Friday's first match at Champions Seoul was the first-ever meeting between two household names in international play, with
DRX
DRX
Korea
Rank #2
Flashback
Cho Min-hyuk (조민혁)
BuZz
Yu Byung-chul (유병철)
MaKo
Kim Myeong-gwan (김명관)
Foxy9
Jung Jae-sung (정재성)
BeYN
Kang Ha-bin (강하빈)
defeating
KRÜ Esports
KRÜ Esports
Latin America South
Rank #3
keznit
Angelo Mori
mta
Nicolás González
Shyy
Fabian Usnayo
Melser
Marco Eliot Machuca Amaro
heat
Olavo Marcelo
2-1 in the opening stage of Group A.
The roller coaster of a three-map series was played out on Haven, Abyss and Bind, with Haven being KRÜ Esports's pick, Abyss being DRX's pick, and Bind being the decider. KRÜ Esports won Haven 13-2, DRX won Abyss 13-6, and DRX won Bind 13-6.
Since the beginning of VCT in 2021 KRÜ Esports has qualified for every Champions event. The same can be said of DRX, when including the Champions event that
Vision Strikers
Vision Strikers
Inactive
stax
Kim Gu-taek (김구택)
Rb
Goo Sang-min (구상민)
Zest
Kim Ki-seok (김기석)
BuZz
Yu Byung-chul (유병철)
MaKo
Kim Myeong-gwan (김명관)
qualified for in 2021 before being acquired by DRX.
DRX advances to the winner's match of Group A, awaiting the winner of
FNATIC
FNATIC
Europe
Rank #2
Boaster
Jake Howlett
Chronicle
Timofey Khromov
Alfajer
Emir Ali Beder
and
Bilibili Gaming
Bilibili Gaming
China
Rank #5
B3ar
Yang Zhanxiong (杨瞻雄)
whzy
Wang Haozhe (王昊哲)
Levius
Lu Yinzhong (卢胤中)
nephh
Marcus Tan
Flex1n
Lo Rui (罗瑞)
Knight
Liu Yuxiang (刘宇翔)
Yosemite
Wang Lei (王磊)
, while KRÜ Esports will take on the losers of that match.
Despite their prestige and reputation, DRX and KRÜ Esports entered Champions Seoul having never played each other and having zero VCT trophies in their rich history. KRÜ's best finish is a semifinal at Champions 2021, while DRX finished third at Champions 2022.
Fans of the Pacific region may remember DRX's dominant showing on Haven against
Gen.G
Gen.G
Korea
Rank #1
Munchkin
Byeon Sang-beom (변상범)
t3xture
Kim Na-ra (김나라)
Meteor
Kim Tae-O (김태오)
Lakia
Kim Jong-min (김종민)
Karon
Kim Won-tae (김원태)
in the Pacific Grand Finals, which saw DRX open up with a 10-2 first half on attack. Against KRÜ Esports, they'd begin on the attack side, but would this time fall victim to a large halftime deficit.
On Haven, a map widely believed to be attack-sided, KRÜ Esports flipped the script, dominating on defense and claiming a 10-2 lead at halftime.
keznit 's Neon found great value, setting the tone early to secure a 5-1 lead for KRU Esports.
KRÜ keznit secures four kills on a C site retake on HavenCurrently in his second stint with KRÜ Esports after a season with
LEVIATÁN
LEVIATÁN
Latin America South
Rank #1
tex
Ian Botsch
kiNgg
Francisco Aravena
aspas
Erick Santos
C0M
Corbin Lee
, keznit finished Haven 18-9 with a 365 ACS, while his in-game leader
Melser
went 22-4 with a 394 ACS on Omen. No DRX player finished with more kills than deaths.
"I think it's fortunate that it was a big loss. It didn't take much for us mentally to recover because of how much of a gap there was with the scoreline," Mako said of the Haven loss. "Going into the second and third maps, we said 'You know what, let's pop their heads, shoot back, and we can win this'.”
DRX did look for heads on map two, which turned out to be a roller coaster of a map.
KRÜ Esports came out with an uncharacteristic comp on DRX's map pick of Abyss, opting for a no-duelist look that showed two controllers, two initiators, and one sentinel.
After shaking off the rust from their last map, DRX appeared to find their footing, despite losing their anti-eco round. Flashback was the standout for the Korean team, finishing with 14 kills in the first half and playing a big part in shutting down one of two attack sites for the opponents. He'd go on to end Abyss with a server-leading 27 kills.
BuZz , playing on Jett, made good use of his operator and utility, gaining crucial information against a comp with two controllers. DRX finished their defense half with an 8-4 lead.
Flashback continued to find success in the attacking half, lurking into the weak side of KRÜ Esports's defense. He'd finish with four first kills, tied for the most in the server on Abyss with BuZz.
DRX's attack half saw them play the post-plant much better than their counterparts, securing a handful of rounds due to bomb detonation.
BeYN secures a buzzer-beating round win to bring DRX to nine.After a long technical pause due to an issue with heat 's computer, DRX didn't miss a beat, returning to close out the map, winning 13-6.
KRÜ Esports seemed underprepared on Valorant's newest map yet.
“It's brand new. It's a time when every team is trying to find their comp,” head coach Atom said following the match. “We wanted to try something different like playing no duelist, and I feel DRX found a way to play better than us and that's why they won.”
Bind, the third and final map of the match, was KRÜ Esports's permaban for much of the 2024 season, but they opted to float it, choosing to ban Ascent and Icebox, two of DRX's stronger maps. Both teams came out with an identical composition, consisting of Brimstone, Gekko, Viper, Fade, and Raze.
With DRX seizing the momentum, they'd come crashing out of the gates on Bind, winning the first four rounds en route to a 9-3 first half.
The Korean team found comfort in the rounds becoming much slower, allowing themselves to make use of multi-faceted retakes. They countered KRÜ Esports's contact-up approach with the right amount of aggression through the short lanes of A and B, while Flashback again caused problems on the flank.
Flashback finished with the most kills in the match with 51.
Happy with the pace of their defensive half, DRX had the freedom to control the pace of their attack half.
A round 17 win to give KRÜ Esports their sixth round of the match seemed to indicate the early makings of a comeback, but a crucial Thrash from Foxy9 's Gekko would put a dent in KRÜ Esports's five-man retake, securing the first of two straight rounds to secure the match for DRX.
DRX Foxy9's Thrash shuts down the five-man KRÜ Esports retake.KRÜ Esports, in their fourth straight Champions event, is now one loss away from being eliminated in the group stages for a third straight time. They've been chasing the high of their 2021 semifinal finish, and must beat the loser of FNATIC and BiliBili Gaming for a chance at survival.