DRX Stax Talks About ZETA Division’s Strengths Ahead of VCT 2023 Pacific League

The Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) 2023: Pacific League is all set to begin on 25th March and the league had an exciting pre-split, kick-off event on 22nd March called Face Off. The tournament will feature a total prize pool of $250,000 USD along with three slots for both the VCT 2023: Masters Tokyo and Valorant Champions 2023. The ten teams from the APAC [Asia Pacific] region are practicing hard and gearing up for the upcoming VCT 2023 Pacific League which is taking place in Seoul, South Korea. 

Ahead of the tournament, AFK Gaming had the opportunity to pose a question to DRX Kim "stax" Gu-taek during the press conference on the Face Off event. Stax talked about DRX’s opening matchup against Japan’s ZETA Division and some of the team’s strengths.

Stax: “ZETA Division is a proven team”

DRX had an outstanding run at the recently concluded VCT 2023 LOCK//IN tournament in Sao Paulo, Brazil. After defeating BBL Esports and Cloud 9 in the Round of 32 and Round of 16 respectively, DRX saw itself in a comfortable and confident position in the quarterfinals. After winning against Talon Esports with a 2-1 scoreline in the quarterfinals, DRX moved on to the semifinals against home favorites LOUD. 

Admirably, DRX gave LOUD a run for its money on home turf after turning things around and taking the series to match five. Despite a close series that ended up in LOUD’s favor, DRX won the hearts of fans and also proved that it was a top team in the Pacific region.

DRX is one of the three Korean teams present in the Pacific League and will be playing the tournament on home soil. Additionally, the team’s first match is against Japan’s super team ZETA Division.

Answering AFK Gaming, Stax talked about the strengths of ZETA Division and what makes the team a force to be reckoned with. Stax said, “I think ZETA Division’s strengths are their players. They kept the same roster just like us. They have a familiar roster so their team arc is great. They are a proven team from Japan and the players are all individually talented.”

Recently, DRX and ZETA Division faced off in December 2022 during the One Pro Invitational, an offline Japanese show match organized by Riot Games. However, the last time DRX and ZETA Division faced off on the big stage was at VCT 2022 Stage 1 Masters Reykjavik. In the Group Stage of that tournament, DRX won against ZETA with a 2-0 scoreline and ZETA Division bounced back in the Playoffs where it defeated the Korean roster with a 2-1 score in the Lower Bracket Round 2.