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Former Future Champions: DRX entire main roster enters FA after winning Worlds.
Win Worlds, Set Free
DRX has announced officially, that the contracts for the main Worlds-winning roster, has expired. The DRX roster consisted of Cho “Beryl” Geon-Hee, Kim “Deft” Hyuk-kyu, Kim “Zeka” Geon-woo, Hong “Pyosik” Chang-hyeon, and Hwang “Kingen” Seong-hoon. The core DRX roster has most notably recently won Worlds 2022, defeating T1 in the finals. All five members are now Free Agents (FA), meaning other organizations are free to contact them, and they are free to explore their options.
Along with the Worlds-winning roster, the coaching staff of Head Coach Kim “Ssong” Sang-su as well as coaches Lee “Mowgli” Jae-ha, and Shin “Shine” Dong-wook have also entered free agency.
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That said, the announcement from DRX simply announces the current state of the players on their roster. In a follow-up tweet, the South Korean organization writes: ‘In order to continue the enjoyable challenge with these players, DRX will communicate with them to try to renew their contracts.’
Following a miracle run that went down in Worlds history as one of the best, it makes sense that DRX is looking to retain some of that magic going into the following year. Early reports have indicated that star AD Carry “Deft” is slated to re-sign with the organization. Top laner “Kingen” and mid laner “Zeka” were also mentioned to have been in talks to re-sign, however backs out to ‘see their market value.’
Unlike “Deft,” who is seeing his 10th year of competitive play across 6 organizations, both “Kingen” and “Zeka” are newer comers, who began in 2017 and 2019, respectively. Both talented individuals, it is likely that they both have long careers to look forward to and exploring their options is a wise move tactically.
Following Tradition
A common tradition for League of Legends teams in the wake of winning Worlds is to split up. While there is the sentiment of ‘what if we have lightning in the bottle here?’ most often the values of the individuals on that winning roster become too high to be sustainable in the immediate aftermath.
Rival teams that lost or did not perform as well during Worlds will often approach the players, offering high salaries or other benefits. Adding to that, after Worlds, players enter the off-season, meaning there will be a decline in level during the next regular split. The inflated value from winning Worlds is a temporary one, and for most players, it’s a value most can only dream of.
Do they run it back?
DRX’s run at Worlds 2022 was, to put it simply, a miracle. They finished sixth in the regular season, before managing to qualify for Worlds through the regional qualifiers. They entered Worlds as the fourth seed, took Play-Ins and Group Stage by storm as the top contender, and scalped the heads of Gen.G, Edward Gaming, and T1 to lift the Summoner’s Cup.
“Deft,” in the after-finals interview at Worlds, mentioned that winning Worlds had given him to motivation to continue competing as long as he could. Coming into Worlds, the narrative had been his ‘Last Dance,’ with talks of him retiring should he win Worlds. Meanwhile, “Zeka” and “Kingen” entered the tournament as one of the lesser talked about players. Their lane counterparts on other teams drew more attention.
However, both of them stepped up as unexpected breakout talents in the latter stages of the tournament. No confirmation has been heard currently on “Pyosik” and “Beryl.”
Image credit: Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games
