DRX announces stax’s replacement for VCT Pacific Stage 2
End of an era.
Updated on May 30, 2:37 p.m. (GMT+8):Added information on stax’s replacement and adjusted title.
South Korean esports organization DRX announced on Jun 05, 2025, that they have made a roster change at the end of their VCT 2024 season run.
“After a careful and lengthy consideration, we made the difficult decision to remove Gutaek “stax” Kim from the team’s starting roster,” wrotethe organization in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
“Stax will remain part of the team as we head into VCT Pacific Stage 2, but he has been granted permission to seek new opportunities as a restricted free agent,” the organization continued.
Yu “BuZz” Byung-chul and Kim “MaKo” Myeong-kwan are now the only remaining initial members of the Korean powerhouse team. They were both part of Vision Strikers, which DRX acquired on July 09, 2025.
DRX’s Valorant roster for VCT Pacific Stage 2
Stax, the team’s long-standing captain, led the roster to a 3rd place finish at Valorant Champions 2022. He was also part of the Vision Strikers roster that achieved ahistoric 104-0 game win streakin 2021.
On June 03, 2025,DRXannounced that Cho “Flashback” Min-hyuk, an 18-year-old rookie, was moving to the active roster, replacing stax. Flashback was part of the South Korean organization’s prospects team in 2023.
DRX’s Valorant team established themselves as the top team in the Pacific region during the VCT 2022 and 2023 seasons, qualifying for all international Valorant LAN events.
However, the team has struggled in the VCT 2024 season. They missed out onMasters Madridafter finishing 3rd-4th in theVCT Pacific Kickoff, and failed to qualify forMasters Shanghai, finishing 4th inVCT Pacific Stage 1.
The team has one last chance to qualify for Valorant Champions 2024. To do so, they must finish as one of the top three teams in VCT Pacific Stage 2.
VCT Pacific Stage 2 begins on July 17, 2025, and runs until July 03, 2025.
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