The VCT Americas Stage 2 playoffs are underway, with the first day of action seeing four South American orgs in action and two of them showing they haven't missed a beat. While other regions have shown Play-In teams look sharper than teams that qualified to the playoffs from the group stage, Americas was different.

LOUD LOUD Brazil Rank #1 lukxo Lucca Travaioli DaviH David Cruz Darker Sebastián Castro Cicuamia erde Roberto Lobos tkzin Enzo Zimiani loan cauanzin Cauan Pereira got the day started with a dominant showing in a Brazilian derby showdown against FURIA FURIA Brazil Rank #7 basic Luis Henrique Ferlin Tessaro Shyy Fabian Usnayo C0M Corbin Lee artzin Arthur Araujo koalanoob Gianfranco Potestio , brushing them aside in 2-0 fashion. In the second match of the day, LEVIATÁN LEVIATÁN North America Rank #3 spike Rodrigo Lombardi blowz Guilherme Oliviera Neon Bruno Rodríguez Sato Eduardo Kenzo Nagahama Sato kiNgg Francisco Aravena was even more dominant, sending MIBR MIBR Brazil Rank #2 zekken Zachary Patrone tex Ian Botsch Mazino Roberto Rivas Verno Andrew Maust aspas Erick Santos down to the lower bracket with a 2-0 win of its own.

Here's a closer look at how both matches played out:

LOUD mutes FURIA

LOUD, arguably Brazilian Valorant's most prestigious outfit, has undergone a mid-year resurgence since fully integrating in-game leader erde . A 3-2 finish to the group stage was just enough for the side to bypass the Play-Ins and go through to the playoffs, but LOUD seemed to have made the most of its time off.

While teams around the world have shown signs of rust after directly qualifying for the playoffs, that was not the case for LOUD. LOUD went on a 9-0 run to start its attack side, armed with its Phoenix-Neon double-Duelist look that overwhelmed the loud defense. FURIA picked up three rounds to claw back a few rounds at the end of the half, but it seemed like nothing could be done to stop the inevitable.

A force-buy of five Stingers did earn FURIA an anti-eco round after a pistol loss, but there was no follow-up on that advantage. LOUD closed out the map 13-4, and went into its own pick of Summit.

While LOUD stayed with its double-Sentinel, Chamber-Sage comp, FURIA went with a different look after going 0-2 on the map with a solo Waylay comp. A solo Harbor comp with Neon-Phoenix, Cypher, and Fade struggled early, but made strides once the teams switched sides. LOUD carried an 8-4 lead entering halftime, but FURIA came out of the gates strong. A run of five straight rounds saw FURIA seize its first lead of the series, but LOUD turned up the noise.

lukxo finds five!

Despite FURIA's best efforts late, DaviH and lukxo refused to let go, helping LOUD close out the map and the series with a 13-9 win.

tkzin continued to impress in his new role, dropping a match-high 35 kills while DaviH had a match-best rating of 1.50.

LEVIATÁN stomps MIBR

LEVIATÁN has seen a maintained its pace since lifting the Masters London trophy, suffering just one loss in the group stage to defending world champs NRG NRG North America Rank #2 keiko Georgio Sanassy brawk Brock Somerhalder mada Adam Pampuch skuba Logan Jenkins Ethan Ethan Arnold . That pace was kept up against MIBR, who showed signs of better form after surviving the Play-Ins without a loss.

The last time LEV and MIBR met, the London winners won 2-0, but this 2-0 was much more dominant. The series began on LEV's Abyss, a map that the org has not played since 2024. LEV used a comp that has been synonymous with the team since London, with Neon-Phoenix the Duelist pair and Neon on Chamber. Sato was simply unstoppable on the Phoenix role as he has been for much of the year, leading LEV to a 7-5 halftime lead. The hot form didn't stop there though, as he followed up a 14-kill first half with 13 in a shorter second half, pulling off some Split-esque abilities by winning five of seven post-plants to help close out a 13-7 win.

spike puls off the 1v2 to cap off a 4K.

While MIBR picked Lotus, it was a map that it has struggled on at times this year, and a map that has all of the ingredients for LEV to succeed on. A slight switch-up, with Sato on Yoru instead of Phoenix, may have thrown MIBR for a loop.

MIBR won the pistol to kick off the map, but it was all downhill from there. An eco round with just three Headhunter rounds and four Classics was enough for LEV to flip the first-half rythym, parlaying a pistol round loss into a 9-3 half. No matter what MIBR did, it seemed like the outcome of this map was promised from the beginning, with LEV closing out Haven 13-3.

Sato had a match-high 41 kills, while aspas and Verno 's combined 47 were not enough in the end.

Up next

The playoffs will continue with three of the region's top four teams in the Championship Points standings going at it in the upper bracket. The upcoming matches are as follows: