Exactly 173 days after the LOCK//IN Sao Paulo finals, Loud finally got its revenge against Fnatic. In the biggest upset of the tournament, Fnatic has been eliminated from VCT Champions.
Before the first map was even played in the Shrine Expo Hall in Los Angeles, Fnatic was already considered the favorite to take the title. The European squad was on a roll after its decisive victory at VCT Masters Tokyo.
Fnatic finished the group stage undefeated and advanced to playoffs, full of confidence. As luck would have it, Fnatic faced Loud in the first round of playoffs and got knocked down to the Lower Bracket.
In the Lower Bracket, Fnatic secured a victory over FUT Esports. Stumbled against DRX and, ultimately, crumbled against Loud. The Brazillian squad challenged Fnatic like no other team before, and sadly, Fnatic couldn’t adapt in time to stay in the tournament.
In the Upper Bracket, things are going according to the script. Paper Rex advanced to the finals after defeating Evil Geniuses. The series went the distance, with the highly expected Phoenix versus Yoru duel on the third map.
Paper Rex now must wait for its opponent, which will be determined on Friday. Evil Geniuses and Loud are fighting for the privilege to represent the Americas region in finals.
The Americas representatives are perhaps the most evenly matched teams. Evil Geniuses has been improving for the past couple of months and has an ace up its sleeve, Max “Demon1” Mazanov. Demon1 is arguably the best player in the tournament at the moment.
It is clear that Loud has a chip on its shoulder after recent results. The team wants to make a statement — that they are not a squad of has-beens and are, in fact, frontrunners.
Evil Geniuses and Loud will play for the last spot in finals on August 25.
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