Mid laner Lee “Aria” Ga-eul and Head Coach Yang “Yang” Gwang-pyo have parted ways with DetonatioN FocusMe as both of their contracts expired, the organization announced Tuesday. Both individuals were integral in the team’s international tournament runs in 2021 at the Mid-Season Invitational and the 2021 League of Legends World Championship. Neither Aria or Yang have announced their next move, and DFM have yet to reveal their replacements.
“We thank them for their efforts and wish them all the best in the future,” the team said in the statement, translated by machine translation.
https://twitter.com/teamDFM/status/1460548501679403019?s=20
Aria joined the League of Legends Japan League in 2019 on Crest Gaming Act. The South Korean native played under the tag Luna and did not reach any international competition with CGA. Yang has a similar story in the lead-up to his time on DFM. The South Korean coach started off with Ever8 Winners in Korea, then went to OnlyGame in China and returned to Korea to coach Afreeca Freecs for one year. He then made the exodus to Japan with the LJL squad AXIZ.
Both Aria and Yang joined DFM at the start of 2021 and saw immediate success. DFM were already a regular at international competitions, and 2021 was no different as the squad made both international competitions with ease. DFM placed first in the spring and summer regulars seasons and playoffs with a combined 23-5 record in the regular season. At MSI, Aria and his DetonatioN FocusMe teammates made a splash by performing above expectations, beating Cloud9 and Infinity Esports in the group stage and almost taking a win over DWG KIA.
At Worlds 2021, they topped their group in the play-in stage, going 3-1 and defeating Cloud9 in their tiebreaker matchup. But that is where the Japanese team peaked. They went 0-6 in the main event group stage and were placed in Group B along with semifinalist T1, eventual Worlds 2021 winners Edward Gaming and League Championship Series No. 1 seed 100 Thieves.
