Who is LOUD aspas?

Erick "aspas" Santos has been on VALORANT fans' radars for the past year ever since he joined LOUD in February 2022. He is 20 years old, and in his time with LOUD, has already won VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT) 2022. But who is this prodigy?

Initially, aspas was an unknown player. He started his VALORANT career with team SLICK as their duelist main for VCT Brazil Stage 2 Challengers 1 2021. They failed to make it to any international events and ended up disbanding in August of that year.

Later, aspas ended up joining a team of free agents known as Pancada e Amigos, consisting of well-known players such as Gustavo "Sacy" Rossi, Bryan "pANcada" Luna, Felipe "Less" Basso, and Matias "Saadhak" Delipetro. After an incredibly successful run in Challengers 1 at VCT Brazil Stage 1 where the squad only dropped one map throughout the tournament, they were signed by LOUD.

LOUD made it through both the group stage and the playoffs of Challengers 1, only dropping one map to qualify for VCT Masters: Reyjavik 2022. At Reyjavik, they were able to make it to the grand final after defeating OpTic Gaming 2-1. However, the North American team found revenge in the grand final, delivering LOUD their first defeat. Throughout the tournament, aspas played Jett and Raze. In fact, despite losing the finals 0-3, aspas was the series MVP with a massive 278 ACS and 13 first kills — the highest on the server.

LOUD made it to VCT Masters: Copenhagen after a flawless run through the VCT Brazil: Stage 2 Challengers as well. They faced an early group stage elimination after losses to KRU Esports and OpTic Gaming, cementing their rivalry with the latter. Again, despite not winning the series, aspas dominated the server with 14 first kills and 286 ACS.

LOUD qualified for VCT Champions off their performance in 2022. They lost to OpTic Gaming again in the group stage, but qualified for the playoffs. They smurfed their way through the bracket with 2-0 wins over the likes of Leviatan and DRX. They were also matched up against OpTic Gaming once again in the upper bracket semifinals.

This time though, they won 2-0 and cemented their spot in the Grand Finals. They had a rematch with OpTic Gaming, where once again, aspas lit up the killfeed. With 17 first kills, again the highest on the server and the second highest number of kills just behind Jaccob "yay" Whiteaker, the 20-year-old proved he was the best of the best.

LOUD was announced as one of the 10 partnered teams in the Americas League in Riot Games' new franchising program. Despite losing Sacy and pANcada to the likes of Sentinels, aspas remained with the organization.

He and LOUD faced Gen.G in their first game at VCT//LOCK IN. It was a close series, but LOUD closed it out 2-0 after a heated second game that went overtime. While Cauan "cauanzin" Pereira was the MVP for the series, aspas was the reason several rounds were converted by LOUD.

You can check out LOUD aspas' crosshair settings as well. Perhaps that's why he's such a demon on the server. Either way, with several years of a promising career stretching ahead of him, Brazilian VALORANT is watching with bated breath to see what he does next.