Brazilian team LOUD had been crowned the 2022 Valorant Champions after defeating North America's OpTic Gaming, 3-1, in the best-of-five grand finals of VCT Champions 2022 at the Volkswagen Arena in Istanbul, Turkey.
Game 1 on the Ascent map saw a tough match between the two squads. However, LOUD emerged victorious and scored a 15-13 win. Gustavo "Sacy" Rossi led his team to victory, earning himself map MVP honors with a KDA of 32/14/16 and an Average Combat Score (ACS) of 313.
OpTic Gaming bounced back on Game 2 as they fired up the first half with a 10-2 round lead. They continued their domination against LOUD and ended the Bind map with a 13-6 tally, equalizing the series.
LOUD crushed OpTic Gaming on Game 3 on the Breeze map with a 16-14 round win to take the series lead once again, leading to match point.
Carrying their momentum, LOUD outplayed OpTic in Game 4, finishing a landslide 13-5 round victory in the Haven map.
With their win, LOUD bagged the grand prize of USD 300,000 from the USD 1,000,000 total prize pool. Meanwhile, OpTic Gaming took home USD 150,000. The third-place team, South Korea's DRX, earned USD 110,000.
For those unaware, Valorant is a 5-on-5 first-person shooter where teams compete to win 13 rounds first. The game has amassed an enormous fan base. Riot Games, the game's developer, announced in April 2022 that Valorant had 15 million monthly players.
According to the analytics and tracking service Esports Charts, the grand final's concurrent viewership online peaked at 1.5 million (excluding Chinese platforms), setting a record for Valorant esports viewership.
Watch Valorant Champions 2022 Grand Finals (LOUD vs. OpTic Gaming)
LOUD Valorant roster:
- Erick "aspas" Santos
- Felipe "Less" Basso
- Bryan "pANcada" Luna
- Matias "saadhak" Delipetro
- Gustavo "Sacy" Rossi
OpTic Gaming Valorant roster:
- Pujan "FNS" Mehta
- Victor "Victor" Wong
- Austin "crashies" Roberts
- Jaccob "yay" Whiteaker
- Jimmy "Marved" Nguyen
Image via Valorant Esports
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