Watching the Wildcards: The Pride of Japan
Riot·2/13/2015, 1:37:35 AM·0 votes·5,636 views
As the newest addition to the Wildcard circuit, the League of Legends Japan League (LJL) has a lot to prove before it can hang with the rest of the world. Japanese pros are already making their presence known on North America’s Challenger ladder, with many LJL tags adorning the ranks as these players practice with close to 200 ping in the same games as our NA LCS pros. Here are two Japanese players who you should be following -- that is, if you don’t bump into them first.
In an esports environment dominated largely by fighting games, it comes as little surprise that Japan’s best player is a mechanical genius. DetonatioN FocusMe owe many of their victories to the talented Yutapon (also Yutapron, Yutapongo, and Yutaproid depending on where you know him from), who transferred his Counter-Strike talents to League of Legends and quickly became Japan’s best AD carry.
Yutapon wears his FPS history as a badge of honor, and holds a deep respect for AD carries who came to discover their talents in a similar fashion. That includes his rival Shotaro “Zerost” Ikeda. “RabbitFive’s AD carry Zerost has really strong game sense from his time playing FPS games, so I definitely don’t want to lose to him.”
It isn’t just Zerost that Yutapon wants to defeat, however. In our last wildcard article, we mentioned two distinct types of mid laners. The AD carry position also has two archetypes: the safe and reliable team fight rearguard (like Edward Gaming’s Kim “Deft” Hyuk-kyu and Elements’ Martin “Rekkles” Larsson), and the wild playmaker with a penchant for the flashy (like OMG’s Jian “Uzi” Zi-hao and Counter Logic Gaming’s Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng).
Yutapon certainly falls into the second category, and the Japanese hotshot has already set his sights on some more notable proponents of the aggressive AD carry style. “Out of the North American players, it would be Doublelift. From Korea, it would be Piglet or Imp that I’m working towards as a goal.” It is probably no coincidence that those three players share a love for his signature champion -- Vayne.
Yutapon is living proof that the stereotypes we associate with great AD carries have their basis in reality. As the centerpiece of Japan’s best team, he’s used to winning. But just winning is not enough. “I don’t like to just win in a boring way, so I’m always trying to play in a way that will be enjoyable to watch.” Such is Yutapon’s desire to impress that he has foregone items like Manamune on Ezreal in favor of Brutalizer, all for the sake of avoiding the power troughs in marksman champions that AD carries dread as being “boring.”
Fans may doubt the actual ability of a high-performing AD carry in a fledgling region, but Yutapon is keen to avoid all the problems that come with being a big fish in a small pond. “Of course, we want to win the LJL. But from there, I want to look out to the world. I want to make it to the World Championship, and win at least one or two games...as many as we can.”
It will certainly be a long journey, but for Yutapon, the quest to put Japan on the League of Legends map is simple. “A match is either a win or a loss, isn’t it? I think a loss is 0%, and a win is 100%, so you have to win in order to begin anything.”
The world has never seen a player like Clockday.
He isn’t a freakish mid lane talent like Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok, nor is he a field general like Hai “Hai” Lam. Clockday is instead an entertainer to the core, playing League of Legends to make others (and himself) smile. While other players promised to work hard and spoke of their desire to win, Clockday merely smiled in his pre-LJL interview and said, “Nice to meet you!”
Clockday is one of the most popular LoL streamers in the LJL, currently sitting at over 16,000 subscribers, and he's determined to bring his fans the best experience both on and off the Rift. To this end, he switched from his previous AD carry position on Challenger team TIME OF CLOCK (now known as 7th heaven) to make room for star player Kento “Mueki” Ojima. “I think Mueki is the best AD carry in Japan, even though everyone says it’s FocusMe’s Yutapon. Our team is definitely based around him, I think. I’ll carry too though!”
Clockday’s clownish behavior may influence some fans to disregard his competitive play as auxiliary to his streaming career, but he is no slouch when it comes to the mid lane. Despite their erratic play and seemingly carefree attitude, 7th heaven have already rallied to take a game off Japan’s premier team, DetonatioN FocusMe.
This victory has caused Clockday to adjust his sights and focus a little more on his individual performance as opposed to his role within the team. “The first wall I hit after switching to mid lane was [RabbitFive’s mid laner] Estel...when that happened, I really felt how hard mid lane can be. Because I learned from him, I’ve been able to get as good as I have. I think of him as my rival: the one I need to defeat.”
As difficult as his transition to the mid lane has been, Clockday remains optimistic and is dedicated to carving out his own unique playstyle. “To beat the hell out of my opponent -- that’s the feeling I want to play with. But when I think about the team as a whole, I have complete confidence in my team fighting...even if I’m down 10 or 20 CS, I can bring it back in team fights, and from there, we can go on to win the game.”
It may seem strange to feature Clockday as one of Japan’s players to watch -- he’s not a particularly remarkable mid laner. He does not have the bloodthirst of Kyohei “Ceros” Yoshida, nor does he have the raw talent of Sho “Estel” Takahashi. But what he does have is a magnetic personality, and one of the most unique approaches to League of Legends seen in professional play.
Yuta “Yutapon” Sugiura - DetonatioN FocusMe
In an esports environment dominated largely by fighting games, it comes as little surprise that Japan’s best player is a mechanical genius. DetonatioN FocusMe owe many of their victories to the talented Yutapon (also Yutapron, Yutapongo, and Yutaproid depending on where you know him from), who transferred his Counter-Strike talents to League of Legends and quickly became Japan’s best AD carry.
Yutapon wears his FPS history as a badge of honor, and holds a deep respect for AD carries who came to discover their talents in a similar fashion. That includes his rival Shotaro “Zerost” Ikeda. “RabbitFive’s AD carry Zerost has really strong game sense from his time playing FPS games, so I definitely don’t want to lose to him.”
It isn’t just Zerost that Yutapon wants to defeat, however. In our last wildcard article, we mentioned two distinct types of mid laners. The AD carry position also has two archetypes: the safe and reliable team fight rearguard (like Edward Gaming’s Kim “Deft” Hyuk-kyu and Elements’ Martin “Rekkles” Larsson), and the wild playmaker with a penchant for the flashy (like OMG’s Jian “Uzi” Zi-hao and Counter Logic Gaming’s Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng).
Yutapon certainly falls into the second category, and the Japanese hotshot has already set his sights on some more notable proponents of the aggressive AD carry style. “Out of the North American players, it would be Doublelift. From Korea, it would be Piglet or Imp that I’m working towards as a goal.” It is probably no coincidence that those three players share a love for his signature champion -- Vayne.
Yutapon is living proof that the stereotypes we associate with great AD carries have their basis in reality. As the centerpiece of Japan’s best team, he’s used to winning. But just winning is not enough. “I don’t like to just win in a boring way, so I’m always trying to play in a way that will be enjoyable to watch.” Such is Yutapon’s desire to impress that he has foregone items like Manamune on Ezreal in favor of Brutalizer, all for the sake of avoiding the power troughs in marksman champions that AD carries dread as being “boring.”
Fans may doubt the actual ability of a high-performing AD carry in a fledgling region, but Yutapon is keen to avoid all the problems that come with being a big fish in a small pond. “Of course, we want to win the LJL. But from there, I want to look out to the world. I want to make it to the World Championship, and win at least one or two games...as many as we can.”
It will certainly be a long journey, but for Yutapon, the quest to put Japan on the League of Legends map is simple. “A match is either a win or a loss, isn’t it? I think a loss is 0%, and a win is 100%, so you have to win in order to begin anything.”
Kazuhiro “Clockday” Suzuki - 7th heaven
The world has never seen a player like Clockday.
He isn’t a freakish mid lane talent like Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok, nor is he a field general like Hai “Hai” Lam. Clockday is instead an entertainer to the core, playing League of Legends to make others (and himself) smile. While other players promised to work hard and spoke of their desire to win, Clockday merely smiled in his pre-LJL interview and said, “Nice to meet you!”
Clockday is one of the most popular LoL streamers in the LJL, currently sitting at over 16,000 subscribers, and he's determined to bring his fans the best experience both on and off the Rift. To this end, he switched from his previous AD carry position on Challenger team TIME OF CLOCK (now known as 7th heaven) to make room for star player Kento “Mueki” Ojima. “I think Mueki is the best AD carry in Japan, even though everyone says it’s FocusMe’s Yutapon. Our team is definitely based around him, I think. I’ll carry too though!”
Clockday’s clownish behavior may influence some fans to disregard his competitive play as auxiliary to his streaming career, but he is no slouch when it comes to the mid lane. Despite their erratic play and seemingly carefree attitude, 7th heaven have already rallied to take a game off Japan’s premier team, DetonatioN FocusMe.
This victory has caused Clockday to adjust his sights and focus a little more on his individual performance as opposed to his role within the team. “The first wall I hit after switching to mid lane was [RabbitFive’s mid laner] Estel...when that happened, I really felt how hard mid lane can be. Because I learned from him, I’ve been able to get as good as I have. I think of him as my rival: the one I need to defeat.”
As difficult as his transition to the mid lane has been, Clockday remains optimistic and is dedicated to carving out his own unique playstyle. “To beat the hell out of my opponent -- that’s the feeling I want to play with. But when I think about the team as a whole, I have complete confidence in my team fighting...even if I’m down 10 or 20 CS, I can bring it back in team fights, and from there, we can go on to win the game.”
It may seem strange to feature Clockday as one of Japan’s players to watch -- he’s not a particularly remarkable mid laner. He does not have the bloodthirst of Kyohei “Ceros” Yoshida, nor does he have the raw talent of Sho “Estel” Takahashi. But what he does have is a magnetic personality, and one of the most unique approaches to League of Legends seen in professional play.
