League of Legends LJL Spring Split Odds & Betting Preview

• The LJL Spring Split gets underway on February 8th
• Detonation FocusMe dominated the LJL in 2019 but they’ll have some tough opponents in 2020
• Despite being the only LJL representatives at Worlds, they were unable to make it to the main event

A little late to the party, Japan’s League of Legends league begins its spring season on February 8th. The LJL isn’t considered one of the major regions in competitive League of Legends and has yet to prove that they can compete with the best teams from North America, Europe, China and Korea.

LJL 2020 Spring Split Odds

Odds taken Feb. 3.

Japan’s Finest – Detonation FocusMe

The best of the bunch in the LJL is DetonationFocusMe. Last year, they represented the LJL at Worlds 2019. DFM had to qualify for the Main Event through the Play-In Stage but they only won a single game and finished last in their group.

Although their Worlds performance left a lot to be desired, they were top dogs in their own region. In the 2019 summer season, they finished in a tie for first with a 17-4 record. That put them straight into the finals of the summer playoffs, where they beat V3 Esports 3-1. There’s no reason for this roster to take a step back. They’re returning the exact same starting line-up featuring guys like Ceros, Evi and Yutapon. Even though there isn’t much value there, Detonation FocusMe has won three straight LJL titles and a fourth wouldn’t be at all surprising.

Crest Gaming Act

Their biggest competition in 2019 was Crest Gaming Act. They also had a 17-4 record in the regular season but then were ousted by V3 Esports in the semifinals. 

Ever since Crest Gaming Act qualified for the LJL back in 2018, they’ve slowly been improving. Although their win totals have improved, in back-to-back seasons they faced early elimination in the playoffs. Despite all of their regular season success, none of it has translated to postseason results just yet.

Ahead of the 2020 season, Crest Gaming Act made a couple of changes to their roster including bringing in Korean AD Carry, Gango. There’s not too much information on these players so it’s hard to predict how the new team will fare. Expect a top three finish out of them with a decent shot at making the finals. 

Sengoku is the Team to Watch

Sengoku Gaming is a very interesting team to keep an eye on. They’ve put together a roster that contains some proven commodities from Korea. Blank is certainly past his prime but he’s been on some incredible teams in the past, including SKT for a number of years. They also added Pirean who has spent time in NA, EU and Korea. Now he’s off to Japan where he’s on a competitive roster in the LJL. They’re a bit of an unknown but they could certainly overtake Detonation FocusMe with the talent they’ve acquired.

Last Year’s Finalists

Another team in the conversation is V3 Esports. Their regular season record wasn’t quite as good Crest or Detonation FocusMe, but it was enough to finish third in the 2019 summer regular season. From there, they took down Crest in the semifinals before taking only a single game against DFM in the finals. 

Like Crest Gaming Act, V3 also made some off-season roster moves to try and combat DFM. Only two members of last year’s team remained in 2020. V3 added a couple of Korean players including Bugi who played with the Flash Wolves last year.

Picks: To Win – Sengoku Gaming (+150)

To Reach the Finals – Detonation FocusMe (-700) & Sengoku Gaming (-400)

To Make Playoffs – The Top 6 teams as listed