DRX part ways with Rb

DRX DRX Korea Rank #4 Flashback Cho Min-hyuk (조민혁) MaKo Kim Myeong-gwan (김명관) free1ng No Ha-jun (노하준) HYUNMIN Song Hyun-min (송현민) BeYN Kang Ha-bin (강하빈) have announced the departure of founding member Goo "Rb" Sang-min (구상민) from the organization. The announcement comes one month after his initial move to the bench of the starting roster.

Rb signed with the then- Vision Strikers Vision Strikers Inactive stax Kim Gu-taek (김구택) Rb Goo Sang-min (구상민) Zest Kim Ki-seok (김기석) BuZz Yu Byeong-cheol (유병철) MaKo Kim Myeong-gwan (김명관) roster back in June of 2020 as the first Korean organization to enter Valorant. He, alongside the rest of the Korean MVP PK CS:GO roster, all joined VS in an early swap from Counter Strike to Valorant, accompanied by current DRX members Kim "Zest" Ki-seok (김기석) and Kim "stax" Gu-taek (김구택).

Under his three-year-long tenure with the Vision Strikers core, Rb helped bring home an 102-0 undefeated streak, alongside a collective five regional championships and multiple international qualifications, culminating with a top-three finish in Champions 2022.

Leading into the first year of partnerships and the transition to DRX, the team would fail to reach their previous strides throughout the year in comparison to their results from the seasons prior. Despite initial promise and a placement into the top-four in LOCK//IN, the beginning of the Pacific league and onward would spell unfortunate for the Korean side, losing twice against Paper Rex Paper Rex Asia-Pacific Rank #6 mindfreak Aaron Leonhart Jinggg Wang Jing Jie f0rsakeN Jason Susanto d4v41 Khalish Rusyaidee something Ilya Petrov in the VCT Pacific Playoffs for the first time ever to end off placing second in the Pacific. Their regional finish was followed up by an all-time lowest for DRX with a top-eight finish in Masters Tokyo and a familiar top-six finish in Champions 2023. The final event for DRX in 2023, the AfreecaTV VALORANT League, resulted in losses to Sentinels Sentinels North America Rank #3 N4RRATE Marshall Massey bang Sean Bezerra Zellsis Jordan Montemurro zekken Zachary Patrone johnqt Mohamed Amine Ouarid and Paper Rex to be eliminated in the group stage, and spelling the inevitable end of Rb's reign with the organization.

Rb's time away from a team is expected to be short lived, as recent rumors suggest that he will now be set to join Chinese organization Titan Esports Club Titan Esports Club China Rank #19 Haodong Guo Haodong (郭浩东) Dynamite Zhao Zihao (赵梓浩) B1ack Li Songtai (李松泰) Abo Han Bohao (韩博皓) Rb Goo Sang-min (구상민) , one of the eleven teams participating in the inaugural season of VCT China.

DRX DRX Korea Rank #4 Flashback Cho Min-hyuk (조민혁) MaKo Kim Myeong-gwan (김명관) free1ng No Ha-jun (노하준) HYUNMIN Song Hyun-min (송현민) BeYN Kang Ha-bin (강하빈) are now:

Kim "stax" Gu-taek (김구택)
Cho "Flashback" Min-hyuk (조민혁)
Yu "BuZz" Byung-chul (유병철)
Kim "MaKo" Myeong-gwan (김명관)
Jung "Foxy9" Jae-sung (정재성)
Pyeon "termi" Seon-ho (편선호) (Head coach)
Kim "glow" Min-soo (김민수) (Coach)
Kwon "Argency" Soon-woo (권순우) (Coach)

Honestly, I would agree. I wouldn't word it like that though. I would say that changes had to be made to the starting roster. Drxs biggest strength is also their biggest weakness: their set plays gave them consistency and also made them lose late into tournaments. I would say that apart from mako, the rest of the team needed a change. Not because they were bad, but because their predictability in their set plays and their playstyle caused them to hit a ceiling. They tried to change things up but it just didn't work with the team. The two new young players may or may not be the solution, but staying with the same core for the third year in a row wasn't working. We do t know if it was termi, but after what k1ng mentioned about termi, I don't think that's the case. I'm nor saying rb or zest are bad, in fact I think they are really good players. But maybe they weren't fitting well with the new playstyle that termi wanted to try.