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The Play-in stage of Worlds 2022 is coming to a close today on 4th October with four teams fighting for the last two spots at the group stage of the tournament. On 3rd October, fans were treated to two best-of-five (BO5) series: MAD Lions vs Saigon Buffalo (SGB) and DetonatioN FocusMe (DFM) vs LOUD. While MAD Lions won its duel against the Vietnamese squad of SGB, DFM defeated LOUD and eliminated the team from Worlds 2022 in a 3-1 scoreline. However, it was not an easy win for DFM by any means as the team was pushed to its limits by the Brazilian powerhouse.
Notably, this victory is a special one for the League of Legends Japan League (LJL) since it is the first time a Japanese team has won a BO5 on the international stage in the history of League of Legends Esports.
Worlds 2022 Play-in Eliminator: DFM vs LOUD breakdown
The first game of the BO5 saw LOUD take the win against DFM in the longest game of Worlds 2022 yet at 44 minutes and 48 seconds. It was a back-and-forth game where the gold lead swung between the two teams multiple times. Back-to-back Baron and dragon steal by Park “Croc” Jong-hoon helped the team find a solid footing. However, DFM was the first one to break open the opponent base but after Leonardo “Robo” Souza’s Olaf ran down multiple members of DFM, it was an easy win for the Brazilian team.
The second game was not a close one since DFM had a lead over LOUD from the get-go. All kills went into the carries of DFM, helping them snowball the game. DFM had two dragons and a Baron as it pushed into the base of LOUD. However, LOUD fought back and picked up crucial kills to stall the game. The nexus fell for LOUD at 32 minutes as Yuta “Yutapon” Sugiura picked up a quadra kill on Tristana.
Game 3 of the series began on a high note for LOUD but that lasted only until the early game. The LJL squad won a mini-team fight and picked up a gold lead at 14 minutes and that ballooned as the game progressed. Despite securing the infernal dragon soul and the Baron Nashor, LOUD went on to lose the game in under 30 minutes.
The fourth game was a rough one for LOUD as the team faced a huge deficit at 20 minutes and never really bounced back from that. DFM closed out the game in 26 minutes.
Following this victory, DFM will go up against the Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) 2022 champions Royal Never Give UP (RNG). A win against RNG would mean that DFM advances to the group stage of Worlds 2022. Stay updated with the tournament by heading on to Worlds 2022 Play-in: Teams, Groups, Schedule & More.
