Total Shorty Kills
Road to Copenhagen 2022: Korea
Ominous
07/04/2022
The second VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT) Masters event of the year is upon us. The city of Copenhagen will serve as the battleground to crown the latest VCT champions. The best teams from multiple regions are returning to the global stage, and so is Run It Back’s Road to Masters series. The event features twelve teams hailing from every region in the VCT circuit.
We already looked at the representatives from LATAM and North America. In this article we will dive in and have a look at the sole representatives from Korea. The champions of VCT 2022 S2: Korea – DRX. They have continued their dominance in the region once again as they will be looking to establish themselves on the global stage.
DRX
DRX have been the perennial powerhouse roster in the Korean region of the VCT (formerly named Vision Strikers). Their dominant run in the region dates back to the inception of the game itself. So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they will once again be representing their region at an international LAN.
Their run-up until now has been their best ever heading into an international LAN event. DRX have not dropped a single map this entire split. The roster has won twenty-one maps straight in Stage 2 and has looked simply unstoppable. They have also been pioneering new metas, oftentimes experimenting with new compositions on various maps.
The reign
The reigning champions of Korea are no strangers to winning. In fact, they are yet to lose at VCT Stage 2. There were multiple close maps all through the league. However, it never truly looked like DRX were going to lose. They are yet to drop a map.
Their perfect form was largely driven by their strong fundamentals that the team is known for. They also didn’t shy away from trying out new compositions and creating their own meta. They will be one of the very few teams at the event that have been running multiple compositions on a single map throughout their regional qualifiers.
Their in-game leader, Kim “Zest” Ki-seok, in a recent interview with Run It Back went on to say how desperate their team is to win an international trophy. This will be Zest‘s second international event with DRX in the shot caller role. It is also worth noting that he was one of the highest rated in-game leaders at the previous international LAN in terms of Impact Rating.
The pieces
When we talk about DRX, it is important that we talk about two of their highest rated players in terms of both ACS and Impact Rating. Yu “BuZz” Byung-chul and Kim “MaKo” Myeong-kwan make up the pivotal pieces towards DRX’s success. They were also two of their best performing players at VCT Stage 1: Masters Reykjavík.
BuZz has always been in contention to be one of the best players to come out of the Korean region. MaKo on the other hand, is widely considered to be one of the best controller players in the world. They, alongside Kim “stax” Gu-taek and Goo “Rb” Sang-Min, complete all the pieces of the roster. stax on the flex role is rivaled by none and Rb on agent Neon has looked as good as ever.
DRX have always been a force to be reckoned with. Them being in the group stage will be a major headache for anyone that is placed in their group. The roster lost out to OpTic Gaming and ZETA DIVISION during the previous event in narrow fashion. They will surely be eager to show the world what they missed out on last year.
Statistics and predictions
“I think DRX will play with only counter-strategies in the beginning of the stage, and then in later stages will play with new and diverse strategies. There are various strong teams such as XSET and PRX, but I think DRX can win because none of these teams will be adapt to their style of play.”
– Lee “Xive” Do-hun
“I think DRX can try to win in 2022 VCT Stage 2 Masters Copenhagen. They have systematic tactics, and they have manuals that respond to them even if they deviate from those tactics. However, as tactics-oriented play is the main draw, I think it is necessary to think about the variable play that players do on their own. They also lost to the NA team in the 2021 VALORANT Champions and 2022 VCT Stage 1 Masters Reykjavik. So I think the most important thing for this Masters is whether they can beat the NA team’s counter tactics and physical.”
– Jeong “Raeyeop” Rae-Yeop
MaKo (27%) and stax (26%) both featured among the players with the highest clutches all through the last stage. It is also worth mentioning that four of the five players from DRX are among the top ten going into the event in terms of clutch percentage.
KAST % saw a similar case with the roster recording the highest KAST rating in the region at 79% overall. All five players made up the top five in Korea in terms of KAST rating. BuZz on the other hand, led the team in terms of firepower, leading the charts for statistics such as ACS and ADR. However, statistics, fundamentals, and basic trading of DRX is what makes them a formidable opponent. It is going to be in full display on stage in Copenhagen.
“We finally get to see the likes of XSET and Guild on the international stage. Guild have been put in a tough group but their flexibility is something that I am banking on to help them survive the Group A and make at least top 6. The most interesting tactical matchup in this tournament is going to be if and when Fnatic and DRX go head-to-head. With Zest back in the fold and commandeering his troops, I expect DRX to make a deep run and finally make good on their potential.”
– Abhishek “GodspeedxD” Bajaj
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