League of Legends: Kindred, Caitlyn, Akali among DRX’s initial picks for Worlds 2022 skin

The League of Legends (LoL) 2022 World Championship has concluded, with DRX completing their Cinderella run to become the first Play-ins team to win Worlds after a 3-2 upset against T1.

Aside from World Championship rings and US$489,500 in winnings, DRX will also be rewarded with their own Worlds skin-line based on the champions the players have picked.

Yearly, LoL developer Riot Games honours the winner of Worlds with a limited-edition skin line that immortalises their victory. And since 2016, players have had a role in the designing the skin of the champion they’ve chosen.

To qualify for a Worlds skin, a player should have at least two meaningful round-robin matches to receive a skin.

There are also guidelines for champions players can pick. A player should have played at least one game on the chosen champion at Worlds. Riot may request that the player select a different champion if the team already owns a skin for that champion from a prior victory.

The members of DRX revealed which champions they have initially picked to be part of the Worlds 2022 skin-line in a post-finals press conference.

Here’s what each player has picked so far:

Aatrox (top lane)

Aatrox has been one of the most influential picks since the Play-ins, with the highest pick and ban rate at 98.43%. The Darkin Blade was also one of Hwang “Kingen” Seong-hoon’s most-played champions at Worlds and the entire season.

For the entire Season 2022, he played a total of 16 games on Aatrox with a 68.8% win rate. At Worlds, Aatrox was picked by the DRX top laner 9 times and won 7 games out of them.

Kingen’s Aatrox was so impactful in the finals that many T1 fans wondered why the three-time World champions did not ban Kingen’s Aatrox at all.

In the fifth game of the finals, Kingen found flanks that turned team fights to DRX’s favour and singlehandedly stopped Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok in his final attempt to take down the DRX Nexus.

Kindred (jungle)

Everyone already knew what Hong “Pyosik” Chang-hyeon’s choice would be. It’s Kindred, his favourite champion. In fact, before he became a LoL pro, Pyosik started as a Kindred one-trick streamer.

Pyosik locked in Kindred four times at Worlds, two of which were games in the semifinals, where they defeated Gen.G in an upset 3-1.

Pyosik even impersonated his favourite champion on stage in said post-match interview to celebrate their win. Pyosik’s Kindred is so successful that T1 banned the champion three times in the Finals.

When Pyosik was still a streamer, he mentioned wanting his own skin for Kindred.

A fan quipped that the player should play on a professional level and win Worlds to get a skin for Kindred. Who thought that this joke would become true years later?

Akali (Mid Lane)

A lot of fans thought Kim “Zeka” Geon-woo would pick Sylas for his Worlds skin, but the mid laner chose another one of his signature picks, Akali.

The DRX mid laner played this champion 18 times throughout the season, with a 72.2% win rate and a 7.9 KDA.

At Worlds, Zeka locked in Akali 6 times with a 66.7% win rate and a 12.8 KDA. He showed mastery of the Champion, even beating World champions Faker and Lee “Scout” Ye-chan in terms of exection.

With explosive plays in the mid lane, Zeka demolished his opponents on their way to winning the title. Although he couldn’t play Akali at the finals, she’s definitely the right choice for the DRX mid lane.

Caitlyn (Bottom Lane)

While Kim “Deft” Hyuk-kyu has been known for mastery of Ezreal, he chose Caitlyn to receive a DRX Worlds skin.

Caitlyn has been a staple in Kim “Deft” Hyuk-kyu’s champion pool since 2013. The Sherriff of Piltover was a highly contested pick, becoming one of the most banned champions at Worlds this year because of her long-ranged attacks, traps, and ability to peel through her enemies.

Deft played Caitlyn four times throughout the competition, in Groups and Knockouts, with a 100% win rate and an impressive 17 KDA.

Caitlyn was instrumental in cementing Deft’s first Worlds title, where the DRX ADC picked her to harass T1’s bot lane, peel heavy damage against their opponents, and clean up team fights.

Ashe (Support, Tentative)

Cho “BeryL” Geon-hee is the only DRX player unsure of his choice, but he did say, "Ashe, probably".

The champion was originally an AD Carry pick, but recently succeeded as a support pick in the current meta.

The 25-year-old DRX support has the largest champion pool at Worlds among all Support players, and he brought out unconventional picks like Heimerdinger that worked really well or completely out of nowhere, like his Bard curveball pick in the finals.

BeryL was also known for clutch plays on Renata Glasc, who he picked three times.

Despite this, he seems to be leaning toward Ashe, a champion he’s locked in at the quarterfinal match against EDG.

Reportedly, he spoke to the Riot skin design team about drawing references to a character from another game.

In a post translated by Ashley Kang of Korizon Esports, BeryL said he “got embarrassed and showed Riot skin team [the] picture of [his] character.”

In the post was a photo of Elysia, a character from HoYoverse's Honkai Impact 3rd, one of BeryL’s favourite games.

“I got publicly executed,” BeryL said of the exchange.

This wasn’t the first time BeryL took inspiration from another character outside of Riot’s franchise for his Worlds skin.

In 2020, he picked Leona as his DAMWON KIA Gaming Worlds skin, referencing Saren Sasaki, mentioning in an interview that he showed Riot his “wife” from a mobile game, Princess Connect!

Maokai (Jungle)

Another member of DRX who is eligible for a skin is their substitute Jungler Lee “Juhan” Ju-han.

Juhan played two times in the Play-ins and once in the Group stage, making him eligible for the skin.

The DRX jungler locked in Maokai in two of his three games at Worlds, resulting in a victory.

While these are the initial picks of the team members, these may still change based on their final agreement with Riot Games.

Anna is a freelance writer and photographer. She is a gamer who loves RPGs and platformers, and is a League of Legends geek. She's also a food enthusiast who loves a good cup of black coffee.

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