Let’s look back at how Korean kings DRX and T1 formed their current roster and earned their spots as the Pacific representatives at VCT Masters Bangkok.
THAILAND — The 2025 VCT Pacific Kickoff event saw two teams qualify for VCT Masters Bangkok: DRX and T1. While one is a roster filled with young, talented prospects hungry to prove themselves, the second saw a star-studded roster being put together, with some of the most proven talent in Korean VALORANT.
DRX: Young guns stake a claim to the throne
DRX have had a storied history—the roster under Vision Strikers had an infamous 102-0 win streak before coming under the DRX aegis. They qualified for every international event from September 2021 and set new achievements for Pacific VALORANT, netting a top three at Champions Istanbul 2022, a record unbroken until the following year, where Paper Rex placed second at Champions Los Angeles 2023.
However, in 2023, the squad seemed to stagnate, failing to qualify for their first international event since 2021, leading coach termi to make some changes to the original core, some of which caused consternation throughout the community. BeyN was the first new member to join the roster. Next, Rb and Zest were benched at the end of 2023 and Flashback joined the team. Mid-2024, BuZz and stax were also released from the roster and BeyN was benched, with HYUNMIN and free1ng joining instead.
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With the 2025 season commencing, BeyN made a return to the playing five alongside the three newer prospects and MaKo, the sole player remaining from the Vision Strikers days now stepping into an IGL role. While the new DRX was looked upon with some question marks ahead of their 2025 VCT Pacific Kickoff, the new roster looked great in their debut against Ascension-winning roster Nongshim RedForce, with free1ng topping the scoreboard.
This opening game seemed to give DRX the confidence they needed to demonstrate a form unseen since their 2021 VS days, being able to steamroll through the bracket and winning Kickoff without dropping a single series. The entire roster shone in different aspects, with Mako looking confident this year in the IGL role and HYUNMIN absolutely dominating in terms of first kills consistently. They beat the new Pacific superteam T1 to confirm their slot at Masters Bangkok in the upper final and had a rematch against them for the Pacific Kickoff title.
Ahead of the finals, BeYN promised, “I won’t get nervous and all five of us will play well and lift the Championship title.” He and the DRX squad kept their word, by winning Kickoff in a close-run final against fellow Korean squad T1.
After winning Pacific Kickoff, DRX will face off against North American second seed Sentinels on 20th Feb.
T1: Bringing together Pacific’s proven stars
While DRX have historically been one of the most successful Korean teams, T1 have had a lot more ups and downs during their time in Valorant. The roster started off in North America in 2020 before moving regions post their announcement as one of the franchised teams in VCT Pacific. They signed ex-C9 coach autumn and rebuilt the squad with a fully Korean roster, of whom only Carpe is still on the roster.
Over the past two years the team went through multiple roster shuffles, with them qualifying for Champions ’23 but missing out in ‘24, despite T1 signing stax mid-season. After they failed to make Champions in 2024, the team decided to rebuild around stax, iZu, and carpe. They signed Masters winner Meteor, along with BuZz from DRX and ex-Gen.G’s Sylvan returning to tier-one with the squad. With one of Pacific’s first international trophy winners as well as two of the most experienced Korean players in history, T1 was poised to be one of the top contenders ahead of Kickoff.
T1’s debut in the year saw this new roster’s potential shine through in glimpses, with three close wins against last years’ Ascension winners BOOM Esports, Pacific’s most consistent team since 2021: PRX, and the new TALON roster. The team seemed to blossom under stax’s IGLing and they seemed better with each game, until faced with a setback – due to health issues, Sylvan had to sit out their next game against DRX. Despite an early lead, T1 would drop down to the lower bracket after a close loss to DRX and be left with no more chances – they had to win or be eliminated.
Their next game would decide who would take the last qualification spot in Bangkok between them and Gen.G. In a thrilling best-of-five, T1 took an early two-map lead and were one map away from qualifying for Bangkok until Gen.G. decided to lock in and come back with two map wins on their own to push the series to map five. T1 were able to come out on top in map five, with Carpe topping the leaderboard—their very own super-sub ensured T1 were making it to Bangkok.
After qualifying to Bangkok, T1 could breathe a sigh of relief, but their journey wasn’t done yet—they had a chance to avenge their loss against DRX in the grand finals and claim their first trophy as a new roster. However, it was not meant to be—despite a hard-fought five-map series, T1 finished as the runners-up at Pacific Kickoff, with the only team they lost to being DRX.
As the second seed for Pacific, T1 will go up against EMEA Kickoff winners Vitality on 21st Feb.
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Cover photo courtesy of VCT Pacific
