LOUD become VALORANT Champions 2022

The third time is the charm for the Brazilian team LOUD, who are your 2022 Valorant Champions!

In the Valorant universe, 2022 belonged to OpTic Gaming. But in the Grand Finals at the 2022 Valorant Champions, LOUD had the last laugh. DRX also made a big leap, scoring a third-place finish at the biggest international Valorant event up to date.

LOUD are the best Valorant team in the World

Fans worldwide might know about LOUD’s level of play through the lens of the international stage. But for the year, LOUD have a 30-4 record in all matches, and a 68-15 map record. As dominant as these numbers seem, they are skewed by one opponent. LOUD had to settle for the second-place finish at the Master Reykjavik tournament because of Optic, who also bounced them in the first round of the Copenhagen Masters. LOUD’s record without Optic is a staggering 27-1, losing only five maps the entire year to teams that aren’t Optic. 

LOUD win Valorant Champions 2022

This final delivered another classic, with world-class FPS fundamentals on full display. Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker was once again the vocal point, spearheading Optic to their third top 3 finish at international events this year. But his brilliance was no match for LOUD’s well-oiled machine. All five players for LOUD had over 200 ACS and an ADR of between 130 and 140. A 3-1 win might look like a convincing victory but this one was another nail bitter until Optic ran out of gas. LOUD won the first map Ascent 15-13 after coming back from 8-12 deficit. Optic proved that, apart from PRX, they are the best team on Bind in the world on map two. LOUD had another slow start on Breeze but managed to win a 16-14 thriller behind the pure excellence Erick “aspas” Santos and Felipe “Less” Basso displayed. Haven was the decider map and LOUD got off to a fast start before Optic steered the ship to a 7-5 half. But they just ran out of gas in the second half, losing three rounds in devastating fashion. An ace from Less, a clutch from Gustavo “Sacy” Rossi , and losing site control because LOUD hit headshots while flashed spelled doom for Optic’s chances. 

DRX claims the third place

The Korean representatives kicked off the tournament on a high note, not dropping a single map in the first three matches. They got swept by LOUD in the upper semifinals but regrouped and made a solid lower bracket push. In it, they beat Fnatic, FPX, and almost reverse-swept Optic to qualify for the Grand Finals but fell just short of it. Goo “Rb” Sang-min showed why he’s invaluable to this DRX team, playing five different agents and four roles through their series with Optic.

A step in the right direction

Valorant Champions 2022 was everything Riot could hope for and even more. Before the competition kicked off we covered some of the reasons why this tournament would be the start of Valorant rise as the premier FPS game. Looking back on it, this was a great way to cap off this chapter of Valorant history heading into franchising. The Grand Finals amassed more than 1,5 million peak viewers, up by 30% from the 2021 Grand Finals. The success DRX found in this tournament made Valorant the third most played game in PC bangs in Korea, behind only League of Legends and FIFA. Considering Korea is the place of birth for esports, their youth taking interest in Valorant is a great sign for the game.

With the competitive 2022 season in the books, all that remains is to cherish greatness. Optic’s Yay earned his nickname El Diablo in 2022 and for good reason. His performance over the entire year is something we haven’t seen in Valorant until now, and Valorant Champions 2022 was the cherry on top. Leading the tournament in five of the seven major statistical categories is crazy to think of, but that’s the engine propelling Optic forward. With franchising coming up, it will be fun to see how the scene will unfold heading into 2023.

Header: Riot Games