Eight teams from around the Latin American subregion fight for two possible slots heading into VALORANT Champions within the South America Last Chance Qualifier. This article will cover the roster changes, expectations, storylines, and more about the upcoming event.
Four teams in Ninjas in Pyjamas, Vivo Keyd, FURIA, & TBK Esports represent Brazil, while KRU Esports, FUSION, E-Xolos LAZER, & 9z Team represent Latin America, with 8 teams total.
To start, let’s head into a shortened down list of roster changes that took place leading up to the event.
Roster Changes
FURIA: -ableJ, +dgzin (Gamelanders, Stars Horizon)
FUSION: -Wyz, +Darker (Team Cruelty), +Jovi (OpTic, 100 Thieves)
9z Team: -SUTHER, -HANLING, +bnj (NiP, KRU), +Tuli (Movistar Optix)
Next, I talked with Noyn on what he thinks about the LCQ, and there’s some juice to it. Some parts of the interview have been altered for clarity.
- “What are your thoughts/expectations of the LCQ teams?”
“First of all, I think this will be the most disputed LCQ ever for South America. The level of the teams are all very close and I believe that any two of the 8 teams can end up qualifying to Champions, but some are still favorites, others less.”
- “What do you think of TBK?”
“I chose TBK as my dark horse because Tuyz is one of the most talented young players we have in the region, and is greatly underestimated by the community. Kon4n is an excellent flex player and Matheuzin is a solid player.
TBK is a mature team and their lineup has been together for over a year. According to scrims they are at their peak right now, so make sure to keep an eye on them. Overall though, they are recognized for working hard and having good antistrats, but not being so good individually.”
- “What do you think of NIP?”
“NIP is a very good team, with their biggest asset is having Split and Fracture playable at a high level internationally, where as in contrast, South America is not so comfortable and up to NIP’s mastery on both maps, so they gain an interesting advantage in their map pool in almost all matchups.
On the other hand, until the Stage 2 grand final against LOUD, they didn’t play Bind and it was the team’s permaban. I believe their biggest flaw is having a role overlap between Xand and Jonn in some maps, with the fact that Jonn not being able to play Raze and use the Operator limits the comps that the team can bring, and often Xand needs to get out of his comfort zone to play flex.
All in all, Neon and Fade were interesting solutions to this problem, such as in Haven and Ascent, but I believe Icebox and Breeze are problematic. You should put your eyes on Cauanzin, I believe he will be one of the best players in the world soon, he is one of the greatest gems we have in Brazil along with Aspas.”
- “How about FURIA and Vivo Keyd?”
“The addition of dgzin to FURIA was very interesting and will add a lot of firepower and experience to the team, as in the opinion of many he is the best oper in Brazil, but they are still in the process of adapting, as qck will play flex and is excellent in that role. Mazin should go back to playing as a controller and will play Raze on some maps, while Nzr is one of the best players in South America and is probably the second best IGL we have in Brazil.”
If Vixen and Jhow’s change wasn’t motivated by out-of-game factors, in my opinion the moves didn’t make much sense. Despite RgLm being the second best controller in the region, the bet on Rhz was high, and even then I don’t think he was the biggest problem of this team. Despite having excellent players and heat/mwzera popping off every single playoff game, the team seems lost in functionality and feels uncomfortable after the Jett nerf.
Murizzz and Rhz act as the “piano carriers”, or supportive cast of this team for Heat and Mwzera to play comfortably. The team’s map pool is pretty limited however, even though they’ve won all their recent matches against FURIA, they’ve always lost against NIP this year and have a 0–5 record to them.”
- “Moving onto Latin America, what do you think of their teams?”
“Thinking about them, KRU is the top seeded team and the favorite to qualify, while FUSION is playing very well and had good preparations. Recently they won 2–1 against Leviatan in LATAM Challengers and lost the lower final in a 2–3 game against them.
Xander, Dcop, and Torrify are good players and will shine in this tournament. Since they also signed Jovi, they are my dark horse with TBK to get one of the slots, and I have heard good things about them in North American & Brazilian scrims. 9z added bnj and Puli and now they have an interesting lineup, but they will be also underdogs to qualify.”
This concludes the interview with Noyn, and now we’ll be moving onto storylines.
Storylines
Can NIP make it to the finish line?
Ninjas in Pyjamas were swept on their way to Champions via circuit point qualification, with LOUD blowing everyone out of the water in points, leaving NIP to have to qualify through the LCQ.
NIP’s Brazilian team was made initially as a move from Europe as the org had a EU division at first, before making the choice to move to Brazil heading into the 2022 VCT. NIP’s decision might be a success for them, as they’ve started to yield the results they were hoping for. But the LCQ is the final chance to make it into Champions, where they really get the chance to prove themselves.
Can NIP truly make it and show why they’re competing for the top of Brazil, or will a new team overcome them as they’re nearing the final hurdle when there’s so much on the line?
Can Vivo Keyd redeem themselves for lacking results?
Ever since the Acend incident, Vivo Keyd hasn’t been looking so hot domestically and internationally. A 0–2 loss against X10 to finish their run in VALORANT Champions quickly culminated into back to back losses in Brazil’s lower bracket finals across both VCT stages.
Despite the strong stats that their star players of heat & mwzera would bring to the table in every series, it just seemed to never be enough for Vivo Keyd to produce strong enough results to return to international play.
The roster has spent the last 3 months together leading up to the LCQ. Now, Vivo Keyd might have a chance at breaking their curse and return to the biggest stage once again. It might take a miracle, and some of their players outside of the core two might have to look better than ever for the team to find success once again. But is this enough?
Will mwzera continue to have the insaniest stats?
As a wise man once said, mwzera has some of the insaniest stats to come out of a player. 86% deathmatch win rate, 66.3% ranked win rate, the best Raze, he could be the one thing Vivo Keyd need for new success.
In seriousness though, mwzera is still looking sharp on the Vivo Keyd roster, despite their losses throughout the 2022 season. In some cases, he’s taken over the helm of the star player role on the team, alongside heat.
With his inaugural buyout from Gamelanders being the highest ever in Brazilian VALORANT so far, mwzera might have to show once more his value as he enters the LCQ. Can mwzera keep up his tempo in the LCQ, where he’ll face some of his toughest competition yet?
Unfortunately, the VLR limit stops me from putting the full article here, but if you'd like to check out the rest, consider reading here! Medium
Discord