Kim “stax” Gu-taek has been removed from DRX’s starting lineup and is now open to offers from other teams.
SOUTH KOREA – DRX have decided to place longtime member and in-game leader Kim “stax” Gu-taek on the bench, the Korean organization has announced.
“After a careful and lengthy consideration, DRX has made the difficult decision to place stax from the starting roster to the bench status effective immediately,” the announcement reads. “stax will remain a part of DRX as we head into Stage 2, but is granted permission to seek new opportunities as a restricted free agent.”
stax became a founding member of the Vision Strikers core when they formed in June 2020, transitioning from Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. With an impressive streak of 103 consecutive wins during the first year of VALORANT, stax emerged as one of the most successful players to ever play the game.
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However, the Korean powerhouse has struggled to maintain their status as Pacific representatives on the international stage this year, failing to qualify for the international events this year in Madrid and Shanghai. The 24-year-old benching puts an end to a 47-month partnership during which the DRX VS team made eight international appearances and won countless domestic Korean trophies.
DRX clinched a 3rd-4th place finish at KICKOFF and missed out on qualifying for the year’s first Masters tournament after losing to Gen.G in the qualification match. And despite their flawless 5-0 record in the Regular Season of Stage 1, losses to Paper Rex and Gen.G in the playoffs led to a fourth-place exit.
With just about a month since the introduction of the new composition featuring Kang “BeYN” Ha-bin in place of Cho “Flashback” Min-hyuk, DRX have decided to make changes in anticipation of the upcoming world championship, which will be hosted on their home turf in Seoul.
The team’s next appearance will be at VCT Pacific Stage 2, where they are set to face Japan’s ZETA DIVISION on June 15. It remains unknown who will be filling stax’s position.
With stax out of the active roster, DRX are down to the following players:
- 🇰🇷 Yu “BuZz” Byung-chul
- 🇰🇷 Kim “MaKo” Myeong-kwan
- 🇰🇷 Jung “Foxy9” Jae-sung
- 🇰🇷 Kang “BeYN” Ha-bin
- 🇰🇷 Cho “Flashback” Min-hyuk (Reserve)
- 🇰🇷 Kim “stax” Gu-taek (Inactive -RFA)
- 🇰🇷 Pyeon “termi” Seon-ho (Head coach)
- 🇰🇷 Kim “glow” Min-soo (Coach)
- 🇰🇷 Kwon “Argency” Soon-woo (Coach)
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Cover photo courtesy of Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games
