DFM’s long journey towards international success finally pays off

Written by Community Writer Pedro Romero

Imagine you’re standing in front of a wall. It’s tall and vast, its texture is rough and sturdy, its foundation is resolute, and looks imposing. You, alongside four people, are tasked with demolishing this wall with nothing but your raw strength and coordination but it comes to no avail after many years of trying.

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In professional League of Legends, this wall exemplified the perpetual futility that overshadowed the LoL Japanese League’s (LJL) track record in international events. Whether it’s the Mid-Season Invitational or the World Championship, the LJL almost always showed their fragility against the best teams outside of the region.

Since 2014, the league had not delivered a team to the MSI Rumble nor the Worlds group stage. Detonation FocusMe, winners of nine split championships repeatedly failed to cross the final hurdle of the wretched Play-In stage. Even during occasional reprieves from DFM’s dominance, with V3 Esports, Rampage, and PENTAGRAM representing the LJL, they too couldn’t succeed what fans have always hoped for.

But as the figurative wall finally fell following DFM’s tiebreaker match victory over Cloud9, which secured first place in Group B of the Worlds 2021 Play-In stage, bursts of raw jubilation enveloped Japanese casters and fans alike.

After waiting a long time for one of their own to accomplish this once-elusive achievement, it was expected then for their emotional release to be voracious, resounding, and exhilarating.

Whereas viewers watched the history unfold before them, members of DFM’s staff embraced to recognize their plan of contention, which started earlier this year, finally paid its dividends.

Creating the Exodia roster

Making fair use of the import rules, which required teams to field three residents in their lineups, DFM signed mid-laner Lee “Aria” Ga-eul, widely regarded as the best in his position from playing with Crest Gaming Act, as their newest starter, replacing long-time captain and LJL legend Kyohei “Ceros” Yoshida.

With the acquisition of Aria, DFM was quickly tabbed by experts as the league’s superteam or, as LJL analyst Aex “Nymaera” Hapgoo called them, “Exodia,” named after one of the strongest monsters in the hit manga series “Yu-Gi-Oh!”. In addition to having formidable players such as Shunsuke “Evi” Murase, Yuta “Yutapon” Sugiura, and Yang “Gaeng” Gwang-woo, there’s no reason to doubt the rationale for bestowing them such a nickname.

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“We mentioned it already, but this version of DFM is arguably the single most stacked roster relative to its region the world over,” wrote Nymaera alongside colleagues Sam “Initialise” Hapgood and Alex “MaskedSwan” Swan in their preview feature on the team. “And while we’ll stress relative to its region (we keep our delusions of grandeur relatively tame) the point still stands that this is the most condensed fusion of talent the LJL has ever seen.”

With a star-studded roster shouldering the expectation of conquering regional and international competition, LJL fans experienced a distinct episode unlike anything they had seen before: believing in a brighter future.

Reclaiming the LJL Throne

Such a positive outlook didn’t last long though, as due to Aria’s Korean residency, the team had three imported players in their lineup, meaning they had to move one to the bench to meet roster regulations. Fortunately, with jungler Steal close to switching residencies from Korea to Japan following the spring split, the DFM fielded a provisional lineup with ex-player-turned coach Kazuta “Kazu” Suzuki stepping in as support for Gaeng.

While not in full-strength, DFM brushed aside the LJL with relative ease in spring by taking first place in the regular season with a 12-2 record and winning in the playoffs over V3 to reclaim the title as the best in the league and secure a trip to Iceland for MSI.

A sign of things to come – DFM’s MSI 2021

Unlike previous editions, MSI 2021 featured a major change to its tournament format. Whereas all the minor region teams fought amongst each other in a preliminary stage, they were all placed alongside the major regions’ respective champions in a group stage, with 12 teams being split into three groups to decide the six who progress to the Rumble stage. For DFM, they were slotted into Group C with defending world champion DWG KIA, North America’s Cloud9, and Latin America’s Infinity Esports.

Despite DFM’s performance in the LJL, by sitting in a top-heavy group for MSI, the majority of people wrote them off as fodder for C9 and DK. 

But as DFM showed in the group stage, that didn’t happen. Instead, they posed as the tournament’s dark horse team as they won against the LCS champions and were on the verge of defeating DK to stake a claim for their survival. Unfortunately though, their final attempt to close out DK backfired as a mistimed engagement by Kazu under a Tier-3 bottom turret allowed the Korean team to steer the momentum back in their favor and hand DFM a crushing defeat. Thus, with a 2-4 record, DFM bowed out of Iceland and missed out on the Rumble stage by the skin of their teeth.

But as DFM licked their wounds from MSI, there was reason to curate optimism for the future. With an inexperienced mid-laner and head coach and a near full-strength roster, they took two of the best teams in the competition to the limit and were close to upending them altogether. For such a team like this, MSI proved to be quite a litmus test for the future.

DFM head coach Yang “Yang” Gwang-pyo already took notice of their standing shortly after their exit from Iceland, and as such, he looked to the summer split as an opportunity to build on what they experienced in MSI.

“The biggest takeaway is the fact that what we have been doing, our playstyle, actually works on the international level,” said Yang in reflection of his team’s MSI performance in an interview with Gamezo. “Other than all the other players like Aria and myself, we had our first experience at an international event.

“However, it was really interesting to see that Aria, after having some jitters in the first game , was able to pop off so I think it was a huge confidence boost for us. Back in the LJL for the summer split, I think we can play with confidence and play more aggressively.”

Building during Summer

To generally understand how dominant DFM were in the LJL summer split, one must look at the overall individual standings in terms of average KDA taken from Oracle’s Elixir. By the end of the 14-game regular season, all DFM players sat within the top six, with Aria taking the top spot on 9.7 KDA. Aided by their experience in MSI and the return of Gaeng, the team strung together another dominant regular season in the LJL.

Despite starting off with a three-game losing streak, they quickly recovered by taking their next 11 games, finishing as the first seed again for the playoffs, where DFM repeated as champions to qualify for their fourth Worlds.

Unlike the past where they were simply glad to participate in LoL’s biggest stage , DFM had a score to settle. They have the chance of avenging their elimination in MSI with the maturity fostered throughout the summer split.  After many attempts, which included a crushing 0-3 series loss to EDward Gaming in the second stage of Worlds 2018 Play-Ins, DFM had more than enough to believe that this year would be different.

Dream fulfilled at last

Sitting amidst a close group that featured Unicorns of Love, Beyond Gaming,Galatasaray Esports and Cloud9, DFM took three wins to challenge for first place and automatic qualification to groups. But by losing to C9, they had to rely on  UoL to force a tiebreaker game. Exactly what happened, giving  DFM  the chance to make history for themselves and the whole of Japan.

As expected of a high-stakes match, DFM had their work cut out as they spent nearly 35 minutes going back-and-forth with C9 for the majority of the tiebreaker. Even after conceding Infernal Soul, the team remained stout in their collective movement and waited for an opportunity to execute the perfect team fight. Finally, after securing Elder Drake, DFM drove down the bottom lane and stampeded past C9 to take sole possession of first place in Group B, qualify for the main event phase, and fulfill the dreams of an entire region and the players who worked so hard for so long to reach this moment.

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“I guess it was the happiest moment in my life. I never got this feeling before ever since I League,” said Yutapon while thinking back to when DFM defeated C9 in the tiebreaker game. “We didn’t win this much on the international stage before, so I truly felt grateful that I have been playing this game.”

Can they make it even further?

Having advanced to the main event stage, DFM are placed in Group B with reigning LPL champions EDward Gaming, reigning LCS champions 100 Thieves, and the three-time world champion T1. Sure enough, each opponent possesses their own array of challenges for the LJL champs to solve with less than a pocket change of time in their possession.

For some, pondering over their upcoming set of games won’t supersede the success DFM gained from Play-Ins. To them, who solely focused on reaching groups, anything that came after that was a bonus. At the same time, there are those who believe the team still has some magic left in them for the tournament. After all, they have history on their side such as Albus Nox Luna’s run to the quarterfinals from the International Wild Card Qualifier for Worlds 2016.

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Speaking of which, ANX support and captain Kirill “Likkrit” Malofeyev offered words of encouragement to teams like DFM who want to contend like they did. Like a wise oracle, his sentiment still rings true today and is wonderfully realized through this year’s surprise team.

“All I want to say is ‘Hey guys, we’re from wildcard and as I before, being a wildcard doesn’t mean being a loser.’ That’s all,” said Likkrit.

Surely, DFM are not playing like losers at all. Although they opened the group stage with a grueling sub-20 minute loss to T1, most understand it doesn’t completely define them. After all, they shocked the world plenty of times in the Play-In stage. Nevertheless, the question remains if they can orchestrate another spectacular run in the group stage? As they have shown so far in Worlds, they might as well can.

Written by Pedro Romero

Freelance writer with approximately three years of experience. Worked for numerous outlets including esports.com while covering League of Legends, Valorant, and Dota 2. Currently at Bronze I in NA LoL solo-queue.

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