A rumor has made waves throughout the Valorant community. LOUD’s star player, Felipe “Less” Basso, will likely be removed from the active roster, but the reason might not be what you think it is.
Noyn, a well-known Brazilian leaker in the Valorant scene, has made a shocking announcement. He tweeted that Less, who has been LOUD’s top performer by a large margin, has an uncertain future within the organization.
He claimed it was likely that the 19-year-old would be moved to the team’s bench. You might wonder if LOUD was crazy enough to kick their best player. However, the benching revolves around financial factors.
Noyn continued to mention that LOUD’s newest recruit, Gabriel “qck” Lima, is also not guaranteed to stay in the team for the next Valorant tournament. The team’s most recent addition had to fill in the big shoes Erick “aspas” Santos left in the team.
It is fascinating that LOUD, an organization with one of the highest-selling Valorant team capsules, is having financial issues, even though they do not have high-budget teams in other esport titles.
Recently, LOUD failed to qualify for their first international Valorant event since the beginning of the roster. The Brazilian squad was eliminated from VCT Masters Shanghai contention after losing 0-2 to 100Thieves in the Knockout Round of the Americas Stage 1 Playoffs.
Matias “Saadhak” Delipetro failed to lead the team to much success in the regular season, as LOUD barely scraped past the first stage. They had a negative win-loss ratio of 2 wins and 3 losses. Fortunately, they defeated G2 Esports in their final Group Stage match to qualify for the Playoffs.
Less was still by far the team’s highest-performing player. However, his rating fell significantly compared to the previous VCT Americas Kickoff, when he was the second highest-rated player in the entire league, tied with Zachary “zekken” Patrone. In Stage 1, Less only averaged a 1.07 rating and was the 16th-highest-rated player in the league—a massive falloff.
It really shows that the current Valorant competitive scene is as competitive as it has ever been. LOUD placed second in the VCT Americas Kickoff and had a relatively deep run in the first international tournament of 2024, VCT Masters Madrid.
However, one blunder in the regional league forced the team to miss their first Valorant event, and roster changes are already happening. Still, it is pretty odd that Less is being benched for financial reasons. Is the organization going bankrupt, or is Less asking for an insanely high salary?
As of now, LOUD or Less has not made any official statements. However, the young gun tweeted a singular word and did not elaborate on the situation further.
oi?????????
— LOUD Less (@loud_less) May 9, 2024
If the rumor is true, and Less will depart from LOUD, we can expect a bloodbath between organizations who will throw as much money as possible to secure a star player like him in their roster.
Header: Instagram @lessvlr
