Fnatic are the winners of VCT LOCK//IN São Paulo 2023

The first major tournament in the VCT franchise era has concluded, and we have a champion: Fnatic. The European team won against the Brazilian LOUD, the favorites, in a thrilling final ending with a tight 3-2 score.

There is no doubt that we all expected the final between Fnatic and LOUD to be a thrilling one, but no one expected it to unfold the way it did.

Fnatic beats LOUD and is crowned in São Paulo

The start of the grand final was practically a copy of what happened in the semifinals between Fnatic and NaVi. The Europeans won without any problem in Ascent against the Brazilians to start the series, thanks to an extraordinary performance by Leo “Leo” Jannesson with Sova.

On the second map, Fracture, Fnatic brought out their defensive power. After a 6-6 first half, Fnatic stopped practically all Brazilians’ attacks spectacularly. The Europeans lost only one round in the second half, winning 13-7.

The South American awakening

In the third map, Split, LOUD started to wake up and recover with Erick “aspas” Santos carrying his entire team. However, while Fnatic tried to give the Brazilians a blow on the attack, Felipe “Less” Basso made sure that none of the Europeans could have a comfortable match, and thus, LOUD handed the first defeat (map-wise) to Fnatic of the whole tournament.

LOUD needed to return and win the fourth map, Lotus, which they had not played yet in the tournament. Things did not start well for the Brazilians, as Fnatic went up 0-3 on the scoreboard. However, with different well-planned strategies, they won several consecutive rounds to go to the break with a 7-5 lead.

However, LOUD’s defense in Lotus really gave them the victory, as they managed to make Fnatic completely desperate, forcing them to make some unexpected mistakes to take the victory 13-8 and play the fifth decisive map.

Icebox was a spectacle

The grand final ended in Icebox, where we saw two teams showing a spectacular level of play in each of the rounds they played. LOUD started with everything and took the victory in the first half with a crushing score of 9-3. When we all thought this would be a South American victory, Fnatic began the historic comeback of this grand final, winning nine consecutive rounds and taking the lead in the scoreboard 11-12.

Finally, Nikita “Derke” Sirmitev dressed as a hero for Fnatic and with a defensive triple-kill to give Fnatic the lead in Overtime.

Finally, Fnatic crushed LOUD in Site B to complete a historic comeback in this grand final.

With this victory, Fnatic achieves the coveted champion’s trophy in a tournament at the highest competitive level of VALROANT. Almost all players are champions for the first time, except for Timofey “Chronicle” Khromov, who lifted the champion trophy at Masters Berlin 2021 with Gambit.

From Fragster, we congratulate the deserving champion, Fnatic, and hope that the successes will continue at the next VCT EMEA 2023 starting at the end of March.

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