I’m sorry but the narrative of DRX this year just makes me tear up even thinking about it.
Every player on this team has their own story. Of course, Deft, the prodigal son finally returning to the top 4 of Worlds teams in what may be his last year ever. Pyosik, who was part of the beloved 2020 DRX roster but constantly targeted by the past DRX coach for misplays and placing the blame of their losses on his shoulders. He’s struggled with his confidence for so long and has finally overcome his self doubt, but in 2020, he was the only member of the roster to stay on DRX for 2021 while all his friends left for “better” teams. Kingen joined in 2021, suffering through the repeated heartbreaks of that season and faltering in his dream of becoming a household name among top laners in the LCK. He was close friends with Zeka who played in the LPL at the time, but he too was struggling. Kingen promised Zeka that if he came back to Korea, they’d go to worlds together, and so Zeka trusted his word. Beryl, a world champion in his own right, brought on to support Deft and bring some experience to this team of “relative” newbies, breathing creativity into their games and bring the stability to balance out Pyosik’s chaos. And then, with a new coach, they struggled to find their groove during the regular season. They lost games they should’ve won, and barely squeaked through to the regional qualifiers after getting knocked out of the playoffs. In back to back best of 5s against teams no one thought they could beat, they went 3-2 to become the LCK’s fourth seed against all odds.
THEN!! They start play ins, beating RNG, against all odds. They make it to the group stage, winning 1/2 games against TES AND the inning the tiebreaker with Rogue to be 1st in their group, something almost nobody expected.
They make it to quarterfinals, meaning all LCK teams qualified, and in an absolutely insane best of 5, BEAT EDG!! LAST YEARS WORLD CHAMPIONS AND DEFT’S OLD TEAM, MAKING THEM THE FIRST LCK 4TH SEED TO EVER MAKE IT TO SEMIFINALS!! And Deft CRIES in the post game interview talking about how thankful he is. And in addition to that, GenG and T1, superstar teams in their own right, both having members of the beloved 2020 DRX roster on them.
Meanwhile, Deft is giving interview after interview about how much he loves the journey towards Finals more than the destination, and saying that everyone has always underestimated his teammates and he truly thinks they are the best players in the world. Meanwhile, Deft and Pyosik will play against their old top laner and mid laner on Sunday. And if they win that, they might play against their old support AND the most famous LoL player in history, Faker, WHO DEFT WENT TO HIGH SCHOOL WITH!!
I don’t know man. If you don’t like DRX I don’t know what’s wrong with you at this point. They make me cry.
