With Bleed Esports, Zest will make his return to VCT Pacific, while Retla will see some familiar faces under a familiar banner in his new endeavor.
SINGAPORE – Bleed Esports have officially confirmed the signing of Kim “Zest” Gi-seok and the return of Jorell “Retla” Teo for the upcoming VCT Pacific Stage 1. The two players will step into the shoes of in-game leader Công Anh “crazyguy” Ngô and their most recent recruit Javier “Egoist” Chua.
Questions regarding the team’s future surfaced last week following the confirmation from the Bleed Esports organization’s owner and founder about an impending roster change before their upcoming campaign in Seoul.
Zest brings a wealth of tier-one experience, having participated in six international tournaments and reaching a high of second runners-up at VALORANT Champions Istanbul 2022. Regarded as one of the most accomplished players in the game, he played an important role in shaping Vision Strikers’ legacy, contributing to an impressive streak of 103 consecutive wins during the inaugural year of VALORANT.
ALSO READ: Bleed Esports bench crazyguy; part ways with Egoist
The departure of Zest from DRX follows the team’s struggle to replicate past international showings, where a 7-8th finish at VALORANT Masters Tokyo contributed to the slip down in rankings. DRX showed some encouraging signs at Champions Los Angeles, in which they took a map off of EMEA powerhouse FNATIC in a dominating fashion before Rb and Zest were absent in the following two OFF//SEASON tournaments.
Despite having cemented his status as the most sought-after talent in the Pacific following his DRX exit, the Korean player found himself back in the tier-two scene with Team IAM. Nevertheless, Zest’s time with the team was cut short, as the official announcement of his departure surfaced after only two matches in the main event which strongly hinted at his imminent move to BLEED, particularly coinciding with the same day BLEED’s reveal of an impending change.
And instead of picking up a new player, Bleed Esports made the decision to bring back their former player Retla to complete the overhauled roster. Retla will join forces with familiar faces from BLEED’s pre-partnered era roster, including Derrick “Deryeon” Yee and Natchaphon “sScary” Matarat, before he was replaced by Wong “JayH” Jia Heng two months later following the latter’s arrival.
While under BLEED’s banner, Retla played a role in winning the TEC Challenger Series 9 and the Skyesports SEA Championship and achieving a respectable 3rd place finish in the 2022 VCT APAC Last Chance Qualifier. The new Bleed Esports roster will debut in VCT Pacific Stage 1, which will take place from April 6 through May 12.
With these changes, Bleed Esports are now:
- 🇸🇬 Derrick “Deryeon” Yee
- 🇹🇭 Nutchaphon “sScary” Matarat
- 🇺🇸 Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker
- 🇰🇷 Kim “Zest” Gi-seok
- 🇸🇬 Jorell “Retla” Teo
- 🇩🇪 Nikola “LEGIJA” Ninić (Head coach)
- 🇸🇬 Sushant “Ominous” Jha (Analyst)
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Cover photo courtesy of Bleed Esports
