Coming into Champions 2023, the Americas League fields a unique cocktail of Davids and Goliaths. First, can underdogs Evil Geniuses Evil Geniuses North America Rank #21 Derrek Derrek Ha NaturE Nicholas Garrison supamen Phat Le Apoth Vincent Le jawgemo Alexander Mor and KRÜ Esports KRÜ Esports Latin America South Rank #3 keznit Angelo Mori Klaus Nicolas Ferrari Shyy Fabian Usnayo Melser Marco Eliot Machuca Amaro heat Olavo Marcelo keep up their momentum? And second, will former Champions LOUD LOUD Brazil Rank #1 Quick Gabriel Lima saadhak Matias Delipetro Less Felipe de Loyola tuyz Arthur Andrade cauanzin Cauan Pereira return to form in time for another shot at glory?

Evil Geniuses

Evil Geniuses take a final bow onstage at Masters Tokyo (Photo by Liu Yi Cun/Riot Games)

At the beginning of the season, EG were lampooned for their 10-man roster and perceived lack of firepower. Early power rankings consistently placed the team at the bottom of the Americas League.

And at first, EG seemed to play into public perception. They began the league with a 1-4 record, their only win against a winless KRÜ. On April 15, three weeks into the League, EG announced on Twitter that Demon1 would replace controller player BcJ for future matches.

Eventually, EG would end the season 4-5 with their playoff chances hinged on MIBR MIBR Brazil Rank #5 jzz João Pedro mazin Matheus Araújo artzin Arthur Araujo RgLMeister Matheus Rodigoli frz Leandro Gomes winning against 100 Thieves 100 Thieves North America Rank #9 bang Sean Bezerra Cryocells Matthew Panganiban eeiu Daniel Vucenovic Boostio Kelden Pupello Asuna Peter Mazuryk , an unprecedented feat given that MIBR were playing with their assistant coach TxoziN . Then TxoziN throttled 100 Thieves on Lotus, and the rest was history.

Evil Geniuses proceeded to make it to Tokyo as the third Americas slot. Despite visa issues, Demon1 was able to fly in just in time to 2-0 FUT Esports FUT Esports Europe Rank #3 MrFaliN Furkan Yeğen yetujey Eray Budak AtaKaptan Ata Tan cNed Mehmet Yağız İpek qRaxs Doğukan Balaban in the opening match of the tournament. EG wouldn't drop a single map until the upper bracket finals, where they lost 2-1 against eventual tournament winners FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #1 Leo Leo Jannesson Derke Nikita Sirmitev Boaster Jake Howlett Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder . After narrowly coming out of the lower bracket finals 3-2 against Paper Rex Paper Rex Asia-Pacific Rank #1 mindfreak Aaron Leonhart Jinggg Wang Jing Jie f0rsakeN Jason Susanto d4v41 Khalish Rusyaidee something Ilya Petrov , EG lost to FNATIC in the grand finals 3-0.

From the bottom of the barrel to second place at Masters Tokyo, EG have already exceeded all expectations for them this season. The question is: Now that they are no longer considered unknowns, can they still continue their dominance?

KRÜ Esports

Angelo "keznit" Mori (L) and Nicolas "Klaus" Ferrari of KRU Esports hug onstage after LCQ victory (Photo by Tina Jo/Riot Games)

In the off-season, KRÜ lost long-time players keznit and Mazino as well as their head coach Onur to rival LATAM team Leviatán Leviatán Latin America South Rank #1 tex Ian Botsch kiNgg Francisco Aravena Mazino Roberto Rivas aspas Erick Santos C0M Corbin Lee . In exchange, KRÜ gained Leviatán controller player Melser .

At first, it appeared obvious that Leviatán had won the trade: The blue serpents reached the semifinals of LOCK//IN and began the regular season with a promising 3-1 start. Meanwhile, KRÜ bombed out of LOCK//IN and went on one of the worst regular season runs in the entire league, ending with a winless 0-9 record.

Then, Last Chance Qualifiers: After a more than one-and-a-half month long break, KRÜ took down Brazilian teams MIBR and FURIA FURIA Brazil Rank #8 kon4n Vitor Hugo mwzera Leonardo Serrati havoc Ilan Eloy Khalil Khalil Schmidt nzr Agustin Ibarra to advance to the double-elimination bracket of the tournament, where they remained undefeated all the way to the grand finals with victories against Leviatán and favorites Cloud9 Cloud9 North America Rank #8 Xeppaa Erick Bach runi Dylan Cade moose Kaleb Jayne vanity Anthony Malaspina OXY Francis Hoang .

Leviatán emerged victorious against Cloud9 in the lower bracket finals, setting up a grand finals showdown between the LATAM representatives. KRÜ defeated old teammate Mazino and coach Onur 3-1 (keznit had returned to KRÜ mid-season) to complete the biggest upset run in Valorant history and secure their spot in Champions 2023.

Now KRÜ have an opportunity to prove their Cinderella run through the LCQ bracket was no fluke, and that they are far from the same team that lost to every one of their opponents in the VCT regular season.

LOUD

LOUD at VALORANT Masters Tokyo (Photo by Lee Aiksoon/Riot Games)

The Champions 2022 winning team lost Sacy and pANcada to Sentinels in perhaps the most unexpected shakeup of the off-season. In their place, the team recruited young and upcoming Brazilian talents tuyz and cauanzin .

In LOCK//IN, LOUD quickly showed off that they were still a force to be reckoned with. The team won four games in a row, including a 2-1 victory against the new incarnation of the OpTic core, to make it to the grand finals in front of their home crowd.

Unfortunately for LOUD, FNATIC took home the victory and the narrative with an incredible 11-3 comeback on the final map of the series, Icebox.

Not to be deterred, LOUD went on a dominant 8-1 regular season run and placed number one in the Americas League. They cruised through the playoffs undefeated, taking down NRG in the finals 3-0. However, the Brazilian team hiccuped in Tokyo. LOUD didn't win a single map against Evil Geniuses and EDward Gaming EDward Gaming China Rank #1 ZmjjKK Zheng Yongkang (郑永康) nobody Wang Senxu (王森旭) Muggle Tang Shijun (唐时俊) CHICHOO Wan Shunji (万顺治) Smoggy Zhang Zhao (张钊) Haodong Guo Haodong (郭浩东) and bombed out of the tournament in just two games.

Analysts blamed the disappointing performance in part on LOUD's map picks: The team didn't play any Harbor/Viper compositions in Tokyo and star duelist aspas only played a single map on Jett. In a post-match interview on the Brazilian broadcast after their loss against EG, Less also expressed some frustrations with LOUD's draft.

In the lead-up to Champions, unsubstantiated reports of internal issues surrounding aspas led LOUD IGL saadhak to speak out, claiming that the team was “united and focused 100% for the Champions.”

This begs the question: Was LOUD's performance at Masters Tokyo just another example of the “second-place curse,” or was it a sign of something more troubling to come?