sportstotomen   Album Posted Aug.18th, 2023, viewed 350 times

DRX narrowly misses out on invitational title

Korean team DRX came close to winning the Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) Pacific 2023 Finals, but couldn't cross the threshold and had to settle for runner-up honors.

Riot Games (CEO Hyuk-jin Cho, Korea), the developer and distributor of the 5v5 character-based tactical shooter "VALORANT," announced that DRX finished as runners-up in the VCT Pacific 2023 Finals at Jangchung Gymnasium in Jung-gu, Seoul, on Sunday (Nov. 28) after suffering a reverse sweep loss to Paper Rex (Singapore/Malaysia).

DRX had lost to Paper Rex in a direct-to-final match last week, dropping them to the loser's bracket. In the best-of-five best-of-three series against T1 on Saturday (Nov. 27) at Jangchung Gymnasium, DRX won 3-2 in a full-set thriller to earn a chance to play in the final.

DRX had the fun of playing Kim "Zest" Ki-seok, who has a lot of experience in big games, against T1 on the 27th and continued to use him throughout the 28th.

In Games 1 and 2 against Paper Rex, DRX cruised. In Game 1 on 'Fracture', a killjoy from Yoo 'Buzz' Byeong-cheol and a fade from Kim 'Ki-seok' KIM ended the first half 9-3, and DRX brought the momentum back in Game 3, winning the round 13-6.

In the second set on 'Ascent', DRX continued to build on their momentum with an overtime victory. With both the first and second halves ending in a 6-6 score, DRX took the game into overtime, winning the round 16-14 after the third overtime.

However, DRX couldn't finish the job. After falling 3-13 on 'Lotus', a map they had banned from the regular league, DRX struggled in the fourth set on 'Pearl', allowing Paper Rex to catch up. With the tide turning in favor of Paper Rex, DRX fell behind in the fifth set on the 'Bind' map, dropping the first six rounds and losing 6-13.

For completing the reverse sweep against DRX, Paper Rex was awarded the title of VCT Pacific Inaugural Champions and $100,000 USD. Ilya 'something' Petrov, who was named MVP of the finals, received a jacket, watch and medal courtesy of Ralph Lauren. Runner-up DRX received US$65,000 ($86,000), while T1, who lost to DRX in the semifinals and finished third, received US$40,000 ($53,000).

The inaugural VCT Pacific champions, Paper Rex, runner-up DRX and third-place T1, will compete at Ballantine Masters Tokyo in June in Chiba, Japan, 스포츠토토 and later at Champions in Los Angeles, USA.