FNATIC won the trophy by defeating their rival LOUD 3-2 in the VCT LOCK//IN Sao Paulo Grand Final. In addition, FNATIC, which received a $100,000 prize in the tournament with a prize pool of $ 500,000, brought an extra slot for the Masters 2023 tournament to the EMEA region with this win.
What was the Story of the Teams?
LOUD had destroyed every team in their way while playing at home, putting any skepticism about their new roster to rest. After their victory at Champions, LOUD replaced Sacy and pANcada, two players that were crucial to their victory, with cauanzin and tuyz. Despite having no prior LAN gaming expertise, the two young stars did an excellent job on their duty.
FNATIC was seated on the other side of the stage. When the season began, they appeared to be one of the competitive teams of EMEA after acquiring Leo and Chronicle during the off-season. The team had previously proven that they were a superteam by defeating some of the best teams in the Americas as well as their local rivals Natus Vincere without losing a single map.
LOUD was always going to have the audience edge when performing in Brazil. Although the fans had cheered on each of the South American teams, the defending world champions were the ones who caused the biggest uproar. A few scattered boos broke the dead quiet as FNATIC took the stage initially, but when LOUD took the stage, they were the ones to bow.
The Match
LOCK//IN In the Sao Paulo Grand Final, we first started with the map chosen by LOUD. Choosing Ascent against Fnatic, the Brazilian team closed the first half 8-4 behind. They paid the price of falling so far behind in their own maps and lost their choice to their rival Fnatic with a score of 13-8 without getting many rounds in the second half.
The second map was Fnatic’s selection and they chose Fracture. Fnatic, closed the first half 6-6 on the map they chose after their easy win at the first map. Then, Fnatic gave only 1 round to their opponent in the second half and took the map of his choice by bringing the situation to 2-0 in the series. One step closer to the trophy, Fnatic moved on to their final map, their opponent’s choice Split.
However, Fnatic did not start well in the Split map. They could not reach the end of the map. The EMEA representative managed to get only 5 rounds in the first half, and only 4 rounds in the second half. Playing well on their second map of his choice, LOUD brought the situation to 2-1 in the series.
Fnatic’s last chance was the Lotus map. In the series, the EMEA team was trying to prevent the situation from coming to 2-2 but they failed against the Brazilians. Having only 5 rounds in the first half, Fnatic was like they weren’t in front of their computers on the second half of the map that they chose. Fnatic gave a chance to the Brazilian team by losing the map they chose and brought the situation to 2-2 in the series.
The final map was chosen as Icebox. The Icebox map was the last chance for Fnatic, and things were not going as they were meant to be. Fnatic closed the first half behind 9-3 and they could not do anything in the second half either. The Brazilian team made the situation 11-3. After that Fnatic took a timeout. This timeout taken by Fnatic was the key step of the match. Returning to the match with the timeout, EMEA team Fnatic made an excellent comeback and kept resisting and biting by making the situation 12-11. After the score being 12-12, the match went into overtime. Fnatic did not make any mistakes against LOUD in the timeouts and managed to defeat their opponent on the last map with a score of 14-12.
FNATIC won VCT LOCK//IN trophy by defeating its rival LOUD in the Sao Paulo Grand Final, with a score of 14-12 on the last map, leading 3-2 in the series with a significant story and great highlight moments.
