushing composition, but put themselves in position for teamfights instead. Unfortunately for SKT, this narrative is vastly overblown, and it turns out, SSG has one of the best teamfights in the world. So, with SKT giving away the opportunity for fights, Samsung took it promptly used the gold to take over the game once again.

Game 3

Winner: Samsung Galaxy

This is the game that proved just how incredible Samsung were played during this series. SKT got out to an early lead and by mid game it seemed that lead would be entirely insurmountable for Samsung, but things simply seemed meant to be for them during this series. Three expertly set up picks against SKT’s damage carries pulled Samsung back into the game and gave them the gold lead they needed to take down SKT’s Nexus and end their Korean rival’s unbeaten streak at Worlds.

Samsung Galaxy wins the $2.25M base prize pool, but the total prize pool continues to rise. The current prize pool, after fan contributions, is at over $4.5M and counting.