DRX win three-map roller coaster against KRÜ Esports

Friday's first match at Champions Seoul was the first-ever meeting between two household names in international play, with DRX DRX Korea Rank #5 Flashback Cho Min-hyuk (조민혁) MaKo Kim Myeong-gwan (김명관) Athan Na Ha-jun (나하준) freeing No Ha-jun (노하준) HYUNMIN Song Hyun-min (송현민) defeating KRÜ Esports KRÜ Esports Latin America South Rank #3 keznit Angelo Mori Mazino Roberto Rivas adverso Benjamín Poblete mta Nicolás González Shyy Fabian Usnayo Melser Marco Eliot Machuca Amaro 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 #3 Sayonara Ștefan Mîtcu stand-in Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder and Bilibili Gaming Bilibili Gaming China Rank #3 B3ar Yang Zhanxiong (杨瞻雄) whzy Wang Haozhe (王昊哲) Levius Lu Yinzhong (卢胤中) rushia Wang Xiaojie (王晓杰) nephh Marcus Tan Knight Liu Yuxiang (刘宇翔) , 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 Foxy9 Jung Jae-sung (정재성) t3xture Kim Na-ra (김나라) Munchkin Byeon Sang-beom (변상범) yoman Chae Young-moon (채영문) 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.

Currently in his second stint with KRÜ Esports after a season with LEVIATÁN LEVIATÁN Latin America South Rank #1 Demon1 Max Mazanov 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.

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.

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.