LOUD statement: Brazilian team reaches Masters: Reykjavík grand final

For the first time in the young history of the VALORANT Champions Tour, a Brazilian team has reached the grand final of an international tournament. Brazilian teams won three games across three tournaments last year. At Masters: Reykjavík, Brazilian teams have won four games, with LOUD responsible for three of them and looking for an even bigger win in the grand final.

“For us I think it’s a great honor honestly because our objective here is to make our region respected for the whole world,” Gustavo "Sacy" Rossi said in a postmatch press conference. “This is just the beginning. So I hope we inspire and become a reference to other Brazilian teams.”

LOUD beat OpTic Gaming, one of the best teams in North America and one of the favorites entering Masters, to win their third straight series in Iceland. As the No. 1 Brazilian seed, LOUD was one of four teams out of the 12 competing in Reykjavík to start the tournament in the playoffs. They beat Europe’s Team Liquid and G2 Esports before taking down OpTic.

OpTic looked like they might reach the grand final after beating LOUD 13-2 on Map 1 on Fracture.

A confident OpTic did some trash talking as a result, but LOUD did not take kindly to the banter coming from OpTic’s side during that first map. After the match, Sacy said he thought it was childish.

“We’re a professional team, we don’t waste our energy cursing the other team,” he said.

Photo credit: Riot Games

LOUD answered back on Map 2 on Ascent, which they won 13-8 with a strong defensive half in which they won eight of nine rounds.

LOUD looked poised to take Map 3 on Icebox just as easily as OpTic took Fracture after going up 6-1. OpTic closed the gap, however, leading to only a 7-5 halftime advantage for LOUD.

The second half was back and forth, with LOUD holding on to a single-round advantage at 9-8 and again at 12-11. With OpTic threatening to tie it at 12 and push the map to overtime, LOUD held on to win 13-11.

LOUD were carried by 17-year-old Felipe "Less" Basso -- the youngest player at the tournament -- on that final map. Less led all players in the game with a 33/13 K/D on Map 3. He was the only LOUD player with more kills than deaths on that map.

When asked after the match what led to that performance, Less said via an interpreter that Icebox was his worst map at the start of the tournament, so he really dedicated himself to it. Against Team Liquid on Icebox, Less had a K/D of 17/14, so it wasn’t like he was terrible on it. What’s even more impressive is that he put up huge numbers not on Jett or Chamber, but on Viper.

Photo credit: Riot Games

Less has certainly made a name for himself internationally with his performance against OpTic, but there are two names on this roster who should be familiar to VALORANT fans. Gustavo "Sacy" Rossi and Matias "Saadhak" Delipetro were on Team Vikings, a team that competed at last year’s edition of Masters: Reykjavík and Champions.

LOUD’s latest victory is their 17th consecutive since coming together in January as a roster initially known as Pancada e Amigos. In fact, LOUD have yet to lose a match. The Brazilian team has gotten most of these victories over fellow Brazilian teams, but with wins over some of the top European and North American teams at Masters, this team has lived up to the “superteam” label.

LOUD now await the winner of the lower bracket final between OpTic and ZETA DIVISION, which will take place Saturday at 1 p.m. ET. Unlike the rest of the tournament, which has consisted of best-of-three matches, both the lower final and grand final will be best-of-five. The grand final will take place Sunday at 1 p.m. ET.

Lead photo credit: Riot Games