From Japan’s No.1 to the World’s No.1: Popular Pro Gamer Evi Becomes the First Japanese to Tackle the Overseas Barriers of e-Sports

He said, “I am I am confident that I can do well. Right now, I am looking forward to testing my abilities against strong players who are hard to play against in Japan.

Shunsuke Murase, 27, a.k.a. Evi, who was a member of the Japanese pro-gaming group DetonatioN FocusMe (DFM) until November, has now joined the European pro-gaming team Team Heretics. Now his “unprecedented challenge” is attracting the attention of e-sports.

DFM is a professional gaming team for “League of Legends,” a five-on-five team competition. There are currently eight teams in Japan, but DFM has won the league championship four times in a row, and it is no exaggeration to say that they are a formidable force to be reckoned with in Japan.

Evi is a key member of this powerful team. His ability is recognized around the world, and at the recent World Championships, Evi’s super play was chosen as one of the top 10 plays during the qualifying rounds of the tournament that decided the team’s victory.

Evi’s pre-game thumbs-up gesture has become a popular tradition at world tournaments, making him a household name in the e-sports industry.

Evi sent out the following tweet on November 13 last year.

＜Hello everyone, Evi here.
I am considering signing a contract with an overseas team next season.
I’m going to challenge myself and see how far I can go.

Evi’s sudden announcement of his overseas challenge sent tremors through the Japanese e-sports industry.

League of Legends” leagues are located all over the world, with the “Major Region” leagues in Korea, China, Europe, and North America said to be the strongest of all. Since a team can basically use up to two “overseas players” among its five members, transfers to other countries have become commonplace in Major Region leagues. However, due to the high level of the overseas leagues, until now there have been no Japanese players of the caliber that could be recruited by overseas teams.

Evi is taking on such a challenge.

One of the catalysts was the League of Legends World Tournament held in September, where DFM took one of the first three games against a Chinese team that was considered a favorite to win the tournament. Although they ultimately lost to the Chinese team, this “accomplishment” attracted worldwide attention, and Evi’s ability to help them win was recognized and opened the door to the world.

Since the start of his pro-gaming career in 2014, Evi has been the No. 1 player in Japan and a target for many players, in fact, he is rumored to be the highest paid pro-gamer in Japan.

Evi explains why he wants to play in a foreign league, even if it means a lower salary.

I want my life as a professional gamer to be one where I keep trying new things. If I continue to play for this team (DFM), I think I can win another championship and finish my career as a top pro in Japan.

Still, I want to test my abilities in an overseas league. I wanted to take on a bigger challenge. To be honest, for the past few years, there were no players in Japan that I could consider my rivals. In such a situation, every time I competed with strong players overseas, I got a great stimulation. I want to get that kind of stimulation and develop myself even more.”

Evi’s determination is genuine. In addition to raising the level of his game play, he is also actively challenging the “language barrier,” which until now has been a major barrier for top Japanese players to challenge themselves overseas.

League of Legends is a team game, so if you don’t speak the language, no matter how good you are individually, you won’t be able to win the game. If you are serious about playing overseas, English is a must. Even if you are not able to communicate perfectly in everyday life, at the very least you must be able to do so by January, the start of next year’s season, to a level that will not hinder you in the game. Of course, being bad at the game is a big problem, so it’s really hard to balance studying English and practicing the game at the same time.”

As mentioned above, Evi is the first Japanese player in the League of Legends to challenge himself overseas, and there is no doubt that the future of the players will depend on this challenge for Evi.

Nevertheless, as Evi said in his opening line, he has always exceeded the expectations of his fans by playing better than expected in critical situations where the pressure is on.

As more and more Japanese athletes, such as Shohei Ohtani and Naomi Osaka, are playing well overseas, we hope that one day Japanese athletes will make a name for themselves in the genre of e-sports as well.