LOUD and DRX qualified LOCK//IN playoffs
At the end of an intensive week of competition, DRX and LOUD are needed in the Alpha group from LOCK//IN Sao Paulo. The Korean organisation secured their playoff spot by eliminating Talon Esports, while the reigning world champions beat NRG Esports. The two qualified will face off in the semi-finals on 3rd March in a bid to secure a first international win in the VCT 2023.
In the run-up to this stage, spectators will have the opportunity to admire the 16 teams of the Omega Group. This second week of matches will start 22nd February by the meeting between Team Liquid and Team Secret.
LOUD's qualification
The 2022 world champion team is playing the LOCK//IN at home. As the tournament's top seed, LOUD must confirm its supremacy on the Brazilian and international competitive scene, despite the departure of Sacy and pANcada.
In order to achieve the status of qualified to playoffs, LOUD faced, and defeated, Gen.G, Karmine Corp and NRG Esports. So far, the results have been good. Nevertheless, these three matches were particularly close.
Facing Gen.G, LOUD won 2-0, but almost missed the boat as the Koreans gave them a hard time on Pearl, final score 13-9, just as on Fracture, a map ending on 14-12.
LOUD then tackled Karmine Corp. They won the match 2-0, but not without difficulty. The Franco-Belgian team was not impressed by the Champions, even scoring ten points on Pearl (13-10) and eight on Split (13-8).
The champions could have made a clean sweep, had they not crossed paths with NRG Esports. Even though they still came out on top, they conceded a map this time. After a heavy defeat on Split, 3-13, the Americans thus regained the upper hand and fought with determination to win Pearl 15 to 13. The qualification to the playoffs was thus played on Fracture, and it took no less than 34 rounds to separate the two structures. Final score : 18-16, in favour of LOUD.
The Brazilians will have to step up their efforts to win the rest of the tournament and knock out their next opponents. DRX will have to be careful, LOUD is here to win as said saadhak :
It's not over until it's over. And we are here to win. We are here to win.
saadhak - LOUD player
DRX's hope for the title
DRX is looking for more than just a win in this LOCK//IN Sao Paulo. The Koreans dream of a first international title and are doing everything they can to get closer to it. Thanks to their victory against BBL Esports, they stayed in the tournament. They then faced yay and his teammates from Cloud9.
This match is currently one of the most popular matches of the tournament, with a peak attendance of 482,791 according to Esports Charts. And what a meeting! Cloud9 crushed DRX, 13 to 3, on Pearl, before losing Haven, 7 to 13. Everything was played out on Icebox, a map on which the Koreans inflicted a severe stomp on their opponents. They won this last map 13-2, in just thirty minutes.
Subsequently, the Koreans defeated Talon Esports to get their ticket to the playoffs. No easy wins this time. MaKo and his team gave up Fracture 10 to 13, before winning Ascent and Icebox, 13 to 6 and 13 to 10 respectively.
If they want to make their dream come true, the Korean team will have to perform even better. As mentioned earlier in the article, DRX will face LOUD in the semi-finals on 3rd March. To follow the match go to VALORANT's Twitch channel from 6pm.
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