The top laner of Japanese League of Legends team “DetonatioN FocusMe” has run away from the team house, accusing his coach of insulting him. The 20-year-old player explained his view of the situation on social media.
DetonatioN FocusMe (DFM) is actually an established name in the Japanese League of Legends scene. However, the organisation is not in a good light right now after its player Haruki “tol2” Shibata fled DFM’s team house.
Top laner flees gaming house
According to a rough translation on the League subreddit and a translation by Twitter user The JesportHub, DFM’s top laner, tol2, was forced to flee DFM’s gaming house “because he felt his life was in danger” after allegedly being threatened by Head Coach Kazuta “Kazu” Suzuki.
https://twitter.com/tol_2_/status/1676925197017059330
The player has claimed that he has been verbally abused by Kazu and the team’s former mid lane coach Kyohei “Ceros” Yoshida since Spring Split 2023. He would also be afraid of the consequences he now faces if he returns to the gaming house. When the player approached management and told them about the abuse, he was reportedly fined by DFM CEO Nobuyuki Umezaki. But that’s not all, as he is also said to have threatened him with being kicked out of the team’s lineup if he spread this information in public.
Is DFM treating his players badly?
Tol2 has said that he had a nervous breakdown during the 2023 Mid Season Invitational in London when DFM was eliminated early from the tournament. In the process, he has said that he felt very alone and that he could only talk to the team’s replacement ADC, Ryo “Milan” Nakamoto, who eventually calmed him down. As he says himself, he had to deal with extreme circumstances that put extreme stress on him and took a toll on his mental health. All this despite DFM being unbeaten in the 2023 Summer Split of the Japanese LJL. Success, unfortunately, is no promise of less stress.
LoL部門内でのハラスメント報告、罰金に関する発言につきまして、当事者3名及び関係者各位へヒアリングを行い事実確認を踏まえた上で、本件に関する経緯と事実についてご報告させていただきます。https://t.co/cwELXtXLGD pic.twitter.com/gjZqU8vIIA
— DetonatioN FocusMe (@team_detonation) July 7, 2023
The organisation has since posted a statement on Twitter about the allegations, saying that there will be an investigation. DFM wants to interview and review all parties involved before they can really say anything about it. Hopefully the organisation will not try to downplay the incident and maybe they will treat their players better in the future.