u/Street-Interaction79

With T1 benching stax, and buzz’s contract ending this year, termi could pull off a +- masterclass and do not only + stax + buzz, but could also simultaneously do - Beyn AND - Yong to fit buzz and stax back into the roster. Not sure about you guys but personally I’d consider this the peak of termi’s career (as a side note, I genuinely would like to see this because Beyn has looked rough this year and his igling evidently isn’t working as well as mako’s igling last year, and so stax is a perfect substitution for Beyn and DRX just look better with double duelist and if they need Free1ng to play senti since Yong seems to struggle on traditional sentinels, I wouldn’t be upset to see Yong get replaced with buzz, who can also play chamber well like Yong…also I’d kill for the mako, buzz and stax reunion AND hyunmin + buzz double duelist would be cinema)

Termi as a coach is clearly incredible and the consistency he can achieve across rosters is also very impressive, possibly one of the most consistent coaches in the esport behind alecks of course,but…..something needs to change about his use of timeouts. Thinking all the way back to champions 2025 playoffs upper round 1. DRX vs FNC map 1 haven, we are up 10 rounds iirc, 10-0 or 10-1 before going 10-2 at the half. DRX lose that map 11-13 and if I remember, one of the rounds where termi hits the timeout button is practically the end of the map. And by that point the team had been getting thrashed for an entire half, out of ideas and mentally crushed. Then again today in the evil tournament that shall not be named, they are up 8-1 against NS in map 2… NS win 3 in a row to close the half 8-4 and then they lose, pistol, eco and the anti-bonus leaving the game 8-7. Your team has now lost 6 rounds in a row and if I’m not mistaken they lose the next round and THEN termi calls a timeout, the team mental has to be down the fucking drain. And surprise surprise they lose 13-9 basically unable to get a foot in the door and stop the NS comeback. I seriously hope that the team realises this and can get this fixed because something isn’t working and at this rate they have 0 chance of attending champs. (Which they haven’t ever missed before)…this also leads me on to talking about the team’s roles but this post is too long and so I’ll make that it’s own separate post.

Back in 2025 DRX swept kickoff 4-0 for their first trophy win, beating eventual masters winners T1 twice in both the upper and grand finals. Fast forward to stage 1, flashback takes a break and things go completely off the rails, coming in 4th after losing 2-0 to PRX, flashback returns, DRX top their stage 2 group and then despite being eliminated in playoffs, return to their full kickoff roster, flashback and hyunmin play incredibly well in champs and they come 3rd. 2026 comes around, Flashback officially retires from competitive valorant and drx have now placed 5/6th in kickoff losing to prx and then place 5/6th in stage 1, losing yet again to prx for the 3rd time in a row this year... It looks extremely dire for the team right now standing 7th overall in champs points I wouldn't be surprised if they miss out on champs for the first time ever this year... and so it begs the question, which other teams have been this heavily impacted by the loss of a single player?