LOUD’s Saadhak thinks OpTic’s trash talk is ‘childish’

OpTic Gaming have made a name for themselves as some of the premier on-stage trash-talkers in the VALORANT Champions Tour. But after their upper bracket final against LOUD, the Brazilian side called OpTic’s antics “childish.”

“I mean, for us it’s kind of childish to trash talk the other team,” Matias “Saadhak” Delipetro said in the post-match press conference. “We just keep it to ourselves. We are a professional team, right? We don’t waste our energy just cursing the other team.”

The match between LOUD and OpTic Gaming at Stage 1 Masters Reykjavík did not disappoint. It was a close back-and-forth battle that ultimately went to LOUD after three maps. On Map 1, Fracture, even fans at home could see that OpTic were getting heated in their banter and their celebrations as they thrashed LOUD 13-2.

As it turned out, the Brazilians had the last laugh. They bounced back on Ascent and closed it out on Icebox in a game that required all 24 rounds of regulation to separate the two sides. LOUD’s Felipe “Less” Basso had a massive individual performance with 33 kills as Viper.

“We did some mistakes at the end of the game, but I think the MVP is of course Less,” Gustavo “Sacy” Rossi said.

Even though they curb their trash talk, LOUD are still an emotional team motivated by energy and by each other. After Fracture, the team got together for a conversation to mentally reset ahead of the next map.

“As soon as the first map ended, the talk we had with the team was ‘OK let’s forget about this map, let’s think about the next one.'” LOUD’s head coach Matheus “bzkA” Tarasconi said.

It also helped that all five members of the team were playing on stage together. Less and Erick “aspas” Santos were originally confined to a hotel room under COVID-19 procedures. They played their first couple matches in that environment before they were able to get onto the stage.

“Coming back might have really helped because in the room I didn’t have the first bumps, the smiles,” Less  said. “It’s a really big motivation.”

LOUD overcome OpTic to reach grandfinals

LOUD have been the best team at the event thus far, a result that would have been shocking six months ago. They have become the first Brazilian team to book their trip to the grand finals of an international VALORANT event.

“It’s a great honor honestly because our objective here is to make our region respected for the whole world,” Sacy said. “It doesn’t matter if we reach the grand final and still our region, the other Brazilian teams, don’t come with us. This is just the beginning. I hope we inspire and become a reference for other Brazilian teams.”

Sacy and his teammate from Team Vikings, Saadhak, both have their sights set on elevating the Brazilian and Latin American regions. On Vikings, they were able to make it to Champions 2021, but were eliminated in short order. Now on LOUD, the two want to win Masters and then Champions.

“I think me and Saadhak, we became a great duo because we learned so much about the game after Champions,” Sacy said.

As for OpTic, it’s not all doom and gloom. They’ll have another shot to reach the grand finals through the lower bracket, where they take on the winner of the match between ZETA DIVISION and Paper Rex. If they win there, they get a rematch with the Brazilians.

“We have no preference of who to play,” OpTic’s coach Chet “Chet” Singh said. “We’re just going to prepare how we normally do and execute better than today.”