“We could feel the crowd as I got those kills”: LOUD sweep Gen.G at VCT 2023 LOCK//IN Brazil

As the final game of the third day of VCT 2023 LOCK//IN Brazil, champions LOUD won the closest 2-0 series yet over Gen.G Esports, with the first overtime of the tournament ending it off. It proved to be a very deceiving series, with Gen.G taking the champs to the brink.

However, LOUD’s experience came through as they clutched out both maps over Gen.G to continue on in the LOCK//IN tournament.

VAMOOO! @LOUDgg brings home the series win in front of an electric crowd!!! #VCTLOCKIN #goLOUD pic.twitter.com/mj2NZQA97C

— VALORANT Champions Tour (@ValorantEsports) February 16, 2023

aspas leads LOUD at LOCK//IN, keeps Gen.G at bay

As soon as the LOCK//IN match started on Pearl, LOUD jumped out to an early lead over Gen.G. The player who was getting what felt like every kill was Erick “aspas” Santos, one of the key players from their championship roster in 2022. His play on Jett stopped what felt like everything that Gen.G tried at the start of Pearl. For every kill aspas got, the crowd in São Paulo just got louder and louder.

“We couldn’t hear many sounds from the crowd,” aspas said, “but we could feel the crowd as I got those kills on Pearl.”

Even with Gen.G fighting back on the rest of their attack, LOUD were able to close the map out 13-9. While the star players stood out, the new supporting cast stood out and earned their stripes.

“For me, it was a lot of work to fit the new guys in,” Matias “Saadhak” Delipetro said. “The guys have been really humble, easy to talk to and talented. It wasn’t hard, but we’re still working around it. It is going great so far though.”

These new additions of Cauan “cauanzin” Pereira and Arthur “tuyz” Vieira blended in quite well with the championship core.

Gen.G surprise in close series

On the other side, Gen.G Esports came into LOCK//IN with a relatively new roster, like LOUD. Their core of former On Sla2ers players got some powerful additions, including well-known Korean talent Kim “Meteor” Tae-O. LOUD were the big favorites coming into the series, but Gen.G were quick to surprise them. After LOUD took that early lead, Gen.G took a timeout and then proceeded to win seven rounds in a row.

As the map score shows, it wasn’t enough to lead to a win, but Gen.G held their own. Gen.G looked stronger than a lot of other teams that got swept earlier in the tournament, at least from what they showed in this one series. If it wasn’t for the single-elimination format, Gen.G would be a team to fear in the lower bracket.

However, coming out of this LOCK//IN tournament, the players on Gen.G knew that they could learn from this LOUD loss.

“I think our biggest takeaway from this match was the LAN experience,” Yu “TS” Tae-seok said. “Lots of us don’t have that LAN experience, so we’ll take this loss as a learning process and form our game around it in the future.”