Raiden Racing: Japan’s Three-Time DCL Champions, Profiled

Raiden Racing won its third Drone Champions League title on ice. The 2025 Super Final, held on December 19 at the Königssee bobsleigh track in Bavaria, was the first DCL race in a bob run. Spain Drone Team arrived leading the standings 27–25, could not field its full roster, and Raiden took the championship.

That makes the Japanese team the most successful active outfit in the league, with titles in 2021, 2022 and 2025, according to the DCL season review.

Raiden Racing at a glance

• Country: Japan
• League: Drone Champions League (DCL)
• DCL titles: 2021, 2022, 2025
• 2024: runner-up to Cyclone Racing
• 2026: fourth in the Falcon Cup; in the Eagle Cup field

How Raiden ended the XBlades era

Raiden arrived billed as the first pro drone racing team out of Japan and spent its early seasons chasing. The breakthrough came in 2021. XBlades, five-time champions, and Raiden went into the final race of the season tied on 1,100 points, per the DCL’s finale report. Raiden won it.

The same season, Raiden’s Evan Desautels won the first DCL Women’s Cup after leading the standings all year.

The 2022 defense

The 2022 title was tighter still. Raiden and XBlades were level on 900 points before the Stavanger finale, and Raiden clinched it on the last Big Heat. The league called it the closest championship in DCL history.

Raiden’s pilots

Raiden is Japanese by license but international by roster. Its line-up for the 2023 Super Final in AlUla, Saudi Arabia:

• David “Longcat” Modig (Sweden), pilot and team manager
• Vicent “THUNDER_FPV” Mayans
• Gabriel “IQ0” Barrasso
• Yuki “YUKI FPV” Hashimoto (Japan)

Hashimoto is the name to know. He is a two-time MultiGP International Open World Cup champion. He finished fourth at the 2026 MultiGP Championship in Texas after a mid-air collision at the start of a final heat, per MultiGP’s report.

Raiden’s results, 2021 to 2026

The 2025 season in detail

Raiden won the 2025 Falcon Cup finals at ADNEC in Abu Dhabi in April, beating Cyclone Racing. Spain Drone Team then won the Eagle and Hawk Cups, beating Raiden in the Hawk Cup final. The title came down to Königssee, where a short-handed Spain Drone Team flew showcase runs and Raiden took the title.

Raiden Racing in 2026

The defending champions started well. In the virtual seeding race on January 19, RDN Shaigne posted 1:18.093, just 0.088 seconds behind Spain Drone Team, to qualify for the live seeding final in Riyadh.

The Falcon Cup was harder. Raiden lost its quarterfinal 19–10 to the DCL Wildcard Team, then went out 16–13 to Cyclone in the rebound round. It finished fourth on 6 points, per the Falcon Cup results. Vexcel Spain Drone Team won the Falcon Cup and then the Eagle Cup, so Raiden has ground to make up. Our DCL guide tracks the standings.

The 2026 Falcon Cup bracket

How the 2026 DCL works

Raiden’s route to a fourth title runs through three Cups. Each starts with ten qualification matches among the six teams in DCL – The Game. Four teams advance to a Finals bracket with a rebound route: lose once and you drop to the Rebound Bracket, lose twice and your Cup is over. Points from the Falcon, Eagle and Hawk Cups feed the season-ending Super Final.

Qualification matches premiere on the DCL YouTube channel every Tuesday and Friday at 18:00 UTC, according to the league’s Eagle Cup schedule. The Eagle Cup Finals premiered on September 20.

Reading Raiden’s form

Raiden’s record suggests a team built for the big night. It won the 2025 title at a live Super Final after Spain Drone Team took two of the three Cups. Its 2026 sim pace is close to the best, and its seeding time was within a tenth of Spain’s. Bracket results have been the weak spot.

The Eagle Cup did not change the picture at the top. Vexcel Spain Drone Team won it to extend its championship lead. That leaves Raiden to chase in the Hawk Cup and the Super Final, the stage where it won last year.

Can you bet on Raiden Racing?

Not legally in the US, as far as we can find. DraftKings’ drone racing deal covered the Drone Racing League, a different series. We found no current sportsbook or prediction market listing DCL races.

If you want to put a view on machine sports or AI outcomes, event contracts are the realistic route. Our prediction markets hub explains the legal platforms state by state. US drone betting sites lists anything currently priced.

Trading event contracts involves risk of loss. Availability varies by state, and several states are challenging prediction markets in court. 21+ for sportsbooks. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER.

For the other teams on the grid, see our drone racing teams hub.