"It still felt like we had played against that kind of a composition before": DRX stax on PRX's Reyna in VCT 2023: Pacific League Grand Finals

VCT Pacific League, which started on March 25, 2023, wrapped up its 2023 season on June 28, 2023, with a fantastic match between the Korean representatives, DRX, and Singaporean powerhouse, Paper Rex (PRX). The latter won the series 3-2, marking the first ever reverse-sweep victory on an international stage in Valorant.

DRX had faced PRX in Week 4 of the League stage of VCT Pacific League, where the former had come out on top. However, both times that the two teams faced off in the playoffs, the team from Singapore came out on top, breaking their long streak of losses against the Korean Goliaths and declaring themselves the first-ever champions of the Asia-Pacific region.

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DRX stax talks about playing against PRX something's Reyna on Ascent in VCT 2023: Pacific League Grand Finals

Despite a slow start to the tournament, something (wordplay intended) happened to Paper Rex, and they didn't drop a single series in VCT Pacific League after losing to DRX in Week 4. Their playstyle became increasingly eccentric as time passed, and the team started bringing out compositions that opponents (or, for that matter, casters, analysts, or viewers) least expected to see.

Paper Rex first played Reyna on Bind against DRX in the Upper Finals. They had figured out a broken combination with Skye's Guiding Light and Reyna's Leer that left the enemies vulnerable to either getting flashed or putting themselves in a disadvantageous position with broken crosshair placement. They dominated DRX on the map and made their way to the Grand Finals.

In the final showdown between the two, Paper Rex decided to play the Reyna-Skye combination on Ascent as well, which has traditionally been an Initiator-heavy map, where Jett shines as a Duelist. Although they lost the map 14-16, they gave DRX tough competition with this composition that they were playing for the first time in a VCT setting.

When asked to speak about how they felt when they saw PRX's Ascent composition by Sportskeeda Esports in the post-match press conference, DRX's IGL Kim "stax" Gu-taek responded:

"Although I was surprised, it still felt like we had played against that kind of a composition before. And on top of that, we knew that Paper Rex chooses their compositions based on Agents that they are comfortable with, not based on team set plays. Overall, I think that is how we toppled it."

DRX seemed to be able to barely adjust to this surprise composition from Paper Rex on Ascent, but the chaos of the Reyna-pick on Bind once again proved fatal for DRX's calm and collected playstyle. Both teams have locked their Masters Tokyo seats, though, and it will be interesting to see how they match up against each other if they meet there.