DAMWON Gaming’s top laner, Jang “Nuguri” Ha-gwon, has received League of Legends‘ community-driven Dade Award after falling out of Worlds 2019 in the quarterfinals.
The Dade Award is an unofficial community award that’s given to the player who came into that year’s Worlds with a ton of hype, only to fail more than anyone else. The name of the award originates from retired Korean mid laner, Bae “dade” Eo-jin, who failed to live up to expectations during the season three World Championship with Samsung Ozone.
Nuguri received a ton of attention before and during Worlds, touted as a top-three top laner at the tournament by many analysts and news outlets. But he struggled throughout the group stage and quarterfinals. He finished seventh in KDA, eighth in kill participation percentage, and had the fifth most deaths per game among all top laners in the main event.
Although he did struggle, many people are saying that Nuguri shouldn’t have received the award since he’s still young and a growing talent. He’s prone to making mistakes due to his inexperience. Ultimately, he and his team lost to a true championship contender in G2 Esports.
Many fans argued over who should get the Dade Award, but not a lot of people could agree on the candidate. No one in the tournament truly fit into the criteria for the award, but some names like Team Liquid’s Nicolaj Jensen and Fnatic’s Zdravets “Hylissang” Iliev Galabov floated around as possible winners.
