2022 Worlds Prep — DetonatioN FocusMe (DFM — LJL Seed 1)
Analyzing one of the Play-In teams ahead of the 2022 League of Legends World Championship — by Tom Searfoss
**Note: The database I am working off of does NOT have DFM’s Playoff matches included, so the analysis is done only on their Regular Season Games**
Top Takeaways
- Aw shit, here we go again — attended MSI and Worlds this year, making this their 10th International event as an org
- 1st (send post) — Highest First Objective Stats of all Play-In teams
- Gotta go fast — Fastest average Game Time of all Play-In teams
- Favor with the Baron — Secured Baron in all but 2 games during Summer Split
- Top loader — Top Laner Evi has some of the highest lane phase stats for his role and sports a large AP Champion Pool
- KDA Player — Mid Laner Yaharong has the highest KDA of all Play-In players
TL;DR — Team History & Summer Split
- Perennial LJL powerhouses DFM are back at Worlds for the 5th time in their org history
- Sporting the exact same Roster they did for MSI this year
- Went 19–2 in both Spring and Summer, but were only 2nd place in Summer due to losing both games to Sengoku Gaming (SG)
- Rebounded in Playoffs, defeating SG twice, including a dominating 3–0 in their Summer Finals to qualify for Worlds
- The LJL was incredibly top-heavy during the Summer Split, with a triple round robin yielding only 3/8 teams with an above 50% WIN%
Overview of Team Play
Gold Graphs
Early Game Gold
DFM comes into Play-Ins with some very large gold numbers — only really rivaled by that of LCO’s Chief’s Esports Club (CHF). One thing that stands out for DFM is the ramp up in their gold leads — they are 3rd in average total gold at 10 minutes (GOLD@10), but then jump 10,004 to the 2nd most of Play-In teams for GOLD@15.
Also to note — with the LJL being such a top heavy league all Summer, the fact that DFM are not the clear #1 team in these stats makes me wonder if they struggled at all early game against teams, which their LEAD@10 being above 75% and 2nd for Play-Ins team tells me is not the case. In their few losses, 50% of the time they had a lead, 50% of the time they had a deficit at both 10 and 15 minutes — so we’ll have to examine where their early game leads them to objective-wise, as well as look at their lane phase stats for their players to learn more.
DFM’s First Objective stats are what you expect from a team that absolutely dominated their Region in Summer. With the highest rank for all First Objective stats besides First Herald Rate (FH%), DFM punish teams with map objectives that teams can not make up for as easily as kills, cs or plates. They are also one of the few teams with the same FH% as First Dragon Rate (FD%).
To note — DFM also have the First Mid Tower (FT Mid) and the First 3 Outer Towers (F3T) at an alarmingly high rate. This means that they quickly begin dismantling lanes in their games, and would point towards faster games overall.
Later Game Objectives
The tempo and kill based statistics from DFM are a little different than some other Emerging Region Champions. They still have a high kill count (2nd behind CHF) but they die the least of any Play-In teams. This gives them a lower overall Combined Kills per Minute (CK/M) — albeit still above average — but also the highest Kill-Death Ratio (K/D) at the event.
Coupled with the fact that DFM deals the most Damage per Minute (DMG/M) of any Play-In team, you can see that while DFM do not all out brawl for things, they aren’t afraid to leverage their leads to find fights. I anticipate this paying off for them a little bit more than other Emerging Region teams, as DFM may be less likely to throw themselves at a team that has secured leads against them early, and instead attempt to fight strategically for the objectives they like to secure early game.
DFM take their high First Objective Stats and translate them across the major stacking Objectives in the game — Drakes and Baron — although they fall in priority with Heralds (HERALD%). DFM has only taken 11 Second Heralds, which is the lowest total and T-6th lowest average for Second Herald takes (of 11 Play-In teams, as RNG does not have Herald stats). That shows a clear shift away from the Herald as an objective after the first one falls — whether it is because they no longer need it (due to having F3T the most often already) or trading it for more Drakes (DRAKE%).
As alluded to earlier, DFM finish their games quickly — the fastest of any Play-In team to be exact! They also use their early objective and gold leads to secure Baron (BARON%) in almost all of their games.
Deep Dive — Dragon Stats
The normal Objective Stats tell us that DFM is the 2nd best team at not just Play-In — but at Worlds as a whole — in securing Dragons. But it doesn’t tell us how they win games and if they even use Dragon to do so. If we look further at the normal stats we associate with Dragon Control, factor in WIN% and look to Soul and Elder as ways to end the game, we can learn more about CHF’s play style.
DFM have just one game with Dragon Soul — and zero games with Elder. This is the lowest for any team at Play-Ins besides Istanbul Wildcats (IW), who also have 0 Elder Dragons (RNG does not have stats for these categories). This means that DFM’s fastest average game time is having them end the game before Soul is even on the table. In the rare, single case that Soul did manifest on the Rift — DFM took it and won the game.
Overview of Players
Lane Phase Stats
Evi is crushing his lane opponents — coming into Play-In Groups the highest ranked Top Laner in all lane phase stats except for First Blood Kills & Assists (FBK+A). His leads are so massive that he accounts for 32.25% of DFM’s leads at 10 minutes and 29.83% of their leads at 15 minutes. Steal is another early game factor seeing as he is a part of the most First Bloods on the team, but pays for it in a small Experience deficit at the 10 minute mark.
Besides the massive lane advantage Evi has, Yaharong is also far ahead in his lane phase stats. One area he does not crush in the same way Evi does is his experience leads (XPD@10/15). Although his Creep Score and Gold (CSD, GD) leads are large, low XPD signals that Yaharong’s Champion Pool may be more favored to roaming Champions that can assist the other lanes — such as Bot Laner Yutapon, who while still ahead on average, is behind in XPD@10 and has the smallest GD@10 for the 3 laning carries.
Stats I do not have that I wish I could look at are referencing DFM’s high F3T stat and comparing to which towers they take the fastest — if Bot Lane on average is the last tower to fall, DFM’s story may be one where the two solo lanes need to provide support to a Bot Lane that requires outside interference to prosper early.
Late Game Stats
4 of the 5 players on DFM are in the Top 10 KDAs of Play-In players, with Evi just missing the mark in 11th place. However, let’s just sit here and admire Yaharong’s 17.83 KDA in 21 games - which includes 2 losses.
Okay, now that we’ve acknowledged how incredible that stat is as a standalone (seriously, he averages 0.57 DTH/G, dying once every other game) we have to talk about some of the other stats here for DFM — mainly their very strange Kill Participation (KP) numbers. Their two solo lane players are in the bottom 10 KPs for Play-In Players — with Evi taking the 2nd lowest slot and Yaharong at 6th lowest. Top Lane players in general have lower KP scores because of their isolation on the map and reliance on Teleport to join fights — only really grouping when the team needs to have a large fight. Their Champion pools are also a scapegoat for low KP numbers — as the designated split push role means they are often ignoring unimportant skirmishes to try and create map pressure. However Mid Laners are the focal point of the map, and often tout some of the higher KP numbers. 7 of the 12 Mid Laners at the Play-In Stage have 70.00% or higher KP — while Yaharong is in last. with FNC Humanoid above him as the only other sub-60.00% KP Mid Laner.
It’s also interesting to see lower KP numbers on the carries, but know that DFM has the highest Team DMG/M among Play-In teams. Their lack of dying makes up for their 5th place CK/M stats, and they are 2nd in average Kills per Game (KILL/G). The players of DFM must be getting kills in smaller skirmishes, mostly facilitated by Support Player Harp — or dishing out large amounts of damage in huge team fights later in the game.
DFM is also a team that bucks the trend of “Bot Laner does the most damage” that other teams tend to display. While Yutapon still does have the highest average DMG/M and Damage Share (DMG%) on the team, his numbers are not that far above his teammates.
He’s also the 2nd lowest DMG% and 2nd lowest Damage per Earned Gold (DMG/EGOLD) among all Bot Laners at Play-In Stage. Despite a higher KP than the other members of his team, and coupled with the fact his lane phase stats tend to be lower than his solo laners — it looks as if Yutapon isn’t the main carry for the team until they begin grouping for large 5v5 teamfights (which often end the game for DFM).
Overview of Champions
Pick/Ban Stats
DFM did not want enemies getting their hands on Sylas in the Summer, and also cut out a few more mid lane options in LeBlanc, Ahri and Yone. Yaharong’s really good looking stats are buffered a bit by his team giving him some specific ban attention — while it looks like DFM also wanted to ban away the most popular Junglers. They really focused down on banning Wukong on Red Side — which means they were fine picking it for Steal — just not letting other teams have it.
Bot Lane really ate up bans for DFM — which is a little surprising after going into detail about how Yutapon was not the main threat for DFM. Lucian and Zeri being banned away mostly on Blue Side meant teams didn’t want them first picking something powerful for Yutapon — which might also just be comfort for him. On the other side, teams did not want Yaharong getting his hands on Ahri if they could help it (which points to a counter pick potentially, as DFM were happy to ban Ahri when they were Blue Side as well).
Evi’s AP Top Laners
Not his most played Champions, but a striking 100% WIN% across all these AP Top lane picks with high KDA scores is something to keep in mind during DFM’s drafts. This would allow them to pivot heavy into AD team compositions, as well as be able to flex Lillia between roles.
Steals’ Wukong
Surprise! Another Junglers, another Wukong to watch. Steal has as many games as Wukong as he does the other 8 Champions in his pool combined — playing 14 of his 28 games on the Pick.
Yaharong’s Top 3
Yaharong’s top 3 picks are somewhat meta picks, although they fill some different roles. Both Ahri and Taliayh can move from mid lane extremely well, which speaks to his lower XPD stat, while Azir is a more standard late game threat and control mage pick. Both Ahri and Azir come with ridiculously high KDAs (much like Yaharong himself) — but Taliyah has his 2nd lowest KDA in his Champion Pool (albeit, still a great KDA).
Yutapon’s Meta Picks
Although he isn’t the best at DMG/EGOLD — Yutapon does still have his team’s highest DMG/M and DMG%. So seeing him be able to play all the meta picks for Bot Lane will be crucial to DFM’s success at Worlds. One note here is that he has only 1 game on Senna — and that it was a loss.
Harp’s Babysitters
Affectionately calling Harp’s top 5 picks “babysitters” show that he’s in charge of keeping everyone alive — especially Yutapon during the lane phase. Rakan is the most mobile of all the Champions in this pool, and notably the only one with actual teamfight engage for DFM.
Conclusion
DFM is coming into Worlds hot from their domestic League, but I have my doubts about how the LJL has prepared them for the International Stage this time around. The relative strength of the Region looks really, really weak with only 3 teams above 50.0% WIN%.
Their team hasn’t changed from MSI, and I wasn’t the most impressed with them then either. Their formula has shifted a little bit, with a large spotlight on Evi and Yaharong to carry the team. Yutapon is coming into the event with high KDA stats, but question marks around his role on the team. If the Worlds meta becomes about Bot Lane carry picks like Zeri, Sivir and Kai’Sa — I have my reservations on Yutapon being the factor that helps DFM win games. I do however, really like Harp’s Champion Pool full of Enchanters — hopefully they are strong still on the World’s patch. If Yutapon can output a little bit more from his early game, I think that DFM can manage to snag the 4th spot in their Play-In Group.
Looking at the competition, I think Evi has a slight advantage over most Top Laners — but he is going to need Steal to be a bigger threat to put behind other Junglers in order to get the leads he is accustomed to. Yaharong will also have more weight to shoulder, although I think he is better than the other Emerging Region Mid Laners in the Group (and at the event in general). If the top side of the map can snowball the game into early leads (or stay relatively close until 15 minutes) I think I like DFM’s chances in games against non-Major Region teams.
The big challenge is going to be Chiefs Esports Club — and I think whoever wins between these two teams will take the 4th spot in the Group. Raes is better on paper than Yutapon, Topoon and Evi are two of the better Emerging Region Top Laners, and Yaharong is better on paper than Tally. I do think that DFM will rely on “winning draft” in order to fight CHF though — since DFM’s team compositions are often about individual performances more so than CHF’s “press R” teamfight compositions.
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