LOUD return to form with a 2-0, sending Team Liquid home

LOUD LOUD Brazil Rank #1 Quick Gabriel Lima saadhak Matias Delipetro Less Felipe de Loyola tuyz Arthur Andrade cauanzin Cauan Pereira made quick work of Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #18 Jamppi Elias Olkkonen nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin Enzo Enzo Mestari Mistic James Orfila Keiko Georgio Sanassy , winning 2-0 and advancing to face Natus Vincere Natus Vincere Europe Rank #5 ANGE1 Kyrylo Karasov Shao Andrey Kiprsky Zyppan Pontus Eek SUYGETSU Dmitry Ilyushin ardiis Ardis Svarenieks in the Group D decider match.

Despite having won their respective VCT Leagues, both teams came into the tournament following disappointing exits from Masters: Tokyo. Both LOUD and Team Liquid looked revitalized in their opening game against DRX DRX Korea Rank #1 stax Kim Gu-taek (김구택) BuZz Yu Byung-chul (유병철) MaKo Kim Myeong-gwan (김명관) Foxy9 Jung Jae-sung (정재성) BeYN Kang Ha-bin (강하빈) and NAVI respectively, however they ended in defeats and in the teams descending to the first elimination match of Champions 2023.

Coming into the event, there were many doubts about LOUD's agent picks and off-the-server chemistry. This was quickly quelled during map one, where LOUD dominated Team Liquid in a quick 13-2 on Haven with their signature Harbor-Viper composition.

LOUD's defense was particularly dominant. Less ' anchoring ended the half with a staggering 1.92 rating on Killjoy, getting 15 eliminations and only dying five times. Meanwhile, saadhak didn't necessarily have a statistically notable game, but was involved in most of Liquid's site hits, winning three first encounters and losing the same amount. He still contributed with his utility, however, getting seven assists on defense.

One aspect to note regarding Team Liquid's attack is that they full-bought or forced every round, and the only two victories were with worse equipment than LOUD. They also failed to win against the bonus round whenever they lost the pistol round, which set them back by a notable amount on both Haven and Split.

Team Liquid clearly had deep preparation in the early round, but ultimately LOUD's anchoring and retakes proved too much to handle, often forcing them into unfavorable 1v1s or simply drawing out mistakes from the Liquid players. As soulcas mentioned in the press conference following their loss to NAVI, “the main thing that's stopping us from being the best is fixing up these small micro situations that can really swing a game in an official match.”

The momentum gained in map one set LOUD up to steal Team Liquid's map pick, albeit in a closer fashion than Haven.

Once again, LOUD won the initial three rounds, but a thrifty win and key 1v3 from Jamppi helped Team Liquid stabilize and bring back the half to a 6-6. On their attack, Team Liquid managed to win their first pistol round of the series and take the lead for the first time. Unfortunately for Liquid, those first two rounds were all their default heavy and slow style could win them against LOUD's stronghold.

They seemingly failed to capitalize on their comp's aggressive potential, since Jamppi's Jett ended the attack side with three more first deaths than first kills, and Sayf as Raze was only involved in two opening engagements, winning one and losing the other. Late rotations and executes were also punished by LOUD being more proactive than expected, including a massive triple kill in round 16 from tuyz to buy time for his team.

With this crucial victory, LOUD keep their hopes alive in defending their Champions title. They will play NAVI for the first time ever in order to determine who moves on to the playoffs and who returns home without meeting expectations.

After the match, LOUD head coach fRoD was asked if LOUD was concerned about facing cNed . “We have aspas ,” was all he needed to say.