LOUD and OpTic is the rivalry that will define the 2022 VCT season. Since their first meeting in Upper FInals at Master Reyjavik, the two sides have played four times. More than any two teams have played at Masters events in the short history of VALORANT.
With LOUD winning in the Upper Finals, 2-0, the season series is 3-2 in favor of OpTic, with a chance for a repeat scenario of Iceland if OpTic beats DRX. In commanding fashion, LOUD snap the three-game losing streak to OpTic and joined only Optic and Gambit as repeat Grand Finalists at Masters events.
“Honestly, it’s not over yet. History can repeat itself, so I’m working to make sure it doesn’t happen. I want the trophy this time”
Loud sacy
LOUD take OpTic’s map pick Bind
Entering the series, OpTic looked poised to continue the winning streak starting with Bind.OpTic had an 87% winning percentage on the map and hadn’t lost sinnce June 2022 to XSET in NA Challengers Stage 2. The Raze, Viper, Skyy composition went unblemished during that time, beating mainly the perceived meta pick of Fade, Raze compositions.
LOUD weren’t fazed by their utter dominance on the map and came out swinging. Despite a 6-6 halftime, LOUD answered strongly in the second half, throwing a variety of looks at OpTic and keeping them off-balance with pace changes. Erick “aspas” Santos and Felipe “Less” Basso controlled Showers and A-short from the get-go, with Optic going -10 in KD defending those areas.
The entry space gained through Matias “Saadhak” Delipetro Skyy utility allowed for aspas and Bryan “pANcada” Luna to get deep on sites and punish late OpTic rotations. In what is a rare occurrence, OpTic IGL Pujan “FNS” Mehta was the one playing catch up to the way Saadhak was calling the map. Every LOUD member contributed, wether that was trading off teammates or using utility, OpTic had no answers on Bind.
LOUD closing out the series on Ascent
Moreover, OpTic dropping Bind was a massive momentum shift. The Greenwall has been the demon for Brazil’s best VALORANT team. Over the course of the year. Taking their map pick to open up the series placed confidence firmly back in LOUD’s hands and that translated onto Ascent.
“I mean, it’s our map. I’m surprised they decided to leave it open/ But, yeah, it went pretty good – the picks and bans. We felt pretty comfortable, so after our win on Bind, we had a pretty good chance to win this series.”
LOUD Sacy post-match
OpTic used to have one of the better Ascents heading into Masters Reyjavik. Between these two teams, they’ve played the map four times with LOUD holding a 3-1 record. With OpTic banning Icebox, it once again came down to Ascent and LOUD displayed a level of competency on the map we haven’t seen since Gambit in 2021.
LOUD win two-thirs of the gun rounds
Starting with full-buys, LOUD owned the gun-rounds throughout the series but won 87.5% of them on Ascent. That includes three half-buy rounds with LOUD winning all three. It wasn’t close. Add on a 20 kill differential and OpTic’s inability to comeback from a player deficit, and it’s a shock they won any rounds at all.
Even the hallmark of consistency, OpTic’s Jacob “yay” Whittaker, went negative on Ascent. His Chamber play was rendered ineffective by avoidance strategies and superior trading. Yay ended with a staggering 56% KAST, showing his round-by-round impact as underwhelming. He was outplayed by his Operator counterpart LOUD, who dropped a map high 15-kills alongside pANcada.
Furthermore, OpTic don’t appear to be willing to adjust with the current meta. Most successful Ascent teams have moved away from the Chamber and have gone back to the more mobile Jett. We saw DRX’s Yu “BuZz” Byung-chul find success in the transition, and aspas here against OpTic.
Sacy on the adcvntage of winning Upper Finals
Nonetheless, the win is less about OpTic’s flaws and more about LOUD flattening North America’s best team. The confidence levels are back with a team crowned as a “super team” and with one match left to win, they could make VALORANT history as the first non-European or NA team to win Champs.
(Photo by Lance Skundrich/Riot Games)
When asked about the advantage of an extra day off and time to prepare more for the Lower bracket teams, Sacy responded with a positive answer despite losing in this same situation in the Reyjavik finals.
“It’s a big advantage, right? We’ll watch the game from Optic. We still don’t know who they are going to play against, but it’s a pretty big advantage. We still have more bans in drafts so we’re in a good spot.”
LOUD await the winer of DRX and OpTic in the Lower Finals on Saturday Septmber 18th at 7 am PST.
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