LOUD Sacy: “aspas is just that simple guy that wants to headshot people. He’ll pick and choose Jett and then me and Saadhaak try and make everything comfortable for him”

The rumblings of a Brazilian "super team" started to form shortly after Team Vikings' group stage exit at VCT Champions. The idea behind the LOUD roster construction was bringing over two of the most experienced, tactical players in Brazilian Valorant (Sacy and saadhak) with Bryan "pancada" Luna and surrounding them with the region's most mechanically gifted players. Enter rookies Erick "aspas" Santos and Felipe "Less" de Loyola, two players barely over the age of 17, and in one event together have shattered the ceiling for Brazilian VALORANT.

The victory over Liquid will forever be a marquee moment in the development of Brazil as a Valorant region. It's long been touted as a country full with talent good enough to compete on a world stage and we saw it all come to fruition in their first playoff series victory.

Brazil has had its moments at VCT Masters events: Vivo Keyd beating Acend at Champions (a result later overruled due to the use of an exploit), Team Vikings taking out X10, or Ninjas in Pyjamas taking out Fnatic at this very event. However, LOUD is the first Brazilian team to earn a playoff win and the hype around the team is starting to turn into belief.

For Sacy, it's the combination of enabling his star rookies to play their best and staying composed in the moment.

Sacy is of course talking about the fact that three days prior to their playoff series, aspas tested positive for COVID-19, followed up by teammate Less a few days later. Fortunately, the two are able to play in the game despite testing positive, but Sacy hopes to see them back sooner rather than later to feel the thrill of the Rejyakvik stage. 

When asked what it felt like playing without them by his side, Sacy responded hesitantly. Furthermore, he spoke of their refusal to leave the VCT stage as a hilarious form of superstition after getting blown out on Haven.

"It felt strange, especially after the first game, because when it ended, we were kinda lost. it was only me, Saadhaak and Pancada," said Sacy. "Aspas and Less weren't by our side and they are the two rookies that are playing their first International tournament of their lives. It was our first experience as well in this situation and it felt kinda odd. And don't get me wrong, it's not an excuse, it just felt odd. And then, me and Saadhak realized our mistake after we moved from the PC. So, on Ascent, we didn't move from the PC, when it ended, the second map, we stayed and said 'ok guys, don't move, don't leave the pc and just prepare for Ascent, just focus'"

Even while playing under unique circumstances and facing their toughest opponents to date, LOUD stayed composed. Nothing Liquid tried seemed to surprise LOUD, including Liquid opting for their worst map, record wise, in Icebox. Sacy fully expected Liquid to pick Icebox and LOUD delivered on a map they didn't play once in Challengers.

"When we were doing the drafts at big events, we saw that they liked Split. We always ban icebox in Brazil, so as soon as we banned Split, I knew they were picking Icebox" 

Returning back to the LOUD rookies, despite being in a high-pressure position for the first time in their careers, both showed nerves of hardened steel. In fact, aspas, as he did all throughout Challengers, put up huge numbers on the Jett and opened up miles of space for his teammates.

Unlike previous iterations of Sacy and saadhak Brazilian teams, LOUD not only has the structure in place but the firepower. It's one of the most solidly built teams at the event, that all work off each other beautifully. The arrival of an intelligent Controller main like pancada, combined with the sheer aim talent of aspas and Less have, through osmosis, improved the team's form as a whole.

As for the game plan against the explosive Liquid roster, on their two map wins, LOUD effectively found their win conditions. This includes the emphasis on denying plants on Icebox that Sacy gave credit to the Korean region for perfecting 

"We have been talking a lot about this and we've been watching the koreans, so we got inspiration from them because they're really good at using the skills to like to agilt so yeah, we've been trying to press that a lot. We did it good against Liquid but there's still a lot to improve on"

Moreover, it's clear that LOUD has their sights set on a deeper run and aren't satisfied with one impressive victory. With G2 up next, Sacy understands it only gets more difficult from here.

LOUD will face G2 in the Upper Semifinals on Sunday, April 17th at 10am PST.