It's LOUD versus Fnatic in the LOCK//IN finals

LOUD narrowly avoid DRX's comeback.

We had what appeared to be an equal matchup in the tournament's first semi-final. LOUD is undoubtedly the favourite to win and become the first team to win back-to-back international competitions, even with their squad changes. Although though DRX had definitely improved from prior seasons, they had lost maps against BBL Esports, Cloud9, and Talon Esports throughout their ascent to the top four.

When the first five-map set of the competition started, LOUD had a solid start and appeared to easily sweep the match. In instance, Erick "aspas" Santos appeared virtually unbeatable when playing the Korean VALORANT superteam.

Then, similar to their last top-four finish, DRX began to draw the series back. To advance the series to map five, which seemed as close as it could get, they racked up the two necessary map victories. But, after conceding a vital round in which Kim "MaKo" Myeong-kwan killed three adversaries and placed the spike in a precarious position, LOUD completed the task.

The VCT 2023 LOCK/IN tournament's past Champions and assured finals provided DRX with another difficult fake-comeback defeat.

The battle of EMEA is one-sided, Fnatic back in the finals

In the other semi-final, we had a battle between the two best teams in Europe, the Middle East and Africa: Fnatic versus NAVI. The first map of Haven was close as could be, with NAVI’s Andrey “Shao” Kiprsky coming up clutch like he has all tournament-long. Just as NAVI had the chance to force overtime, Fnatic clutched out a B site post-plant to win the first map. That momentum led to a strong showing on Lotus, getting 10-2 at the half and winning it 13-4. Despite the strong showing on the map, Fnatic didn’t expect NAVI to go on the newest map on VALORANT.

“I was a bit surprised they chose it,” Jake “Boaster” Howlett said. “ANGE1 did say to me at the bar a couple of days ago: ‘Boaster, don’t try to play us on Lotus, you can’t go A or C’. They picked it first; we were expecting them to pick Ascent. When they picked went Lotus, on our attack side, we were just reading it fairly well and we just had big rounds.”

When it came to NAVI, they had their opportunities to win at least one map but couldn’t manage it, getting swept. Even after the loss, the team knew why they lost and understood what they needed to improve on.

“I’m not disappointed,” Kyrylo “ANGE1” Karasov said, “we tested a lot of stuff and now we know what we need to work on. Honestly, I would’ve been scared if we won the tournament because we wouldn’t have understood what we need to work on as much as we do now. Fnatic were just better today, hopefully only today.”

LOUD versus Fnatic: Who will win the first VCT 2023 title

The first international tournament of VCT 2023, LOCK//IN, is down to just two teams: LOUD and Fnatic. Their first match against each other organizationally, is a big opportunity for both teams.

LOUD have the potential to be the first back-to-back champions in VCT history, after winning Champions in 2022. This would be even more of an accomplishment after they lost two key members to their roster in the off-season. As for Fnatic, they have yet to lose a map in the tournament so far. If they were to go on a tear and sweep the current champs, they would have an undefeated run with no maps lost. The only other team that has done that in VALORANT history was the team Fnatic lost to in their last finals appearance, back in 2021 against Sentinels.

Out of all the people looking forward to the finals, Fnatic’s Boaster is ready and confident.

“You can expect a very loud crowd for LOUD,” Boaster said. “Though, you should see the same Fnatic that you’ve seen each day so far, with the improvements we’ve made throughout. We’re confident and we’re ready.”

It’s hard to pick a winner from both teams, as they both made waves in their journeys to the finals. But, if you had to choose, LOUD are still the favorites and for good reason. They’ve arguably gone through the tougher path to get to the finals and have had an extra day to watch Fnatic and study their play. On top of all of that, they have the crowd on their side. For a close game, that might be enough to edge out a great Fnatic team.