ZETA DIVISION’s magical playoff run at VCT Masters Reykjavík isn’t over yet. They defeated the top VALORANT team out of Korea in DRX today in the lower bracket after a 2-1 series, punctuated by a blowout performance on Split.
DRX looked to make an early statement on Icebox, but ZETA got off to a strong start with some decisive retakes throughout their entire defensive half, jumping out to a surprising 8-4 lead on what’s been historically a dominant map for DRX. DRX won the second pistol as well after switching to defense and quickly reduced the ZETA lead back to an 8-8 tie. A huge one-vs-one between ZETA’s Koji “Laz” Ushida and DRX’s Kim “Zest” Gi-seok went the way of the Korean Sova, but ZETA recovered to keep it close at 11-11. Shota “SugarZ3ro” Watanabe then landed a big two-man spray in the post-plant to give ZETA a 12-11 lead and they caught DRX trying to go ultra-aggressive next round to escape Icebox with a 13-11 win.
The first half of Ascent was a back-and-forth affair with both sides trading rounds and fighting over the A bombsite. DRX secured a slight 7-5 lead at the half heading into their defensive side. ZETA looked poised to run away with the map after taking the pistol, anti-eco, and the bonus, but some big rounds from Zest and Goo “Rb” Sang-min kept the map close. DRX finally pulled away thanks to multiple multi-kill rounds from Yu “BuZz” Byung-chul, taking Ascent 13-10.
ZETA came out firing on Split defense, punishing weaknesses in DRX’s post-plant scenarios and jumping out to a 5-0 start before a DRX timeout. DRX could find almost no openings all half, trailing by a staggering 10-2 scoreline at halftime. Laz delivered the second-half pistol to ZETA with a well-placed Snakebite and ZETA claimed the first full buy round to take a 12-4 lead. A Viper ult in Heaven sold the perfect fake in the last round and ZETA coasted to a huge 13-4 win to close out the series.
The ZETA DIVISION players have now defeated teams from EMEA, Brazil, and Korea, and have secured a top-four finish at the tournament. They move on to the next round of the lower bracket and will either get a chance at revenge against G2 or face Paper Rex when play resumes on Friday, April 22.
