📝 Ready to make history again: VARREL 2025 World Finals Preview

Japan arrives at the Stockholm World Finals with a single representative, but VARREL possess a competitive identity that only a few teams can match. The Japanese organisation has been at the top of its domestic scene throughout 2025, showing the strength of developing a long-term roster and a cohesive culture that has been in place longer than any other team in Stockholm.

VARREL stand out immediately: their core roster has played together since 2021, the only team on the world stage bringing that level of continuity. Players who have weathered multiple seasons, metas, and competitions together simply know how to come in sync together.

But 2025 has also been a year defined by change. In May, VARREL elevated their ambitions with three new Korean signings: Overwatch veteran Jeong “TOPDRAGON” Seung-yong, support player Kim “Sley” Jae-hwan, and coach Woo “Dae1” Dae-won. The impact was immediate. TOPDRAGON committed fully to integrating into the team, learning Japanese, and gradually taking on significant shotcalling responsibilities, alongside Sley, as he revealed in his interview with OWTV. Rather than replacing the existing system, the new arrivals took it to the next level, giving VARREL the flexibility needed to compete beyond Japan.

In playstyle, VARREL embodies an aggressive approach that has proven very effective domestically. Tank Inoue “KSG” Tomoharu is central to their style, downright oppressive on Winston and Orisa, while flexing to Hazard or Wrecking Ball if need be. VARREL leans heavily toward a double-flex support backline, playing into Sley’s impact on Wuyang while Takashi “Qloud” Umeda's solid consistency on Kiriko. Combined with TOPDRAGON’s leadership and mechanical output, and the deep flexibility of the veteran hitscan Fujikawa “Nico” Daisuke, VARREL’s system is sharp and effective.

The results speak for themselves. Stage 3 of OWCS Japan was nothing short of a domination run: VARREL won every single match, dropping only four maps out of forty-three across the entire stage. They capped it all off by securing the final regional slot for Stockholm by comfortably dispatching Nosebleed Esports in the Japan vs Pacific Road to World Finals and punching their ticket to the world stage with authority.

One unique decision separates VARREL from the rest of the Stockholm contenders: they did not travel to Europe for pre-tournament scrims. As TOPDRAGON explained, there was concern that facing stronger scrim opponents early could hurt team morale rather than help it. So VARREL are instead arriving fresh, choosing to face the reality of international play when it truly matters.

That mentality mirrors what may be the biggest moment in the team’s history: their appearance at the Midseason Championship at the Esports World Cup, where VARREL caused a massive upset against matchup favourites ROC Esports. It marked the first major international result for a Japanese Overwatch team, a landmark achievement that shattered the assumptions of what Japanese rosters could accomplish on the world stage, mirroring Japan’s steadily increasing levels of competitive interest in Overwatch.

Now the challenge is to do it again. The road in Stockholm starts with a mountain, as VARREL open their tournament against Team Falcons, the Midseason Championship winners and one of the most dominant forces in Overwatch. No other team faces a more difficult first draw.

But if VARREL have proven anything this season, it’s that they make their best moments when the world least expects it. And if there is another historic upset waiting to happen in Stockholm, then this is it.