DetonatioN FocusMe Preview reveals us a workforce that has been struggling however may need a redemption arc incoming.
The 2023 League of Legends World Championship began this week! The most important LoL occasion of the yr already had some banger video games and a few unimaginable surprises, similar to Group Whales beating Group BDS and CTBC Flying Oyster in a reverse sweep. The Play-In will attain the primary Elimination Spherical within the Decrease Bracket on Friday, so two groups will say goodbye to Worlds. LJL powerhouse DetonatioN FocusMe has been by means of a tough patch – will they be among the many first groups to get knocked out?
DetonatioN FocusMe Preview
DetonatioN FocusMe Group Historical past
Although the LJL is among the smaller leagues of the aggressive scene, DetonatioN FocusMe is among the most well-known workforce on the planet. This is because of the truth that DFM has received 16 LJL titles, received 10 out of the final 11 championships, and are presently on a 6-cup streak in successful the Japanese match. They’re one of the vital adorned workforce {of professional} League of Legends, and essentially the most adorned one at Worlds.
Nevertheless, they confronted some hardships this yr: after the departure of their iconic toplaner, Shunsuke “Evi” Murase, they signed Haruki “tol2” Shibata, who proved to be an ideal toplaner domestically, however within the worldwide scene, couldn’t present the identical stability as Evi did. DFM received the LJL Spring Playoffs (as traditional), however did not make it far on the Mid-Season Invitational. In Summer time, they dominated the Japanese league once more, successful each the common season and the Playoffs.
Nevertheless, the workforce went by means of some turmoil then experiences got here out that the workforce’s two coached, Kazu and Ceros abused DFM’s new toplaner, tol2, who left the workforce after the group discovered. Kazu and Ceros have been fired, and DFM needed to play the remainder of the season with Yutapon within the toplane and Milan filling in for ADC. However, DFM received all of it once more, however needed to make modifications to their roster earlier than worlds.
DetonatioN FocusMe Roster
- Ryo “apaMEN” Odagiri
- Mun “Steal” Geon-yeong
- Lee “Aria” Ga-eul
- Yuta “Yutapon” Sugiura
- Lee “Harp” Ji-yoong
DetonatioN FocusMe Playstyle
ApaMEN joined the workforce AFTER DetonatioN FocusMe received the Summer time Cut up with Yutapon within the toplane. The 31-year-old has performed for groups similar to Rascal Jester and the Fukuoka SoftBank HAWKS earlier than his retirement after the 2021 Summer time Playoffs. Because of this he didn’t play any skilled matches for two years – however on account of being near DFM, he agreed to play for them in the course of the World Championship.
Because of this DetonatioN FocusMe is a wildcard this Worlds, as apaMEN doesn’t have any stats or matches to have a look at. He’s a carry participant at coronary heart, and picked Aatrox twice in opposition to CTBC Flying Oyster, however didn’t discover a lot success.
Aside from apaMEN, Aria and Yutapon are the gamers, to observe. Aria has an extremely sturdy laning part, normally discovering leads because of good trades and presence. Yutapon makes an ideal pair with Harp, who performs round his ADC typically. Collectively, they’ve one of the best KD@14 quantity out of all gamers attending Worlds, with Harp working circles across the second positioned assist, ON of Bilibili Gaming.
DetonatioN FocusMe likes to mess around Herald within the early recreation, the place they normally get leads by means of kills slightly than macro play. They’ve a reasonably excessive First Turret%, however they take that Turret slowly in comparison with different groups – which means they don’t flip their aggression into macro leads, but in addition don’t give a lot to their opponents. They do get a excessive variety of Turret Plates, however don’t trouble to complete the buildings themselves.
They have an inclination to fall off within the late recreation. They’ve a low Baron% in comparison with different groups, which is a bit unusual as they focus Heralds early on. They’re additionally among the many slower groups of the match, they usually can actually drag out their losses, with solely 3 groups having slower defeats amongst attending squads. That is their greatest concern, as they’ll get leads, however typically throw them away, shedding matches which might be completely winnable: 5 out of their 6 LJL Summer time losses, that they had a 2k lead, however after some dangerous performs, they fall behind and in the end misplaced the sport.
The brand new squad at Worlds may change every part, as Yutapon returned to the botlane. Because of this Harp can stick with him extra as they did within the Spring Cut up, slightly than roaming when Milan was taking part in. ApaMEN also can play weakside together with his versatile juggernauts such because the Aatrox.
Sadly, we didn’t see a lot of DFM of their first match in opposition to the PCS 2nd seed, CTBC Flying Oyster. They misplaced 0-2 in opposition to them, with the primary match wanting pretty shut, however the second bout being extremely one sided. Unusually Aria and Steal have been the outliers, who normally play a excessive stage of League of Legends. DetonatioN FocusMe nonetheless has an opportunity to make it to the Swiss Stage – they just have to beat Team BDS in the Loser’s Bracket.