LOUD aspas on first loss in VCT Americas League
- LOUD’s undefeated streak ends in week 7 of the VCT Americas League after NRG 2-0 sweep.
- What made NRG vs LOUD VALORANT match difficult for LOUD duelist Erick “aspas” Santos?
- What is aspas planning to work on before the end of the VCT Americas League?
- How will LOUD prepare for the VCT Americas League playoffs following NRG vs LOUD VALORANT match?
For LOUD, the VCT Americas League had been a preview of promising performances for their probable qualification to VCT Masters Tokyo.
No team had been able to take down LOUD for the first six weeks of the VCT Americas League. They stood as the best team in the entire VCT Americas League and had already secured a top-two finish in the regular season with their 7-0 record.
However, their biggest test against NRG proved that LOUD isn’t a perfect team yet. While they still remain a favorite to qualify for VCT Masters Tokyo, yesterday’s series showed that there is still a lot that needs to be done.
For LOUD’ star duelist aspas, the first thought that came to his mind was that it was “tough”.
“It was a really tough game,” Aspas said after the series against NRG. “The enemy team was really prepared for us and they studied their plays before so it was just really tough.”
The VCT Americas League has been an extension of aspas’ dominance as one of the best VALORANT players in the world for the past year. However, yesterday’s series against NRG saw aspas struggle throughout both maps.
Instead of the usual dominance, aspas stood at the bottom of the player leaderboards. The series against NRG saw aspas post a 0.73 Rating and 20 kills throughout LOUD’s first loss in the VCT Americas League.
When asked what he felt were his biggest struggles throughout the two-game series, he highlighted NRG’s preparation as something that made it really difficult for him to make any play on the map.
“I felt very pressured all throughout both maps by NRG,” aspas said. “Every time I would try to make a play, they would know exactly where I was so that just made everything difficult for me.”
How will LOUD prepare for the VCT Americas League playoffs?
There is no longer an undefeated team that stands above the rest of the league. Regardless, LOUD’s superb play all throughout the VCT Americas League has guaranteed a top-two finish in the regular season and a first-round bye.
For aspas, the coming weeks will be used as an opportunity to fix their issues going into the VCT Americas League playoffs.
“We have been really analyzing our errors and mistakes to get organized,” aspas said about preparation going into the VCT Americas League playoffs. “These coming weeks are a good time to prepare for that.”
“The biggest thing we need to work on is our play on first maps,” aspas said. “It takes us a while to get our heads into the series so that’s the number one thing we are going to work on.”
LOUD will play their final series of the VCT Americas League against Leviatán on May 19, 2023 at 3pm PT.
You can watch the live streams through the VALORANT Americas Twitch and YouTube channels.
Sage got his start in esports as a volunteer writer in 2016 for esports organization, Dignitas. Since then, he has continued to work on his craft as a journalist and reporter for a number of established esports publications, such as esports.gg, Unikrn, Akshon Esports, Howla, The Player’s Lobby, Nerd Street Gamers, and most recently Dot Esports. Now, as a member of Esports Illustrated’s content team, Sage’s primary duties are centered around creating groundbreaking written and video content about the esports industry that impacts the community in a meaningful way. Sage graduated from Rutgers University with a Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology and Informatics. There, he was a member of the Rutgers Esports Executive Board, both as the head of the fighting game community and a videographer/photographer for the Content team.