DetonatioN FocusMe vs Team Aze: The Japanese will outplay the Mexicans

The first international LoL tournament kicks off on Tuesday, May 10. The first leg of the Mid-Season Invitational 2022 will pit DetonatioN FocusMe and Team Aze against each other.

The Mid-Season Invitational 2022 is a LAN tournament in the cybersports discipline League of Legends, featuring the winners of the spring splits of 11 separate Riot leagues, with LCL not sending a representative this spring due to the cancellation of the LCL spring split. It was also announced on April 21 that the LPL representative would compete online from China due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and all teams will compete at 35ms to level the playing field. The tournament prize money is $250,000.

DetonatioN FocusMe: Experience will affect team play

DetonatioN FocusMe is a Japanese team. On the eve of 2021, it was announced that Aria had joined the team, replacing a long-time member of the squad under the nickname Ceros. Kazu has also returned to the starting line-up after coaching the team.

The Japanese team won the LJL 2021 spring season. Still, it failed to advance from the group at the MSI 2021 international tournament as DAMWON Gaming and Cloud9 beat the Japanese in Group C. Gaeng returned to the starting line-up for the 2021 LJL summer season. DFM qualified for Worlds 2021, winning another LJL title.

The Japanese played two stages at Worlds 2021 - Play-In and Group. In Group B Play-In, the Japanese squad had a tough meat grinder. It outclassed American stalwart Cloud9, beating them on a time-break and advancing to the group stage directly, without an additional play-off for the Worlds opening stage. In the group stage, this team was clear underdogs and, with the same T1 team (against which they will have to face more than once in the coming week), were unable to show anything.

This season, the team made a couple of point replacements that did not affect the team's performance inside their region - the Japanese once again became the LJL Spring 2022 champions. At MID this stage, the boys should pass, but beyond that... I have little faith in them...

Team Aze: A test run

The Mexicans made it to such an international tournament for the first time in their history. Team Aze is a young team that appeared in 2019 and so far cannot boast anything except victories at LLA Opening 2022.

Notably, the organization is Mexican, but they don't have a single Mexican representative on the LoL team, which is sad because we won't see a surge of emotion at the LAN. Two young Koreans, Lonely and 5Kid, are in the squad. The guys could not achieve anything at home, so they decided to try their luck outside the country.

If we evaluate Team Aze's chances at the Mid-Season Invitational 2022 objectively, they are not. Even that stage would be a miracle to overcome because every team in Group A is a head above this pack.

Expert Betting Tips

DetonatioN FocusMe will win with a handicap (-9.5) for 1.83.

The number of kills won't be high. Therefore, I recommend looking at Total Under 27.5 kills for 1.83.

The map will last less than 31 minutes; the odds on that are 1.91.

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