OpTic vs LOUD: The greatest recurrent match-up in international Valorant in 2022, if not in the whole history of the game. The two green rivals from North and South America have, at every point where they have crossed paths, delivered the highest level of competition over the three international events of the year. This is a thread showing the details of their past 4 face-offs.
Their 1st series:
LOUD came in to Masters 1: Reykjavík as favorites to make a deep run in the tournament. Beating Team Liquid in the 1st round of playoffs, and then running over G2 in a convincing manner, they then faced OpTic Gaming, that came from wins against region-mates The Guard and korean powerhouse DRX. OpTic were definite favorites in the match-up, having had strong results in Masters 3: Berlin in 2021, as well as having convincingly sent home both Xerxia and KRÜ in the group stage.
The maps:
-Map 1: Fracture
Starting off with a bang, OpTic Gaming absolutely demolished LOUD on the attacking side of Fracture, ending 10-2 at the half, in great due to Victor's performance, who dropped a whopping 387 ACS and 18 kills. LOUD was not able to react after the switch, and the game ended a quick 13-2 to OpTic.
Map MVP:
Victor on Neon - 372 ACS
21/7/1/+14
LOUD MVP:
aspas on Raze - 226 ACS
10/12/3/-2
-Map 2: Ascent
Currently regarded as LOUD's best map (they had also recently beaten Team Liquid and G2 on Ascent), it did not start very well for the brazilian superteam. By halftime, they trailed by two rounds, due to a well-coordinated OpTic's strong defense. In the second half, however, the story changed drastically, with LOUD winning 4 rounds in quick succession, dropping 1, and then closing the map out with another 4 in a row to take it to Map 3. The highlight of this map was, of course, the famous 1v3 pANcada clutch on the backsite of B. Final score: 13-8 to LOUD.
Map MVP:
crashies on Sova - 272 ACS
19/14/5/+5
LOUD MVP:
Less on Killjoy - 262 ACS
18/12/5/+6
-Map 3: Icebox
On the decider, most expected OpTic to pull out the win, but LOUD immediately flew to a 6-1 lead, but OpTic recovered to make it 7-5 in the half. An extremely balanced second half followed, with LOUD extending their lead to 12-8. After this, OpTic managed to bring it all the way back to 12-11, but fell short on the final hurdle, and LOUD took the map and series, 2-1. At this point, LOUD was undefeated in series, having won 17 of their 17 match-ups, all through open qualifiers, Challengers and the Masters playoffs (they received a bye to the playoffs due to NiP winning the LATAMxBR LCQ), while only dropping 4 maps. This final map of the series is also the famous "Less backpack game", where he dropped 33 kills (14 more than anyone else on the server) and put up a 375 Average Combat Score.
MVP of the Match:
Less on Viper - 375 ACS
33/13/8/+20
OpTic MVP:
Marved on Viper - 253 ACS
19/20/9/-1
There are four games to record like this, so if this thread gains traction I'll make one for each of the 4 series over the next 3 days leading up to the match
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