One step from the mountaintop: FocusMe vs. RabbitFive
Riot·3/27/2015, 7:06:07 PM·0 votes·5,171 views
Ten weeks of play comes down to this. On March 28, the League of Legends Japan League (LJL) Season 1 Finals will take place live in Akihabara, Japan between DetonatioN FocusMe and DetonatioN RabbitFive. The sister teams will compete in a Best of 5 series with the highest stakes in Japanese League of Legends history: the victor will represent Japan at the International Wild Card Invitational.
Nearly everyone expected FocusMe to be standing tall in the finals, and many had them pegged as the representative from day one. But RabbitFive, in their debut season, have toppled veterans and newcomers alike to stand alongside them. Now, they have one more mountain to climb.
“We've already taken #1 in Japan. I want to move onto the next step. To the world.”
These words, spoken by FocusMe's mid laner and team captain Kyohei "Ceros" Yoshida in his introductory interview say it all. FocusMe is number one, and it's evident no matter where you look.
They're the champions of LJL 2014 Spring, Summer, and the Grand Championship. They're Japan's first full-time League of Legends team, operating out of a fully-staffed pro gaming house complete with former StarHorn Royal Club CEO Li “eNo” Yande as a coach. Their faces adorn the packaging of Logitech's peripherals in Japanese electronics stores. They appear on morning news shows on Japanese TV. In a country where esports culture still lags behind their Asian neighbors, FocusMe is the closest thing the scene has to superstars. And it's for good reason.
On paper, FocusMe is without a doubt the strongest team in the country. Ceros inspires the kind of fear in his opponents that Bjergsen or Faker are known for. As put by RabbitFive's mid laner Sho “Estel” Takahashi, "He's just really good. Seriously strong. I don't even get it myself. When he solo kills you, you'll be sitting in the train the next morning thinking for two hours straight, 'How'd he solo kill me…?' It really gets to me."
Yuta "Yutapon" Sugiura, the highlight-reel ADC known for taking Exhaust over Heal and inventing his own builds, like the famous Essence Reaver-Ghostblade Ezreal, also brings an intimidating reputation.
Anchored by the league's KDA leader in top laner Keisuke “BonziN” Oda and the calculated ganks from jungler Yuta “Astarore” Hiratsuka, FocusMe’s two carries have all the room they need to let loose on their enemies.
This kind of success invites arrogance, and FocusMe has not been immune: they’ve earned a reputation for getting overconfident and messing around. But since their failed Anivia experiment cost them their second regular season loss to Rascal Jester, they've been all business. With a ticket to the IWCI, and their opportunity to begin chasing the dream of attending Worlds riding on a single Best of 5, you can expect FocusMe to give it everything they've got.
FocusMe got their act together for the latter half of the season, but for the first half, it was their sister team DetonatioN RabbitFive who held the first place spot with an undefeated record until FocusMe handed them their first loss. In RabbitFive's debut season after fighting their way through the 2014 Challenger Tournament, they have firmly established themselves as the second best team in the country. But second best doesn't get you to Turkey.
Right now, FocusMe is almost like a “final boss” in Japanese League: universally feared and considered a cut above the rest. And as LJL caster Kouji “eyes” Mitarai tells it, RabbitFive has its beginnings as a team created with that final boss in its sights.
Formerly a Special Force 2 player, RabbitFive's ADC Shoutarou “Zerost” Ikeda originally wanted to join FocusMe after switching to League of Legends. But feeling like he would never be able to so long as Yutapon was around, he formed a team of his own with surpassing Yutapon as his goal. His passion and potential resonated with FocusMe’s manager Nobuyuki “LGraN” Umezaki, and his team became DetonatioN’s second squad.
This new team took the Challenger scene by storm all throughout 2014, and earned its place in the 2015 LJL. Their rise has only continued from there, and now they're one Best of 5 away from their goal.
The team’s other members, particularly Estel and top laner Yuta “Moyashi” Noguchi, show just as much potential. Estel is in and out of NA Challenger, and Moyashi has proven to be a rock for his team time and again with his tendency to turn around dodgy team fights. Zerost came out of the gate looking like Yutapon's equal, going a combined 23/3/8 in his first two matches, but tunneled on Tristana in the middle of the season and fell into a slump. Finally abandoning the champion for Kalista or Ezreal, he's re-emerged as someone who can be counted on to carry when it counts. “I want to stand out,” he professed at the start of the season, and carrying a Best of 5 against FocusMe on the finals stage would allow him to do just that.
The LJL Season 1 Grand Finals will take place on Saturday, March 28, at 8:00 PM PST. Viewers can attend the finals live at the Belle Salle event hall in Akihabara, or attend a public viewing at e-Sports SQUARE.
The Japanese stream will be on Twitch, and the English stream (featuring Reid “Rapid” Melton and Ryanne “Froskurinn” Mohr) will be on Azubu.
Whoever wins, the first IWCI representative is about to be decided.
From Atop the Summit
“We've already taken #1 in Japan. I want to move onto the next step. To the world.”
These words, spoken by FocusMe's mid laner and team captain Kyohei "Ceros" Yoshida in his introductory interview say it all. FocusMe is number one, and it's evident no matter where you look.
They're the champions of LJL 2014 Spring, Summer, and the Grand Championship. They're Japan's first full-time League of Legends team, operating out of a fully-staffed pro gaming house complete with former StarHorn Royal Club CEO Li “eNo” Yande as a coach. Their faces adorn the packaging of Logitech's peripherals in Japanese electronics stores. They appear on morning news shows on Japanese TV. In a country where esports culture still lags behind their Asian neighbors, FocusMe is the closest thing the scene has to superstars. And it's for good reason.
On paper, FocusMe is without a doubt the strongest team in the country. Ceros inspires the kind of fear in his opponents that Bjergsen or Faker are known for. As put by RabbitFive's mid laner Sho “Estel” Takahashi, "He's just really good. Seriously strong. I don't even get it myself. When he solo kills you, you'll be sitting in the train the next morning thinking for two hours straight, 'How'd he solo kill me…?' It really gets to me."
Yuta "Yutapon" Sugiura, the highlight-reel ADC known for taking Exhaust over Heal and inventing his own builds, like the famous Essence Reaver-Ghostblade Ezreal, also brings an intimidating reputation.
Anchored by the league's KDA leader in top laner Keisuke “BonziN” Oda and the calculated ganks from jungler Yuta “Astarore” Hiratsuka, FocusMe’s two carries have all the room they need to let loose on their enemies.
This kind of success invites arrogance, and FocusMe has not been immune: they’ve earned a reputation for getting overconfident and messing around. But since their failed Anivia experiment cost them their second regular season loss to Rascal Jester, they've been all business. With a ticket to the IWCI, and their opportunity to begin chasing the dream of attending Worlds riding on a single Best of 5, you can expect FocusMe to give it everything they've got.
To Challenge the Sun
FocusMe got their act together for the latter half of the season, but for the first half, it was their sister team DetonatioN RabbitFive who held the first place spot with an undefeated record until FocusMe handed them their first loss. In RabbitFive's debut season after fighting their way through the 2014 Challenger Tournament, they have firmly established themselves as the second best team in the country. But second best doesn't get you to Turkey.
Right now, FocusMe is almost like a “final boss” in Japanese League: universally feared and considered a cut above the rest. And as LJL caster Kouji “eyes” Mitarai tells it, RabbitFive has its beginnings as a team created with that final boss in its sights.
Formerly a Special Force 2 player, RabbitFive's ADC Shoutarou “Zerost” Ikeda originally wanted to join FocusMe after switching to League of Legends. But feeling like he would never be able to so long as Yutapon was around, he formed a team of his own with surpassing Yutapon as his goal. His passion and potential resonated with FocusMe’s manager Nobuyuki “LGraN” Umezaki, and his team became DetonatioN’s second squad.
This new team took the Challenger scene by storm all throughout 2014, and earned its place in the 2015 LJL. Their rise has only continued from there, and now they're one Best of 5 away from their goal.
The team’s other members, particularly Estel and top laner Yuta “Moyashi” Noguchi, show just as much potential. Estel is in and out of NA Challenger, and Moyashi has proven to be a rock for his team time and again with his tendency to turn around dodgy team fights. Zerost came out of the gate looking like Yutapon's equal, going a combined 23/3/8 in his first two matches, but tunneled on Tristana in the middle of the season and fell into a slump. Finally abandoning the champion for Kalista or Ezreal, he's re-emerged as someone who can be counted on to carry when it counts. “I want to stand out,” he professed at the start of the season, and carrying a Best of 5 against FocusMe on the finals stage would allow him to do just that.
The Curtain Rises
The LJL Season 1 Grand Finals will take place on Saturday, March 28, at 8:00 PM PST. Viewers can attend the finals live at the Belle Salle event hall in Akihabara, or attend a public viewing at e-Sports SQUARE.
The Japanese stream will be on Twitch, and the English stream (featuring Reid “Rapid” Melton and Ryanne “Froskurinn” Mohr) will be on Azubu.
Whoever wins, the first IWCI representative is about to be decided.
