From World Champions to one of the Worst Teams of the Season: The LOUD Downfall Explained

18 Apr

Andre Guaraldo

LOUD, once the pride of Brazilian VALORANT and world champions in 2022, now finds itself at the lowest point in its historye. As the organization prepares to part ways with head coach Jordan "stk" Nunes, this decision marks the latest nail of the coffin that has transformed one of esports' most dominant forces into a struggling team fighting to maintain a slimmer of relevance. This article traces LOUD's journey from global champions to their current crisis, examining the turning points and systemic failures that led to one of competitive gaming's most recent and remarkable downfalls.

The rise to World Championship

LOUD burst onto the VALORANT scene in early 2022 with the acquisition of the roster known as "pANcada e Amigos", featuring a lineup of Sacy, Saadhak, Less, pANcada, and aspas.

The team immediately established dominance in their home region, winning both splits of the Brazilian Challengers without dropping a single series. Their international debut at Masters Reykjavík 2022 proved equally impressive, as they reached the grand finals before falling to OpTic Gaming.

At VALORANT Champions 2022, LOUD achieved their crowning glory by defeating OpTic Gaming 3-1 in the grand finals, becoming world champions and bringing Brazil its first international VALORANT trophy. During this golden period, LOUD established an unprecedented record in professional VALORANT: they lost only four series in international competition throughout 2022.

Brazilian fans look at this image and cry desolated as it's been a while since they felt that much happiness (credits: Riot Games)

The beginning of the end for LOUD

The transition to the franchised VCT system in 2023 brought significant changes to LOUD. Sacy and pANcada departed for Sentinels, forcing the organization to rebuild with newcomers cauanzin and tuyz. While this reconfigured roster showed initial promise—securing the VCT Americas 2023 championship and a runner-up finish at LOCK//IN, cracks were beginning to form beneath the surface.

At Masters Tokyo, LOUD suffered their most humiliating international performance to date, failing to win a single map before being eliminated. Despite regrouping to secure a respectable third-place finish at Champions 2023, internal tensions were reaching a breaking point.

Losing the franchise Star, aspas

The departure of aspas in September 2023 marked a turning point in LOUD's trajectory. As the team's most celebrated player and the MVP of VCT Americas 2023, his decision to leave created a talent void that LOUD has struggled to fill even two years later.

Multiple sources reported that aspas' exit was complicated by several factors, including denied requests for salary increases and contract extensions following their championship victories. The situation grew more contentious when LOUD's CEO Jean liked a tweet suggesting aspas was being "ungrateful" by leaving the organization, indicating friction between management and their star player.

LOUD should have fought harder to keep aspas in the roster (credits: Leviathan)

The Coaching carousel

LOUD’s coaching carousel has played a central role in both the team’s rise and fall. The journey began with Matheus “bzkA” Tarasconi, whose disciplined leadership and tactical acumen guided LOUD to their world championship.

After bzkA’s departure, Daniel “fRoD” Montaner was brought in to inject international experience and structure, leading to another strong season but also introducing communication challenges and internal divides, as his style and language barriers proved difficult for some players to adapt to.

Seeking renewed stability, LOUD turned to Pedro “peu” Lopes hoping he could restore order and chemistry. However, peu’s tenure was short-lived, as the team’s results failed to meet expectations and the roster continued to lack cohesion. In a bid for continuity and clearer communication, LOUD promoted Jordan “stk” Nunes from within, but his time as head coach coincided with the most turbulent period in the organization’s history.

The instability at the coaching position, combined with roster chaos and the loss of the championship core, ultimately contributed to the organization’s steep decline and current crisis.

The end of the LOUD Championship Core

By late 2024, the final elements of LOUD's championship roster had departed. Saadhak officially left the organization in September 2024 after more than two years with the team. His departure, along with Less moving to Team Vitality, marked the complete dissolution of the core that had brought LOUD its greatest triumph.

With the championship core gone, LOUD faced the challenge of rebuilding for the 2025 season.

The 2025 Catastrophic Rebuild

LOUD finalized its 2025 roster with renewed expectations and new names to the squad: Douglas "dgzin" Silva (duelist, ex-FURIA), Vinícius "v1nny" Moreira (IGL, ex-RED Canids), Bryan "pANcada" Luna (returning star), Matheus "cauanzin" Pereira, and Arthur "tuyz" Vieira.

Excitement quickly turned into disappointment as LOUD suffered a string of defeats in the early weeks of VCT Americas 2025 Stage. V1nny posted poor individual and IGL performances, becoming the target of intense criticism from fans and analysts alike. He added more fuel to the fire by saying he was being the "scapegoat" and possibly "the weakest link".

Desperate roster shuffles

As losses mounted in April 2025, LOUD made drastic changes in a desperate attempt to salvage their season. First, they benched tuyz and promoted young talent Lucca "lukxo" Travaioli to the starting lineup as Sentinel.

Lukxo, who had been signed as a substitute in January 2025, had only recently become eligible to play after reaching the minimum age requirement established by Riot Games. The young prospect had previously distinguished himself with Galorys in 2024, showing versatility as both a Controller and Sentinel player.

In this second change within two weeks, LOUD benched v1nny, returned tuyz to the starting lineup, and shifted IGL duties to pANcada. This marked a complete abandonment of the v1nny IGL experiment and highlighted the organization's increasing desperation.

The bottom of the pit for LOUD

LOUD's descent reached new depths in April 2025 when they lost to Sentinels. This loss was part of a four-match losing streak in VCT Americas Stage 1, positioning them near the bottom of the standings.

The team's struggle to find suitable replacements for their departed stars has been painfully apparent. LOUD has experienced significant issues with role assignments, forcing players into uncomfortable positions. For instance, tuyz has been shuffled between multiple roles since pANcada's return—from Controller to Flash Initiator to Duelist to Flex to Sentinel, back to Flex, and now potentially even more changes.

Further complicating matters, LOUD has experimented with unconventional agent compositions that have proven ineffective against experienced opposition. Their once-precise strategic approach has devolved into disjointed individual plays, lacking the coordination that defined their championship squad.

Everything That Went Wrong

LOUD’s collapse can be traced to four intertwined failures that eroded the team’s foundation and competitive edge.

1. Absence of a Relentless Competitor Like Sacy

After Sacy’s departure, LOUD lost more than just a talented player—they lost a relentless, victory-obsessed leader whose drive and standards pushed the team to maximize its potential. Sacy’s influence extended beyond tactics; he set the tone for discipline, ambition, and accountability. Without a figure who demanded excellence and refused to accept limits, the team struggled to maintain its hunger and focus, resulting in a leadership vacuum that no one else managed to fill.

2. Fear of Overcommitting Financially

LOUD’s management hesitated to make the financial commitments necessary to keep their championship roster intact and satisfied. The reluctance to match or exceed offers for their stars—especially in the case of aspas—created uncertainty and dissatisfaction. This conservative approach, while fiscally cautious, ultimately cost LOUD their franchise players, undermining morale and making it harder to attract or retain elite talent.

3. Lack of Ambition in Replacing aspas

The organization’s response to aspas’ exit lacked boldness. Rather than aggressively pursuing a proven, world-class duelist to fill the void, LOUD settled for internal role swaps and safe options. This unwillingness to “shoot for the stars” left the roster without a true difference-maker in the most crucial role, and the team’s firepower and identity suffered as a result.

4. Risky, Unproven Player Gambles

LOUD repeatedly gambled on players with theoretical upside but little top-tier experience, hoping they would rise to the occasion. These bets—on talents who had not been fully tested on the international stage—rarely paid off. The lack of thorough vetting and incremental development meant that when these gambles failed, the team was left scrambling, compounding instability and eroding confidence across the roster.

Together, these failures—loss of an insatiable leader, financial caution, lack of ambition in recruitment, and poor risk management on player signings—transformed LOUD from world champions into a team struggling for direction and relevance.

What comes next for LOUD

With stk's imminent departure, LOUD finds itself at a critical juncture. The team's reputation as Brazil's premier VALORANT organization has been severely damaged, and rebuilding will require a comprehensive overhaul of their approach to talent acquisition, team development, and organizational structure.

Several options lie before them:

Complete Roster Overhaul: Following stk's exit, LOUD could choose to release multiple underperforming players and rebuild around more reliable talents.
International Talent: While LOUD has traditionally fielded all-Brazilian rosters, exploring international options could inject new perspectives and playstyles.
Organizational Restructuring: Beyond player and coaching changes, addressing the management and infrastructure issues that contributed to their decline will be essential.
Return to Fundamentals: Rather than chasing meta compositions, LOUD might benefit from establishing a clear identity based on their players' natural strengths and stopping the constant role-swapping that has destabilized the team.

Can LOUD salvage anything in the 2025 season?

The story of LOUD's rise and fall offers valuable lessons for esports organizations about the challenges of sustaining success in a rapidly evolving competitive landscape. What began with a world championship celebration has culminated in a painful period of reassessment and reconstruction.

As LOUD sits at 0-4 in VCT Americas 2025 Stage 1, facing imminent elimination from playoff contention, they exemplify how quickly fortunes can change in esports. The organization that made history as Brazil's first world champions now faces its greatest challenge: reclaiming relevance in a VALORANT landscape that has moved on without them.

In summary, the firing of coach stk is not just the end of an era - it's the latest chapter in a story of mismanagement, failed experiments, and the dangers of chasing quick fixes over sustainable team-building. LOUD's journey serves as a stark warning: in esports, legacy counts for little if not backed by vision, stability, and the right people in the right roles.

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Feature image credits: Strafe Esports, using Riot Games images