The second week (or Round as they call it) of LJL played out a little less exciting than the games last week, but they were more important in terms of fleshing out team standings and where their strengths and weaknesses are at. It’s also interesting to track the draft pick trends from Japan compared to other regions as time goes on.

Round 2, Set 1: Rampage vs Crooz Rascal Jester

Two of the oldest teams start the week off locking horns for the potential second place spot in Japan. DetonatioN has done nothing but prove how dominant they are so the rest of Japan will be looking at the others as stepping stones to reading DetonatioN’s power and hopefully surpass them. If there were any words to describe the set as a whole it’d be a cautionary fencing match. Rampage  makes the most moves during the slow tempos of the early game -- and even though Rascal Jester takes advantage of some poorly coordinated tower dives in this set, Rampage has a much better understanding of the map.

Rampage seems like the kind of team that gets really overeager with how they approach fights, but they haven’t built a level of trust or communication amongst each other, at least for the beginning of these games. When the game starts to get rolling, they seem to solidify their play, which is not a problem at that point, but if teams identify how to dismantle them from the beginning, that can be key to overthrowing them as the season goes on.

Rascal Jester showed some really interesting ideas in this series. While other regions have been prioritizing the use of Poppy top and jungle, Rascal Jester used support Poppy in an interesting strategy that, if they used to better effectiveness, could have helped them get back into the game. Rascal Jesters' Corn used Poppy’s Keeper’s Verdict to push enemies off the tower and back towards their base, giving them an easy time sieging turrets. Even so, Rascal Jester just doesn’t match up to Rampage right now in all areas other than creativity (even bringing out the top lane Quinn) and lose 0-2.

Round 2, Set 2: DetonatioN vs 7th Heaven 

Last year, 7th Heaven was a force to be reckoned with until they lost three of their stars to Unsold Stuff Gaming. This year, they made a statement by beating USG into the ground last week. 7th Heaven will persevere without them. But this week? They got destroyed by the reigning Warlords of Japan, DetonatioN Focus Me. What better way for DFM to prove their dominance with a clean sweep and a perfect game against 7th?

The Emperors, the Warlords, whatever historical allegory they can be compared to -- they reign supreme.

Round 2, Set 3:  Blackeye vs Unsold Stuff Gaming

BE and USG are the two challenger teams joining the rest of the LJL, but USG with three out of five of last year’s 7th Heaven roster being on it can be considered veterans nonetheless, leaving BE as the true rookie team of Japan. BE’s defeat marks the second week in a row in terms of similarity. In nearly identical ways of losing, BE does not understand the meta or the map compared to the other LJL teams -- because even though they fight just as hard if not harder than the other teams, they will still lose gold across the map. They know how to fight. They can come out even if they’re behind in gold around map objectives, but they don’t know how to gain leads or secure them.

That said, their loss can also be chalked up to CLOCKDAY’s impressive plays on Lissandra and in general. The former star-midlaner of 7th Heaven brought out his true namesake to the midlane. CLOCKDAY locked in the Chronokeeper himself, Zilean. Zilean mid was seen earlier this year in week 1 of the LMS by ahq’s Chawy. Zilean is an interesting mid with the recent changes to his kit. He has yet to reach the big stages of the main regions for competitive play, but his strengths should be noted. Without getting into anything overly specific, Zilean fills a similar role to Lulu in the team composition as he contains both crowd control and utility with his ultimate, keeping teammates alive longer in flexible situations. Lulu, however, is easier to use and has been in the meta longer. It will be interesting to track his potential usage in future games in any region. LJL, in particular, has shown an understanding of the champion's strengths.

That said, Blackeye shows a lot of promise in their team synergy, but they have no future unless they learn to live by playing the map and stop relying on winning teamfights to get ahead. But, it’s only week 2. The real test for them is whether or not they grow by the end.

Steven Nguyen specializes in LJL, also dabbling in North American content. Connect with him on Twitter at @StevenNoogs.

Images courtesy off LJL and gifs created off the official LJL stream.