Titan Esports Club signs Rb ahead of VCT CN Kickoff

14 Dec

Ganesh Jadhav

The Chinese esports organization, Titan Esports Club has announced the addition of Goo “Rb” Sang-min. The DRX and Vision Striker alumni was recently benched by DRX in a move that sent shockwaves across the community.

The Rb announcement will be part of a long list of additions to TEC as part of their VCT CN rebuild. As part of the eleven teams playing the VCT China, they’d be looking to secure multiple talented individuals before the kick off tournament.

Rb and Valorant

As a professional player, Rb started with Counter-Strike before switching to Valorant full-time in 2020. He started with Vision Strikers alongside k1ng, glow, stax, Zest, Lakia and Efina.

The ambitious project set an unbelievable benchmark for the teams to come. They dominated Korea winning 104 games in a row before losing their first series. The win streak brought them the First Strike and 2021 VCT Masters I Korea title.

Unfortunately, their loss cost them 2022 VCT Masters II Reykjavik qualification. But qualified for the following two international events but only to achieve mediocre results.

Rebranding as DRX in 2022, they solidified themselves as one of the strongest teams worldwide. Their peak came around at Valorant Champions 2022, where they placed third behind LOUD and Optic Gaming.

Rb was criticized for his poor performance in the elimination game. Coming into 2023 as a partnered team, Rb returned as their best performer. At LOCK//IN they reached the semifinals but lost to LOUD.

They dominated VCT Pacific but could not win the inaugural league, the results only got worse with VCT Masters Tokyo and Valorant Champion 2023.

With the aim to rebuild, DRX benched Rb and Zest (two of their best players at the International event) bringing in Flashback to fill in the gap.

DRX announced Rb’s departure yesterday, thanking him for the three years and wishing him luck for the upcoming journey.

Rb’s move to China isn’t unprecedented and follows a long tradition of Korean players playing in China in both the Riot titles.

It’d be interesting to see what the TEC roster will look like coming into VCT CN kickoff.

Follow Strafe for more VCT.

Featured Image Credits: Riot Games// Valorant Champions Tour