After an intense and action-packed showdown between LOUD and OpTic in the grand finals of Valorant Champions 2022, the former has managed to come out on top.
In case you missed the action that went down today in Istanbul, Turkey, we have you covered. Here is a full recap of the Valorant Champions 2022 Grand Finals played between OpTic Gaming and LOUD.
Map Veto
1. LOUD ban Pearl
2. LOUD ban Fracture*
3 LOUD pick Ascent
4. OpTic pick Bind
5. LOUD pick Breeze
6. OpTic pick Haven
7. Icebox was leftover
OpTic started Ascent on the right foot despite losing the pistol round on their defense. With straight 6 rounds in their bag, they managed to close the first half 7-5 but fell short to their opponents as Gustavo “Sacy” Rossi annihilated the North Americans with a deadly 32-kill rampage.
Sacy’s heroics saw LOUD from charting a comeback to forcing overtime over Pujan “FNS” Mehta and his troops and running away with their map pick.
*LOUD previously had an advantage over the Map Veto as they marched onto the Grand Finals from their Upper Bracket run.
The first half of Bind was an exact replica of what OpTic pulled off over in the first map, securing a healthy lead over the Brazilians. Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker was the person who lead the onslaught while donning Chamber. A comeback attempt by LOUD was denied by the North Americans as the latter were able to close out the game post their 17th-round win.
Following LOUD’s overtime victory on the first map, Ascent, OpTic managed to tie the score with a convincing victory on their map pick, Bind. The action continued in game 3 with LOUD’s map pick, Breeze.
OpTic started the map with a head start after winning the pistol round behind a 3K by Victor “Victor” Wong, and converted the following round successfully without leaving any room for error.
While the following round seemed to be in favor of LOUD for a moment, an amazing lurk from Austin “crashies” Roberts on the Sova which was then converted into a neat 3K enabled OpTic to easily retake the site from their South American opposition.
It wasn’t until the sixth round that LOUD managed to get their first win on the board, but OpTic swiftly retaliated in round 7 to shatter LOUD’s momentum.
However, LOUD weren’t done just yet. The org managed to punish OpTic’s overly aggressive plays and converted the next eight rounds in a row behind some stellar individual performances from the players.
The two teams then continued trading rounds back and forth as the game went into three overtimes before LOUD sealed it with two round wins in a row.
LOUD kicked off OpTic’s map pick Haven with three consecutive round wins before the latter secured a thrifty round equipped with Stingers and Guardians.
The teams then went back and forth till the first half concluded at 7-5 in favor of LOUD. The second half was pretty much dominated by the Brazilian squad.
The fifteenth round saw LOUD’s Felipe “Less” Basso get an amazing ace to shut down a possible retake from OpTic, which then paved the way for LOUD to win the rest of the rounds to close out the game 13-5.
