LOUD advances to VCT Masters Reykjavik final following OpTic win

Brazilian Valorant side LOUD continues their Cinderella run after taking down OpTic Gaming 2-1 in the upper bracket final. This victory will go down in the history books with Brazil being the third region to reach a Masters final after North America and EMEA.

Seeing how the end result was, many would not have expected it given the dominant opening map from OpTic Gaming. The North American side obliterated LOUD on Fracture with a 13-2 score. The bulk of OpTic's success came in the opening half. The NA second seed won ten rounds on offence, leaving LOUD with a 10-2 deficit moving onto their attacking half.

Unfortunately for LOUD they were not able to put together a single round in the second half as OpTic rounded out an incredible map one. Victor had a monstrous performance on Neon, raking in 21 kills and an ACS of 372, the highest in the lobby. Not only that, but Victor also recorded the most first kills in the lobby at eight. LOUD only got one first kill the entire map, showcasing where it was going wrong for them from the very beginning.

LOUD would fire straight back and keep their incredible upper bracket run alive on Ascent. Both halves went as expected with Ascent being a defensive sided map. When comparing the attacking and defending win rates, they couldn't be further apart. The attacking side has a 42% win rate on Ascent while the defence has a 57% win rate according to Thespike.gg.

OpTic Gaming would pull out to a slight lead at the end of the first half. LOUD got off to a solid 3-1 start before OpTic would win six of the next eight to have a two-round cushion. Unfortunately for the NA side this is where it would come tumbling down. The Brazilian side would put on a defensive clinic, winning the second half 8-1 to tie up the series.

LOUD is now one series away from lifting the VCT Masters Reykjavik trophy. The Brazilian side started off the map well 6-1 start, putting OpTic's backs up against the wall from the very beginning. OPT would do well to bring it back to a respectable scoreline at 7-5.

Where OpTic seemed to falter was on the offensive end, not because they didn't put together a few rounds, but they let LOUD secure multiple successive rounds to leave them having to win out to secure over time. In the end, LOUD would secure the final round they needed to win the series. Both teams put up a solid map but the player of the map goes to Less.

Less put up a monstrous performance on Icebox, putting up 33 kills, an ACS of 375 and securing four first kills for his side. No player came close to Less on this map, with Marved having the second-highest kills at 19.

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