In some ways, 2023 was a hallmark year for the Japanese VALORANT scene, with record viewership coming from the country and the sole VCT Masters event of the year taking place in Tokyo. But on the other hand, it wasn’t, as one of Japan’s VCT Pacific teams “achieved” the ultimate low point.
DetonatioN FocusMe finished their 2023 campaign without a single series victory, losing all nine of their matches during the Pacific league regular season, and losing both opening round matches at VCT LOCK//IN and the Pacific LCQ. Across those 11 matches, the team only won two maps: 13-4 on Fracture versus Gen.G, and 13-9 on Split versus T1.
As a standard bearer for the Japanese scene, DFM has fallen far short of expectations. According to their VLR match history, the last time a DFM team won a best-of-three series was May 2022, in the Japan Challengers open qualifiers.
As one could imagine, they’re the only team to go winless in VCT this year. KRÜ Esports from Latin America was in danger of doing the same, having lost their only match at LOCK//IN before going 0-9 during VCT Americas. However, they rallied in the Americas LCQ, winning three straight matches at time of writing, and are now just two wins away from reaching Champions.
But all is not lost for DFM: going winless doesn’t mean you’re bad forever, and someone can always come along and set a worse standard. One of most prolific turnarounds in esports history is the Shanghai Dragons going 0-40 in the inaugural Overwatch League season, but winning the OWL 2021 finals just three years later. And as KRÜ is showing now, even a winless season can give way to a magical run at the LCQ later on.
In 2024 though, it’s possible someone could put on an even worse losing streak. Next season, the VCT leagues will revert to their two-split format, which means more games to play. Hypothetically, a team could put together an even worse losing streak, but more games also means more opportunities to break that streak with a win.
Still, a massive rebuild is needed for DFM, who only seemed to get less competitive as the season progressed. Between Japan Challengers teams like SCARZ, FENNEL, and Crazy Raccoon, there are plenty of players to choose from, so don’t be surprised if DetonatioN FocusMe comes back in 2024 with a completely new group of players.
