drx before this event:
- Champions 2022
- 2022 Masters Copenhagen
- 2022 Masters Reykjavík
- Champions 2021
- 2021 Masters Berlin
= been competing consistently at the pinnacle of Valorant AS A TEAM for 527 days (even excluding the 5 months prior to 2021 berlin, where they had a 100 win streak and we knew they were the best in Korea)
c9 before this event:
- team was made 70 days ago and haven't been able to play any real tourney or event before this game
- Yay is the only player on this team with comparable experience to drx (5 world events)
- vanity = 2 world events
- zellsis, leaf, xeppa = 1 event
= a newly formed team with high mechanical skill but not a lot of time to find an identity and MUCH more importantly they haven't had a chance to compete against other world class teams in ACTUAL matches and find out what works for them before this event
if I showed you these two teams on paper and hid the org and player names, you would all agree drx should stomp c9. this game shouldn't of been close... but it kinda was. c9 stomped map 1, lost 13 7 on map 2, then lost 13 - 2 on map 3. I guess if you looked at the stat lines it would seem really dominant for drx but if you take into account the fact c9 mental boomed on map 3 instead of playing their game and trying to claw back especially on an attacker sided map like icebox, it might of been a lot closer.
conclusion + tldr
C9 has gained extremely valuable experience from a series they weren't supposed to win. This will help them a lot going into the regular season.
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