The first game of the VITA-Napoleon football playoffs was a rematch of the grand finals of the match against LOCK/IN, with Fnatic remaining over the big favorites. Even though Fnatic won back-to-back international tournaments, the crown proved too heavy for Fnatic, as it was under LOUD’s influence.

LOUD won in 2-1 loss to Fnatic, taking a second win on all competitions. Although LOUD rumors of unnaturalness, the two sides, Erick aspas Santos and Felipe Less Basso, returned to the championship in their toughest match of the year.

This win was important because Fnatic came in front of the European Champions, but a lot was possible in the aftermath of their losing exit at the VCT Masters in Tokyo. There was a sense of faith that LOUD was one of the few teams that would manage this upset, but it was mostly due to their performance in LOCK/IN.

Everyone remembers those finals in Sao Paulo and the 11-3 choke on the Icebox that LOUD fans still think about to this day. But based on a larger perspective, LOUD was one of the few teams over the whole of 2023 who made Fnatic a mess.

Even though their form was being recent in the LOCK/IN level, they had to go back to get this crucial victory, and that’s what they got.

LOUD outplayed Fnatic on Ascent and Lotus, something that almost no other team can say in 2023. Even though they tried to shut down the Fnatics star duelist Nikita Derke Sirmitev, they couldn’t have done that without aspas returning to the white-hot form he hit in 2022 and in the US this year. He couldn’t beat Derke in first kills, as he finished with six points to Derkes 14, but the Brazilian superstar ended with 38 kills leading the lobby, while Derke finished with 29 and 29 deathless kills. Even when Derke was killing a lot more, he was dying at all, making his team much worse than his opponent.

Aspas enjoyed losing his temper, but the teammate Less did it while very carefully using tools and smart lurks to win crucial round victories.

There are lots of smaller moments to highlight, but there should be round 18 best example. Five-to-five, Fnatic gets access to C-site and plants deep inside, to make sense of a three-by-three scenario. However, they can’t push Waterfall or the backfill much despite the smoke. Fewers then puts his Killjoy ultimate in Waterfall, cloying the entire site and even a good section of the main.

https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxuUFzefsmAklp37i6PRNcKkmRFVJr8eON

If the Fnatic team could not push to destroy them, they had to run away to the spawn for the sake of destroying them. If LOUD did that, the spike is easily defused because of its location. If not for that spike plant spot, Fnatic could have contested the defuse, but Less recognized the error and pressed one button to win a post-plant three-versus-three defeat against the best team in the world, so that he was going to collect two kills, and then fought to gain the defuse.

In an interview post-match, Less talked about something that did not happen for LOUD this year, and what they mattered for this match: the lack of pressure, and how that would help if they moved through the upper bracket.

Since, being honest, I want to play that underdog, Less said on stage after the match, because it takes the pressure off the team. Our team is very strong and I’m glad the result was perfect.

No one doubted how strong a team is. Even in their recent form, they’re still the champions, and Fnatic took this taste of reality in a match that almost nobody expected them to lose. In the post-match interview, a coach Jacob mini Harris discussed his expectations of winning but was also of a strong opinion that this wasn’t as bad as the score.

I think it was like they weren’t outclassing us, but mini told the media that. Today we made only a few mistakes.

Since the end of the summer, the EMEA team will have to adjust to the lower limit starting on Aug. 18 so that they will enjoy their three-peat hopes.