Comeback kings strike again with triumphant 10-1 recovery at Champions 2023

Heading into the second day of playoff matches at VALORANT Champions 2023, fans have seen a lot of one-sided halves leading to one-sided maps. There haven’t been many true comebacks outside of the classic 9-3 curse. But today, a team that’s made waves for near-impossible comebacks before overcame an even worse scenario than the curse.

Down 10-1 on their attacking side on Lotus, DRX won their last attack round and became a brick wall on defense to post a perfect second half, winning 12 rounds in a row to secure the map 13-10 over Bilibili Gaming. For a defense-sided map, a 10-2 half should be a guaranteed victory for any team, no less for BLG, who’s thrived on their underdog nature throughout this tournament. But after winning the pistol round, DRX built up an incredible comeback after going down 10-2.

One of the best comebacks in VCT history came at the hands of DRX over FURIA back in the Champions 2022 group stage just under one year ago. After going into the second half down 9-3, FURIA won three of the next four rounds to secure a 12-4 lead. DRX had to be perfect for the rest of the half to win, and they did just that. Fans to this day are still analyzing that comeback because it looked to be one of a kind.

Now, imagine that same scenario, but with an even worse half. The 9-3 curse is too easy, why not come back from 10-2? All the pressure came down to the pistol round, with DRX needing that win to start their run against a white-hot BLG roster. They secured that round and proceeded to not lose a single other round, with a clutch pre-fire and defuse from Kim “stax” Gu-taek as a main highlight.

BLG seemed mentally defeated, and how couldn’t they be? They were the underdog against a DRX team that even had an unlucky announcement pre-match that someone on their roster wouldn’t be on stage due to COVID. The opportunity was there and BLG earned a 10-1 lead in the tougher half. That should have been a map one win for another potential upset, but DRX are the kings of the comeback. 

Related: VALORANT Champions 2023: Scores, schedule, and standings

DRX even took that momentum into the next map of Haven, winning the first six rounds in a row. For the record, that means DRX won 18 consecutive rounds today after going down 10-1. The half ended 7-5 for DRX, so it didn’t lead to a situation where BLG could turn the tables as hard as DRX did in the previous map. DRX won the second map 13-9 and the series 2-0.

Especially with this series win, future VALORANT fans will remember how DRX managed to do the impossible on Lotus and be truly perfect on defense.