LOUD SILENCED: Evil Geniuses take on LOUD in VCT Masters Tokyo Playoffs

VCT Americas has bred some true monsters as was evident in today’s VCT Masters Tokyo games. The Playoffs of Valorant’s first 2023 Masters has already delivered with an incredible story of perseverance and resilience. VCT Americas’ 3rd seed Evil Geniuses take on VCT Americas’ 1st seed LOUD in a hotly anticipated matchup.

To the surprise and delight of fans, Evil Geniuses sent LOUD packing to the lower bracket in only two maps, with a thunderous performance that resonated with their confidence and effort.

Best not Miss // Conquering Demons

In this recreation of the domestic matchup, Evil Geniuses (EG) face LOUD for the third time this year. The first two, EG came up short, losing to LOUD in both the regular season and Playoffs. However, when it really counts, EG did not miss their shot. In a spectacular masterclass, the freshly landed LOUD already find themselves in some hot water as they’ll have to battle back to the Grand Finals from the lower bracket.

EG first faced LOUD in the early weeks of the regular season, going 1-2 against the Brazilian roster. They showed hints of their potential early, taking a map off LOUD 13-4. Despite that, they also fumbled and were humiliated 13-0 in return in the same series. In Playoffs, EG contended well with LOUD on the first two maps, however, once more, struggled to close out the series on the decider map.

Their victory here at VCT Masters Tokyo thus, marks a new era of success for the squad, finally overcoming the demons that is LOUD that has plagued them. In the post-game press conference, EG In-Game Leader Kelden “Boostio” Pupello expressed relief in their victory, but also immense, unshakeable confidence in their form. ‘It feels really good to beat LOUD,’ he says. He continues, ‘I think we’ve been this good for a long time now. In Playoffs we kind of showed hints of it. We lost to NRG and LOUD in Playoffs, but those two matches were washes. We thought we should have 2-0d LOUD in Playoffs in NA.’

“I think we’ve always been this good. It’s just that we finally are being consistent with it. And when we’re consistent with it, we’ll just keep winning. There’s no limit.”- Boostio, VCT Masters Tokyo Press Conference.

Unstoppable Force

Coming into VCT Masters Tokyo, people had no idea what to make of Evil Geniuses. After a slow start in the regular season, Evil Geniuses barely qualified for Playoffs thanks to MIBR’s victory over 100 Thieves. The point differential was enough to qualify them as the 6th seed. However, from there, EG was nigh unstoppable. They took down NRG in the opening match, defeated heavy league favorites Cloud9 twice (many expected Cloud9 to be a shoo-in for Masters and Champions considering their form), and barely lost to LOUD in the upper bracket. A loss in the lower finals saw them qualify for VCT Masters Tokyo as the 3rd seed from VCT Americas.

However, the true story for them started when they landed in Tokyo. A visa issue nearly saw EG star Max “Demon1” Mazanov nearly have to sit out the tournament, however, he was announced at the last minute to be able to attend. From there, they have demolished every single opposition at Tokyo thus far. Heading into Round 2 of Playoffs now, EG have yet to drop a single map. No other team has accomplished such a feat thus far at Masters Tokyo.

When looking ahead now for their following matchup, head coach Christine “potter” Chi was asked for their opinions on both EDG and Team Liquid and which team they would rather face:

“Ooh, that’s a good question. I think both teams are really good, EDG are definitely on a bit of a honeymoon, “ZmjjKK” looks insane. I think, for us, we’d rather play Team Liquid. There’s just this unpredictable factor coming out from EDG and a lot of unknown quantities. Whereas from Liquid, you can expect a certain playstyle, you can certainly expect a certain amount of map control coming out from a team like Liquid. I think for sure, for us, it would be Liquid over EDG, but kind of depends on the day.”

Cold Start

Meanwhile, America’s favorite star child, LOUD, has come into trouble out of the gates. With a cold start to their Tokyo run, they’ll now have to run the gauntlet through the entire lower bracket if they would like another finals attendance. The last time LOUD failed to make a finals appearance was all the way back in July of 2022, when they were eliminated at the VCT Masters Copenhagen group stage by OpTic Gaming. They are widely considered to be one of the best Valorant teams in the world and entered VCT Masters Tokyo as the 1st seed from their region after dominating both the regular season and Playoffs.

In the post-game press conference, LOUD’s In-Game Leader Matias “Saadhak” Delipetro was asked for a comment on his team’s unexpected loss to EG in their first round. He replied that ‘[LOUD] started the match a little bit cold, in a way.’ He credited EG’s victory and their underperformance to both the fact that EG has had the opportunity to warm up through the Group Stage and they had momentum of their prior victories on their side.

Outmaneuvered

Regardless of the extenuating circumstances, it is indisputable that EG came into this series baying for blood. The extent of their exhaustive preparation, the depth of their tactics and executes, and the incredible mechanics of their players (who are currently all in peak form), have led to a one-sided smashing of the blind-sided Brazilians.

In the post-game press conference, LOUD’s head coach Daniel “fRoD” Montaner addressed their challenges in the series, particularly the Attack side of EG, that LOUD were unable to answer well. He commented, ‘I wouldn’t say it was insanely difficult or anything like that to deal with. It was just some stuff that we have to go back and discuss, make sure we’re on the same page with what we want to do.’ He did, however, greatly praise EG, stating, ‘Ultimately, I think we have to give them credit, you know. We came in with a good game plan and they were just playing extremely confident, hitting all their shots, had extremely good utility usage. So, regardless of what we would have done, it just felt like they came in playing hot right now. So, give credit to them.’

Evil Geniuses will now face the EMEA 1st seed Team Liquid in the second round of Playoffs. Meanwhile, LOUD has now fallen to the lower bracket and will face off against EDG to survive in the competition and keep the dream alive.

You can follow the VCT Twitter for all the updates regarding VCT Masters Tokyo. Follow Strafe Esports for the latest breaking news on all things Valorant. 

Credit: Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games