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Yutapon

Name: Yuta Sugiura
Birthday: September 10, 1996
Role: bot laner

Yutapon has been with DFM since the very beginning, even before DetonatioN Gaming acquired the small team, FocusMe. It was 2013 April when they began operating as DFM and they immediately started winning tournaments the same year. Yutapon is the second longest standing player in the same organization (celebrating his 10th year with DFM in 2023) only behind Faker with just a few months. He played both top lane and bot lane professionally (even had to play as support for two games). Before the opening of the Japanese server, he was Challenger in NA since S3 (top 50 back then) and he’s notably not just good in League of Legends. He truly is a gaming god, reaching Radiant in Valorant, Global Elite in CS:GO, and used to be the highest ranked Japanese player on the Asian Overwatch server.
He’s best friends with Ceros, who while retired as a player, he’s still with DFM as a coach. They often play together, and to show just how much of a gaming god Yutapon is, they accidentally found speedrunning strategies while playing in queue.
He’s well known inside and outside Japan, and his unique style of humor makes him one of the most beloved members of the Japanese esports scene.

Running storylines with Yutapon

Yutapon and Coach Ceros are DFM’s biggest trolls. Yutapon being a veteran gamer (even though he’s only 26), he often uses older references and memes. His profile picture on social media, is the now removed item (since 2014), Sword of the Divine, because he liked to built it with 4 Infinity Edges on Malphite, and killing enemies in 3 auto attacks.

He has been with DFM since the very beginning, which also means he got his 15th title this Spring. With that, he tied the previous record holder, the legendary Mexican player, Seiya, as the player with the most domestic titles.

He’s often made fun by overseas fans because of his sitting posture, but that comes from his FPS background. As mentioned above too, he was Radiant in Valorant, Global Elite in CS:GO, and used to be the highest ranked Japanese player on the Asian Overwatch server. He’s naturally good in FPS games, and sometimes jokes about, that if it wasn’t for League, he would play Valorant for DFM.

Yutapon was playing on the NA server since Season 3, and because of that, he has fond memories about the NA LCS from that time. During Worlds 2021, he chose the name “CLG Chauster” on the EUW server, and convinced his old lane partner, Gaeng, to choose “CLG Elementz”.

Not many people know, but Yutapon wasn’t always a bot laner. He started his career as one, but for a few splits here and there he also played top. Out of his 15 titles, 2 were as a top laner! And maybe even less people know, that this season alone he wasn’t just playing bot lane. On February 25, DFM was about to face FENNEL, when viewers got sudden news, that due to Harp’s bad condition, there will be roster changes. Milan, DFM’s sub bot laner, had to be subbed in, and instead of Harp, Yutapon was playing support for 2 games. After the score being 1-1, we got great news though, Harp had neck pain, but after visiting the hospital and taking painkillers, he was feeling better and was able to play Game 3. DFM ended up winning that match with the usual roster in the end. This sparked numerous memes in the community about Yutapon filling in for all roles, and DFM analyst Gismo keeping a checklist of Yutapon’s played roles.

Another new meme that started this year with Yutapon, is the “cat ear Yutapon”. During his interviews, the camera was at such an angle, that he looked like having cat ears, and fans couldn’t stop spamming “cat ear Yutapon” (猫耳ゆたぽん) or “Cute-pon” (かわぽん) in the chat.

After the Finals, Yutapon started streaming more in his break. He often likes to experiment with “more fun” picks, recently picking up his new signature champion, the AD LeBlanc Top. He even changed his name on the Japanese server from “top alistar main” to “top adlb main”.

Featured content with Yutapon in 2023