Fnatic defeated by LOUD in the playoffs of the Valorant Champions 2023

The first day of the playoffs of the Valorant Champions 2023 was marked by a meeting that was almost more eagerly awaited than the Grand Final itself: the final between Fnatic and LOUD made this match particularly exhilarating. 4 March 2023, Fnatic beat LOUDin the Lock In Brazil final, thanks to a turnaround that will go down in the annals of Valorant esports. Eager for revenge, and after an impressive victory over NaVi, LOUD defeated Fnatic 2-0 in the quarter-finals.

Maps and scores of the match

A tight first card

It didn't take long for the intensity of the match to be felt. In just a few rounds, LOUD took the lead over Ascent. But let's face it, this initial domination didn't last. Quite the opposite, in fact, the game was extremely close. Fnatic managed to get the better of the Brazilians before they equalised in the final round of the first half. Both teams are performing well, the game plans are square and the spectacle is definitely there.

In attack, Fnatic regained the lead, drastically reducing their opponents' credit reserves. After losing a round of eco, the Brazilians managed to get back into the game. Less's two successive clutches give them a moment's respiteenough to strengthen their economy. Two more victories followed, taking the Brazilian tally to 12. They then needed just one more victory to put an end to this card, but the efforts of Alfajer and Boaster delay this moment.

The pressure was turned up a notch, but as we have just said, Brazil's success was only postponed for so long. After more than an hour of play, LOUD finally gets the missing point and wins this first card 13 to 11.

Unexpected domination by LOUD

Unsurprisingly, Fnatic have chosen to take on LOUD on Lotus, as it's their strongest map. 100% of wins in eight League matches - which is not the case for LOUD - only one attempt during the League, which proved unsuccessful. The statistics are largely in the European giant's favour, with almost 78% of the votes on the VCT X page gave Fnatic the winner.

However, the Brazilian team had already managed to defeat Fnatic on this map at Lock In. In fact, they are the only team to have achieved this feat this season. So it wasn't all plain sailing for the Europeans.

Especially as the Brazilians had prepared for this possible encounter as indicated by aspas after the match "We looked at a lot of things on this map beforehand, because they (Fnatic) gave us a lot of information. We already knew how they played, but we ended up studying the map even more and we came really prepared to play against them.".

And the reality surprised many. LOUD has beaten all the oddsBoaster and his team-mates dominated. The Brazilians' excellent teamwork, supported by the individual performances of Less and Aspasis paying off. LOUD didn't concede a single goal in the first six rounds, so they were more than comfortable economically speaking. They then used this advantage to take a little more of a lead. At the changeover, they were leading by four points. They are definitely better, despite a few mistakes, the Fnatic players didn't completely lose out. Proof of this is that they ended the first half on a flawless note.

Galvanised by this fine victory, they kept up the pressure and picked up two more points. Brazil's response was not long in coming. After two successive defeats, the European side's credit reserves were melting away. Mistakes and economic decline didn't help, and Fnatic ended up losing 13-6. The crowd went wild. The Brazilians have done it: they've taken their revenge!

If the Brazilian joy was palpable - aspas expressed his satisfaction "It's a win that will certainly make us more confident. The win against NaVi gave us confidence, and with this win, we're really happy and even more confident for the next few games". - Fnatic were not disappointed.

Boaster explained that he was not frightened by the pressure of the forthcoming play-offs - four matches to reach the final. He added that the pre-match rituals and the way of playing must remain the same as in normal times for everything to go as smoothly as possible. Derke also spoke about the rest of the competition, explaining that Fnatic is there to win:

Our aim is to win. After this game, we'll probably go back to training and do our best for the next few games. I don't think there's anything special about it. We're going to do our job and play to win.

Derke - Post-match interview

We will end this article on Derke's triple kill with Raze's ultimatebecause we simply love the beautiful game!

Valorant Champions Tour 2023 News