100 Thieves triumph in São Paulo to claim Stage 2 trophy

In the final regional match of the VCT partnerships era, 100 Thieves 100 Thieves North America Rank #1 Cryocells Matthew Panganiban Asuna Peter Mazuryk vora Jordan Pulwer Timotino Timothée Lavigne Dupont bang Sean Bezerra narrowly defeated LOUD LOUD Brazil Rank #1 lukxo Lucca Travaioli DaviH David Cruz Darker Sebastián Castro Cicuamia erde Roberto Lobos tkzin Enzo Zimiani loan 3-2 to lay claim to the Americas Stage 2 trophy in front of LOUD's home crowd in São Paulo, Brazil.

The five-map war played out on Split, Sunset, Ascent, Summit, and Haven. LOUD won Split 13-7, 100T took Sunset 13-11 and Ascent 14-12, LOUD dominated Summit 13-1, 100T endured on Haven to win it 14-12.

On paper, the first map favored 100T. As the upper bracket finalists, they leveraged the double ban advantage to take away Abyss and Lotus, forcing LOUD to play their permaban of Split. LOUD, however, showed no signs of the discomfort expected of them, instead putting on a masterful 9-3 attack half with a Neon-Yoru composition and converting a 13-7 victory after a double pistol win. Empowered by the home crowd, the individuals of LOUD all collected their own share of plays, especially erde , who went 24/11 on Astra.

Sunset was the first of three extremely close maps in the series. The gap between the teams stayed within two rounds for almost the entire game, as both teams sought to make the plays that had brought them to the grand final in the first place, from 100T's aggressive Neon-Phoenix reclears to LOUD's surprise contact plays.

In the end, 100T managed to stave off overtime and finish Sunset in regulation 13-11. The map was also the only Chamber-versus-Chamber matchup of the series, and Cryocells came out on top with a vintage 24-kill, 1.43-rating performance.

Ascent was another close affair, but it didn't seem that way at first. LOUD seized the initiative with an overwhelming defense half, snowballing economically and throwing in aggressive pushes between site shutdowns to lead 10-2 at halftime.

100T steadily began to mount a comeback in the face of the deficit, starting first with a pistol and then with a bonus off the back of a vora 1v2. LOUD were unable to find answers to 100T's defense as the gap narrowed to 10-6, then 11-9, then 11-11. LOUD were the ones who had to force overtime, and by then, the momentum was too far gone—100T completed the comeback and locked in a 14-12 victory. Asuna topped the server with 28 kills, 17 of which were on the defense side.

Backs against the wall, LOUD immediately delivered a sucker punch equalizer to 100T in the form of a crushing 13-1 on Summit, thoroughly abusing the A site in an 11-1 attacking side. erde, still leading by example on his ever-reliable Sage pick, was seemingly unkillable, ending the map with 18 kills, only two deaths, and a 2.25 rating. His fellow Sentinel lukxo trailed behind with 17 kills and a 1.69 rating.

Haven was the ultimate decider. Both teams fielded Neon-Phoenix compositions, with the only difference between them being Cryo's Cypher versus lukxo's Chamber. Like Sunset, the map was on a knife's edge all the way through; the two teams traded rounds as the scoreline drew even over and over again.

100T were the first to reach match point; a three-round streak put them up 12-9 and earned them three opportunities to close it out in regulation. LOUD unyieldingly bled away those opportunities to take it to overtime, but 100T did not waver and found victory anyways in 14-12 fashion.

With this result, LOUD once again faces heartbreak on home soil more than three years after the organization's grand final loss at LOCK//IN. On the other side, the Thieves add another trophy to their cabinet and return to the summit of Americas for the first time since Stage 1 in 2024, with Asuna being awarded the title of Finals MVP. Both squads now look ahead to Champions Shanghai, set to take the world stage as the region's first and second seeds.