ZETA clinch top-4 placing at VCT Masters Reykjavík with upset over DRX

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.