Lancers

The Lancers (ランサーズ Ransāzu), short for Lance Defence Soldiers (ランス・ディフェンス・ソルジャーズ Ransu Difensu Sorujāzu), are an organization of Duelists affiliated with the Standard Dimension that were organized by Declan Akaba in order to fight against invaders from other dimensions.

History
Declan used a database of Duelists called the Lancers Selection to narrow down his candidates for inclusion in the group. The Arc League Championship then became a proving ground for the formation of the group. When the top eight Duelists in the tournament's Senior Division were determined, Declan inducted them into the Lancers. Knowing an attack from the Fusion Dimension was coming, Declan dispatched those eight Duelists to confront Obelisk Force when they arrived to capture Selena and interfere in the Battle Royal of the Junior Youth Division. Six members of Obelisk Force were confronted by these eight Duelists, led by Yuu Sakuragi. However, all of them were swiftly taken down except for Yuu, who was saved by Yugo.

According to Declan, the current Lancers lack the strength to combat Duel Academy. Since the discovery of Pendulum Summon, Dueling evolved to a new era, which Declan dubs "Yuya Sakaki's generation". He plans for this new generation to master Pendulum Summon to combat the invaders more efficiently.

When the Battle Royal ended, Declan appeared before the survivors and explained his plan and the overall situation. Yuya, who disagreed with Declan's means of dealing with the invaders, refused to join the Lancers and attempted to attack Declan. Declan suggested they settle it with a Duel instead. Declan won the Duel, and concluded that Yuya was too naive. He maintained his hopes for Yuya, however, and declared that the Lancers would soon travel across Dimensions.

Later, Declan and Henrietta canceled the Arc League Championship to reveal the Lancers' existence to the world as well as their recent victory against the invaders. The Lancers were acclaimed as heroes by the world, and Declan declared that LID would switch all of its efforts to training Duelists to become potential Lancers.



After Yuya's Duel with his mother, he and Gong were called by Leo Corporation. When they arrived, they saw the other Lancers gathered inside. Declan announced that they were having a new member, Reira. Sylvio and Shay were both skeptical about Reira being be a threat to their plans, since he was a child and must always be protected. Declan responded that Reira's ability was almost "equivalent" to the Lancers. Then, after learning that Zuzu was in the Synchro Dimension, Dennis expressed surprise that she survived. Declan also announced that they were going to the Synchro Dimension to make an alliance with it, as that dimension has never been into wars. Declan said that the Lancers' Duel Disks were now modified to be able to travel between dimensions and activate Action Field Spell Cards and Action Cards, which were the strongest weapons against the invaders. The Lancers then left the Standard Dimension with their "Dimension Mover" cards and traveled to the Synchro Dimension.

Upon arriving at the Synchro Dimension the Lancers were split. Yuya, Selena, Sylvio, and Reira were ambushed and almost arrested by Security because they mistook Yuya and Selena for Yugo and Zuzu, respectively. Selena and Sylvio immediately joined the Duels the Security forced them into, despite Yuya's protests that they just got to the Synchro Dimension and that they should run. Sylvio lost and was held in custody by the officers, while Selena won her Duel. In his Duel, Yuya indirectly tipped the Security officers to the use of Action Cards, which frustrated Sylvio, who then clarified the mechanic to them. Before Yuya's Duel could continue, Crow Hogan and a group of Turbo Duelists rescued the Lancers from the Security's clutches. Gong and Dennis attempted to find the others until they ended up Dueling each other and were approached by Gallager. Gallager took them to an underground area where they found Shay Dueling and subsequently defeating Hunter Pace. Shay told his fellow Lancers that he was doing underground Duels so he could recruit more Lancers. Gallager was surprised that Shay knew both Dennis and Gong, so he decided to pair Shay and Dennis up for a Duel, as he had a good feeling about the latter. As Shay was the current champion, he was given a 1000 LP handicap, while Dennis was given the default 4000. Both of them avoided game-ending damage with "Necro Raptors" and "Pinch Breaker", respectively. Meanwhile, Selena grew impatient with Crow's lack of news about Zuzu and Yugo and left the hideout to search for the former, ignoring Yuya's and Crow's warnings. Sylvio decided to accompany her.

Before Shay and Dennis could continue their Duel, their Duel Runners were shut down by Security, causing them to tumble to the ground and be arrested by the Security officers. Gong and the Commons were arrested as well. Elsewhere, Selena Dueled and defeated eight Duelists. Sylvio questioned her actions because searching for Declan and Zuzu was their priority, and she clarified that she was doing this to recruit more Lancers. They returned to Crow's hideout, where they witnessed Yuya and Crow Dueling each other because of an argument involving making Reira happy; Yuya believed that Reira simply had to smile, while Crow believed that Reira having food to eat was enough. Unknown to Sylvio and Selena, Security had followed them to the hideout. Officers sprang out and arrested the Lancers and Crow. Tsukikage arrived at the hideout to rescue Reira, not before making eye contact with Selena.

After a few days at the Facility the Lancers, along with their new ally Chojiro Tokumatsu and Crow's gang attempted a prison break but failed due to Jean-Michel Roger's interference. However the Executive Council appeared, and after an agreement with Declan they had the Lancers join the Friendship Cup to prove their skills and earn their trust.

The first day of the tournament resulted with two losses and one victory for the Lancers. However Tsukikage's loss was intentional, and the Executive Council decided to count Zuzu's victory as a point for the Lancers as she also comes from Standard Dimension, leaving the record as two wins and two losses.

Trivia

 * The Lancers' true meaning, Lance Defence Soldiers is a play on the letters LDS for Leo Duel School.
 * The Lancers program is the first official organization composed of mainly heroes and anti-heroes for the purpose of saving the world as opposed to the usual evil organization trying to take over the world.
 * Two of the current Lancers, Selena and Sylvio were originally not apart of the Battle Royal, but were made Lancers for successfully fending off the Obelisk Force; presumably taking the positions originally intended for Zuzu and Hikage, due to the former warping to the Synchro Dimension with Yugo, and the latter having been defeated by Sora.
 * Additionally, Dennis was accepted into the group despite not helping to fend off the Obelisk Force during the Battle Royal.