The South Korean giants DRX have announced a major Valorant roster overhaul as two players from its core five from the past two years are now restricted free agents.
DRX has had one of the most stable rosters in Valorant esports history. Since the squad’s rebrand from Vision Strikers to DRX, the roster of Kim ‘stax’ Gu-taek, Goo ‘Rb’ Sang-min, Kim ‘Zest’ Gi-seok, Byung-chul ‘BuZz’ Yu and Kim ‘MaKo’ Myeong-kwan has largely remained the starting lineup.
DRX added Jung ‘Foxy9’ Jae-sung during the 2022 off-season, but have used him sparingly as a substitute player. He has seen some major action, like at Masters Tokyo and in the VCT Pacfic 2023 Playoff Grand Finals, but hasn’t gotten time to thrive in the starting lineup consistently across 2023.
With this roster, DRX has managed to fight for domestic and international trophies, but have not been able to win a title. The closest this squad ever came to a major Valorant esports title was at Valorant Champions 2022, where they placed third after losing to OpTic Gaming 3-2.
It seems that DRX has reached its ceiling with this lineup and is ready for a change as the organization announced the benching of two players on December 12.
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DRX makes major changes to Valorant lineup
The organization announced that both Zest and Rb will move to the reserve roster and are now restricted free agents moving forward this off-season. DRX has called up its academy player Cho ‘Flashback’ Min-hyuk and will presumably make Foxy9 a starting player on its main squad.
Today DRX VALORANT would like to announce the transition of @Rbvlrt & @Zestvlrt from the starting roster to the reserve roster as Restricted Free Agents.For any inquiries, please reach us at contact@visionstrikers.net금일 DRX 발로란트의 'Rb' 구상민 선수 & 'Zest' 김기석 선수가… pic.twitter.com/4JNW5audwe
— DRX VS (@DRX_VS) December 12, 2023
DRX signed Flashback to DRX Prodigies in August and have been inserting him into the main lineup throughout the off-season. The VCT Pacific team played in three off-season events after Valorant Champions 2023 and has been experimenting with the lineup during those competitions.
Scouted. Developed. Called Up. pic.twitter.com/4Q8Z7nVSab
— DRX VS (@DRX_VS) December 12, 2023
The organization did not specify what roles Foxy9 or Flashback will be playing with on the starting lineup. However, Foxy9 has shown to mainly be a Duelist entry player when he subbed in for the team, and Flashback has mostly played Sentinels and Viper in his short career so far.
The off-season period is about to come to a close as most rosters have been finalized ahead of the new year. If Rb and Zest manage to find a new team before the VCT season starts, it will most likely be with a team outside of the VCT leagues.