Korean powerhouse DRX went into Valorant Champions 2022 with a slightly different look.
Kim “stax” Gu-taek is back in the role of in-game leader, taking over from Kim “Zest” Gi-seok. At the same time, Yu “BuZz” Byung-chul has returned to his signature Jett, while Goo “Rb” Sang-min takes over the sentinel role.
Those changes are a callback to an earlier iteration of DRX, but they seem to have paid off. The Korean squad went 6-0 in maps in Istanbul, before finally falling to a red-hot LOUD.
In a post-match press conference, head coach Pyeon “termi” Seon-ho explained the thinking behind the role changes and why they had made them.
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DRX switched roles around ahead of Champions
“There are some big differences between the in-game leadership style of Zest and stax,” said termi. “I think stax is much more capable in the sense that he is able to make decisions very quickly.”
“So in this tournament, we wanted to go with stax because we felt we would need that quality more and more in the games.”
On the other hand, BuZz took up the duelist mantle again because of his playmaking ability. “We wanted to add some explosiveness in the front side of the team,” he said. “We wanted an entry fragger who can find multiple kills when entering a site.”
BuZz has so far been one of the best entry players at Champions. He has found a total of 48 first kills, topping the leaderboard with 0.24 first kills per round.
While the 19-year-old had a relatively quiet game against LOUD, he has proven to be deadly on Jett. When BuZz is popping off, DRX look absolutely unstoppable.
The Korean juggernauts will face their next opponent in Fnatic on September 13 at 10:00 p.m. GMT+8 | 7:00 a.m. PT | 2:00 p.m. GMT. The match will be broadcast live on the official Valorant Twitch and YouTube channels.
They will need to overcome a fraught history on LAN this year, where they exited in 5th to 6th place at both Masters Reykjavik and Copenhagen. DRX have never won an elimination match, and they will be looking to finally break that curse once and for all.
If stax has his way, this will be the tournament where that changes. “As long as I am the IGL, I will make sure we don’t finish fifth or sixth,” he said during the post-match press conference.
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