DRX, having made it to the playoffs of the VALORANT Radiant Asia Invitational after defeating Bilibili Gaming and Gen.G, stunned fans with the news of a captaincy change. According to an investigation by VALO2ASIA, free1ng took over the IGL role for this tournament, replacing MaKo. It is still unclear whether free1ng will continue in this role for the upcoming VCT PACIFIC 2025 season.

The 23-year-old free1ng started his VALORANT esports career in 2020, joining aNg DarkHorse and achieving success, including 4th place at Riot Games' first official tournament, First Strike Korea. After a hiatus from December 2020 to March 2023, he returned to competitive play, signing with Dplus (formerly DAMWON Gaming). In 2024, free1ng joined the Chinese team Rare Atom, where he displayed exceptional gameplay during the promotion tournament, despite finishing in second place.

READ MORE: Karmine Corp parts ways with VALORANT players: tomaszy and Magnum

After Stax's departure in June 2024, MaKo became the new IGL for DRX. In one of his streams, MaKo expressed dissatisfaction with his role, stating that he hadn’t realized how much responsibility Stax had carried and now, as the oldest player on the team, he felt a lack of experienced teammates.

New IGL free1ng has already shown strong results at the tournament, with a K/D of 1.47 in two matches, scoring 84 kills and 57 deaths. Although MaKo has the most experience in DRX, the captaincy change may have affected his psychological state and the team's dynamics.