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When it comes to VALORANT competitive, there is no one who does it better than the North American region, and this time, things changed. The Brazilian esports team LOUD defeated North America’s OpTic Gaming at the 2022 Valorant Champions Tour on Sunday, making this the first ever internation trophy for the LOUD Esports team. The grand final took place at the Volkswagen Arena in Istanbul to a 3-1. Valorant Champions 2022 Winners: LOUD Esports crowned as winners
A very emotional yet ecstatic team of young athletes from LOUD stood up from their seats to hugged each other and wiped their tears, because this win was much needed for the region. Not just that, they also stand testiment to the fact that no team has ever won the VCT back to back.
In an old interview, OpTic Esports’s IGL, FNS explained why no team has ever been able to win a championship twice in a row. “There are just too many good teams to consistently innovate yourself and come in with a whole new [meta],” said FNS, in an old interview with EsportsDoug Cortez.
“You have to be ahead of the meta, and no team has ever been able to be ahead of the meta twice in a row. Every region is also incredibly competitive, with most of them having three teams or more that can just ‘beat you’,” said FNS.
“You can’t just stay with what you were doing before because it’s just too easy to get anti-stratted.”
Coming back to what happened in Instanbul. A very emotional Matias “saadhak” Delipetro said “I have no words about it, it’s just so amazing,” looking back at the feat his team had managed to pull off. Not just that, being surrounded by such a vast audience and then being cheered by them is a completely different feeling. Saadhak described it as “Unreal.”
OpTic started Ascent and looked extremely strong even though they had lost the pistol round. Their momentum remained on point as they won straight 6 rounds and finished the first half 7-5. Everything changed in the blink of an eye as Gustavo “Sacy” Rossi went on a 32 kill rampage to wreck the momentum that was created by the North Americans. Sacy’s ramapage was much needed and it forced Pujan “FNS” Mehta and his team to rethink and realign.
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The match in Bind was very similar to the one played in Ascent. OpTic took a great lead. It was Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker who did all the damage as he played Chamber. LOUD and their fighting spirit was still intact and they wanted to make a comeback, but their efforts fell a little short in front of how determined the North Americans were.
After two maps, both teams had registered one win each and were able to boost up their morale and enter the third map, which was LOUD’s map pick– Breeze.
After this win, the team not only takes home with them the title, but also a prize of $300,000. OpTic, who came in second walks away with $150,000. The third place team, South Korea’s DRX, took $110,000 home. The event’s final weekend stood as an example of how big esport has become in its reach since the team represented a different region, the final four rosters were from North America, Brazil, South Korea and Europe.
1st $300,000
LOUD
2nd $150,000
OpTic Gaming
3rd $110,000
DRX
4th $80,000
FunPlus Phoenix
5th–6th $60,000
XSET
Fnatic
7th–8th $40,000
Team Liquid
Leviatán
9th–12th $25,000
100 Thieves
KRÜ Esports
ZETA Division
Paper Rex
13th–16th $15,000
FURIA Esports
XERXIA Esports
BOOM Esports
Edward Gaming
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