2018 Worlds Prep — DetonatioN FocusMe (LJL Seed)

The following is a self-preservation of analysis researched & written by Tom Searfoss for the League of Legends World Championship Broadcast in 2018.

Roster: Evi, Steal, Ceros, Yutapon, viviD — Sub: Pink Bean

Author: Tom Searfoss

Top Takeaways

• DFM went 9–1 (90.0% WR) in matches, 19–2 (90.5% WR) in games during the LJL Summer Regular Season
• Team has the highest KDA in each role within the LJL
• Play heavily through their Jungler Steal, even funneling him when that was a strategy
• Use their early game advantages to secure objectives like Baron, using their large BPP numbers to close out the game.
• Might show us some very unique picks in Mid lane & Bot lane.

League overview

• The LJL is a 6 team League
• Double Round Robin, Best of 3 Matches
• Top 3 Teams advance to a “Gauntlet” style Playoffs
• 1st Place gets a bye into Finals
• Each match in Playoffs is Bo5
• We include all players who have played 30% or more of the average number of games for a player in the league, for the LJL these are how many players are included in the ranking for each position (rankings are always among position unless otherwise stated):

Team overview

• “DetonatioN FocusMe is notorious for earning 1st place in the LJL regular season but coming up short in the Playoffs”
• “This will be the first World Championship for each player on DFM aside from Evi who attended with Rampage in 2017” — Meet the Teams
• Tom Note: Going back to 2014, DFM have been in every Final in LJL (8 Total)
• 6 times seeded into Finals, 2 times just in Playoffs
• They also made “Grand Finals” of LJL Spring+Summer in 2014/2015 both times and won

Analysis

DFM Gold Graphs — Team at a glance

• Much like previous LJL Winners, DFM is extremely dominant in their Region
• Have had a Lead@15 in all but 3 Games
• 2 were Regular Season, 1 in Playoffs — all of them were vs USG
• Rely on early game gold leads to be able to win games

Early Game — how do DFM get leads?

DFM as a team in the early game — Includes 3 funnel games

• DFM convert their high FT rate into a big TD@15 (+0.8, 1st in LJL)
• Dominant lane phases tend to end with DFM having huge CS & Gold advantages
• They have the most active early game in the LJL, with a 2.1 K+A@15/G
• A lot of activity comes from Steal
• However, their Jungler’s Team JP is 5th in the League (38.0%, a -2.1% JP-D)

Who benefits from the early game? — Includes 3 funnel games

• Junglers in the LJL are a LOT of a team’s early game
• Steal has an LJL high 3.0 K+A@15/G but only the 4th KP@15 despite it being a large number (He is 4th in the entire LJL for KP@15).
• This piggy-backs onto the point that DFM have one of the most active early games — their lanes don’t 100% need Steal to do things
• Top and Mid both play extremely aggressive (high FWD)
• They have some of the highest CSD & GD @15 in the LJL
• Ceros is the biggest benefactor in the early game despite the lowest Mid JP in the LJL
• He still has the highest FWD% for Mid laners
• Yutapon is the “anomaly” on the team
• His early game stats aren’t bad, but he ranks 3rd in a league of 6 Bot laners
• He stands out more when you take away funnel games (more on this in the breakout section)

Controlling the game

DFM Objective control & Gold leads

• Not surprising, the #1 team with dominating stats has the best control over the game in the LJL
• They also have the fastest Avg GT
• Their longest game was 39:43, while their shortest game was 20:19
• Additionally, they have the largest BPP in the league
• 10 of their 21 total Barons (47.6%) ended games.

DFM’s Chart-Topping Players

DFM Player Stats vs League Average

• DFM has large KDA’s & DMG/M-D numbers
• These are not entirely surprising since they only lost 3 games the entire Split
• However, their overall DMG/M numbers are lacking in 2 key roles — Jungle & Bot lane
• More on the DMG/M of Champion picks for these roles in the Breakout section

Players to watch

Steal — Jungle

• Steal is the catalyst for the early game from DFM
• His Team FBP is the lowest for Junglers in LJL, the highest on DFM
• However, his First Blood Participation (how many first bloods Steal participated in out of the 25 game he played in) is 2nd for not just Junglers, but in the entire LJL
• Of DFM’s 15 FBK, Steal is 7 kills & 5 assists.
• This is evident in his JP as well — 5th out of 6 junglers, but the highest K+A@15/G.
• He has also been the recipient of funnel comps 2 of 3 games.

Ceros — Mid Lane

• Despite not being the focus of funnels, Ceros has some of the best Mid Lane stats in LJL
• His CSD@15 & FWD being so high despite low MID JP shows he’s not being babysat
• Has extremely interesting “pocket picks” in Heimerdinger & Ziggs

Picks to watch

Evi as Gnar

• 7–1 Record, 4.7 KDA, 23.4% DMG%, 515 DMG/M

Steal as Nocturne

• 7–0 Record, 10.0 KDA, 60.0% KP, 29.0% K%

Ceros as Heimerdinger

• 5–1 Record, 4.7 KDA, 32.6% DMG%, 723 DMG/M

Ceros as Ziggs

• 5–0 Record, 6.6 KDA, 30.2% DMG%, 674 DMG/M

Yutapon as Mordekaiser

• 3–0 Record, 6.0 KDA, I doubt this gets played but it’s a cool pick
• More interesting Yutapon picks in the Breakout section

Breakout

DFM in Funnel Games

DFM resource share in 3 funnel games

Bolded Champion names are Smite users/funneled Champions. Bolded stats for emphasis.

• 2 games have Funneled into Steal, while 1 game was a Karthus Smite for Yutapon
• A lot of resources get piled into Evi regardless of who is being funneled
• Evi is seeming the “other damage threat” in the composition
• The downside is that they inhibit Ceros, who normally has high numbers
• In non-funnel games, Ceros has 30.5% DMG% and 21.9% GOLD%
• In non-funnel games, Evi has 23.5% DMG% and 21.5% GOLD%

DFM in Non-Funnel Games

Who benefits from the early game? — Excluding funnel games

• When you take out funnel games, Steal’s numbers go slightly down
• Meanwhile, Yutapon’s numbers skyrocket, increasing in CSD@15 by 4.8 & GD@15 by 179
• Ceros somehow gets even better despite still having the lowest MID JP in the LJL
• With Yutapon & Ceros having such highlight Stats in non-funnel games, it seemed like the Funnel strategy was a way for DFM to highlight their Top/Jungle instead of their Mid/Bot

Yutapon’s Champion Pool

Yutapon picks in funnel & non-funnel games

*One or more of these games were funnel games

• Yutapon has one of the most unique Champions pools
• He has taken Smite on Karthus twice, once as a “funnel” with him Bot Lane
• He has also taken Smite on Mordekaiser and Graves 1 time each
• He is 10–1 on Marksmen and 12–2 on Non-Marksmen
• His comfort pick is Ezreal while he also seems good on Varus with his insane 27.0 KDA and +26.0 CSD@15 in 2 games.
• He’s 1–1 when playing the “Jungle/2nd Support” for Funnel comps
• He is 5–1 when playing Melee Champions.
• Since his picks/champion pool is a bit all over the place, you can see why his Stats are not as good as other mainly-Marksmen/Mage Bot laners.
• Tom Note: I honestly have no idea what to expect from Yutapon in Pick/Ban

Steal/Yutapon’s Champion Pool

Steal picks & damage vs LJL Avg [Adjusted roles]

Averages do no include Steal’s Stats, “Adjusted roles” includes funnel games, but uses the lane they played in vs seating order.

• Steal’s Kai’Sa & one of his Taliyah games were not played as adjust role Jungle, but I have included their numbers for reference.
• Steal’s Nocturne, Camille & Gragas were better than the LJL Avg across the board
• His Xin Zhao & Taliyah (despite being funneled) were slightly worse damage-wise than the LJL across the board
• Key Jungle champions that Steal is missing from his Champion Pool:
• Kindred, Sejuani, Zac, Lee Sin, Graves, Olaf
• Aka “These are being played a lot in other regions [and the LJL], why not you, Steal?”
• With Gragas, Trundle & Poppy as his only real “tank” Champions it’s even more stunning that Steal is not topping DMG/M charts in the LJL.

Yutapon picks & damage vs LJL Avg [Adjusted roles]

Averages do no include Yutapon’s Stats, “Adjusted roles” includes funnel games, but uses the lane they played in vs seating order.

• Yutapon’s Shen & Nunu games were not played as adjust role Bot lane, but I have included their numbers for reference.
• Yutapon’s Varus, Ezreal & Mordekaiser were all better across the board than the rest of the LJL
• His Kai’Sa & Ashe were slightly worse than the rest of the LJL
• The biggest differences in damage for Yutapon come from his Ashe & Taliyah
• The Nunu non-adjusted role game also hurts his overall DMG/M-D numbers