In the upper bracket final at Valorant Champions 2022, it was all green.
OpTic Gaming went up against LOUD for the fifth time this year, marking one of the most competitive rivalries in Valorant history. However, it was the Brazilian squad that would come out on top this time, finally getting revenge for their last three series losses in a decisive 2-0 sweep.
The match was also a replay of Masters Reykjavik, where both teams met in the upper bracket final. LOUD took that series in Iceland, but eventually fell to OpTic in the grand final.
However, the LOUD that showed up to play in Istanbul were a different beast altogether. They snapped OpTic’s 6-0 win streak on Bind, one of their strongest maps, and then took Ascent with a dominant 13-3 scoreline.
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LOUD take down OpTic to advance to grand final
Both teams were neck-and-neck on the first half of Bind, entering the second half tied at 6-6. However, LOUD began snowballing after they took the second pistol, with Felipe “Less” Basso truly coming alive.
Even Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker was not able to stop LOUD’s onslaught, where he was often the last man left alive against multiple LOUD players.
With their biggest hurdle behind them, the Brazilian powerhouse entered their map pick of Ascent, where key clutches and crucial rounds all went their way.
In Round 4, a 1v2 clutch by Bryan “pANcada” Luna broke OpTic’s economy, and LOUD ran ahead to a 6-1 lead.
With just 10HP left, pANcada used Omen’s From The Shadows ultimate to reposition from Hell to A Main, avoiding the duel with Austin “crashies” Roberts. With the spike ticking, crashies had no choice but to attempt the defuse, giving pANcada an easy kill.
LOUD ended their attacking half 9-3, then went on to win the next four rounds to take the map in decisive fashion. They have not lost a single map so far in the playoffs, and are currently on a flawless 6-0 streak.
For the first time in the tournament, yay also went negative in first kills to first deaths, going 3-4 on Chamber, a clear sign of OpTic’s struggles. To put things in perspective, yay has been having the tournament of his life at Champions, topping the leaderboard in multiple statistics.
When it comes to first kills and deaths, he leads the competition by a mile with a ridiculous 61-20 scoreline. DRX’s Yu “BuZz” Byung-chul is close behind with 59 first kills, but has died first 49 times.
“Haven’t lost that badly in a while,” tweeted Pujan “FNS” Mehta after the match. “Congrats to them we got destroyed. I had no answer.”
But they have been in this exact position before. At Reykjavik, they beat Zeta Division in the lower bracket final, then went on to win their rematch against LOUD 3-0 in the grand final.
OpTic now drop to the lower bracket again, where they will play their next match on September 17 at 10:00 p.m. GMT+8 | 7:00 a.m. PT | 2:00 p.m. GMT. The match will be broadcast live on the official Valorant Twitch and YouTube channels.
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