Route 1
Run It Back
Reasons why:
- drx is young and has room to improve (2nd youngest at champs and youngest at masters)
- top 3 run with only a couple months of practice of role swap and last minute changes to team comp showcases high potential of the roster
- drx's style is unique and new players may be unable to adjust to drx's coordination, util usage and team synergy
- already high synergy and will be better than most teams straight off the bat
Cons:
- with superteams forming due to franchising, it may be difficult for drx to keep up with the firepower coming from other teams
- same playstyle with same members means more predictability going into next year
Route 2
Roster Change (ie rb gets dropped :( )
Potential player 1: Meteor
Pros:
- biggest jett/chamber carry in east asia
- tier 1 and international experience
- strong operator threat (buzz is slightly inconsistent)
- highest first blood rate in masters 2 2022
- would allow drx to have flexibility in their team comp with buzz (i envision buzz on jett/raze/neon & meteor on chamber on certain maps and meteor on jett & buzz on killjoy on other maps)
- would eliminate the potential firepower advantage that other teams may gain from franchising
Cons
- sometimes overheats/not as disciplined potentially meaning a clash with drx's playstyle
- reliant on buzz learning to flex even more than he already has (filling rb's kayo role)
- adjusting to drx's playstyle could result in a degradation of his own performance and may not be as good as we are thinking it might be
Potential Player 2: suggest
Pros:
- tier 1 and international experience
- would fill rb's role almost perfectly (plays raze, jett, kayo and chamber; no doubt he can learn killjoy given hes demonic on other sentinels, his neon is unknown tho)
- high firepower (was annihilating japan, 1.4 kd 260 acs kayo, 2 kd 320 acs chamber, 1.5 kd 300 acs jett)
- consistent fill player
- carry of nuturn when lakia left on fill agents (2021 but still)
Cons:
- high stats doesnt equate the potential util usage and synergy loss that may occur
- his performance vs international competition is unknown as it has been a long time
Potential Player 3: mika
this is a bit of a weird one as mika has stepped up from the academy roster. it is unknown about drx's plans for him in the future but mika has shown a great performance in the utage season 5 tournament (many tier 1 jp/kr players competed) as a sentinel player with 2 kd 300 acs cypher, 1.6 kd 300 acs chamber and 1.15 kd 205 acs killjoy, thus potentially showing his ability to fill rb's sentinel role. however this is a small sample size and may not be reflective of his performance if he was to face against tier 1 and international competition and his kayo/neon performance is unknown.
Players I would like to see:
Estrella: high firepower on sentinel/controller and is at the same time a duelist main. in general good showing in lcq considering it was his first tier 1 experience and carried ONS on his back some rounds and games. however slightly lackluster on the kayo role and his inexperience has showed in some rounds. would love to see him get trained by drx at least as i believe he is one of the future of korean valorant.
What other players did I miss?