On Wednesday, September 30, LOUD suffered a 0:2 defeat to Team Vitality in the upper bracket of Group B at the VALORANT Champions Shanghai tournament. With this victory, the European squad secured a spot in the playoffs, while LOUD moved down to the lower bracket. Now, to keep their tournament hopes alive, the team must win their upcoming elimination match against the winner of the EDward Gaming vs. Global Esports matchup.
LOUD's head coach, Gonzalo "Romanilly" Mansano, attributed the failure to a slow start, which immediately complicated the course of the series. Assistant coach Miguel "Bati" Batista added that the team gave the opponent too much space, especially on the first map. This led to hesitant decision-making and playing with fear. According to him, the main lesson for the team is the need to set the pace of the game themselves, translating the confidence from their practice sessions into official matches.
Regarding their future opponent, Romanilly would prefer facing Global Esports since the teams haven't played each other before, though he emphasized respect for any opponent. For his part, player David "DaviH" Cruz singled out Zheng "ZmjjKK" Yongkang from EDward Gaming as the primary threat that requires extra attention. Despite the pressure of the lower bracket, the coaching staff is uncompromising: Bati stated that the team is perfectly prepared and is only considering a winning scenario.
Despite the result, the players found positives in the series. Player Enzo "tkzin" Zimiani highly praised the experience of playing in a tense overtime on the second map, emphasizing that the team took away a lot of useful lessons from this stressful situation. Additionally, tkzin and his teammate Lucca "lukxo" Travaioli noted the unprecedented support from local fans. According to the esports athletes, the attention from fans in China is so massive that it sometimes makes it difficult to move around outside the hotel, yet the players are genuinely enjoying the atmosphere.
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