LOUD deafen NRG, secure top-three spot at Champs

The first match of the day pitted the reigning and defending champions against a young, hungry squad. After the scuffle, LOUD LOUD Brazil Rank #1 lukxo Lucca Travaioli DaviH David Cruz Darker Sebastián Castro Cicuamia erde Roberto Lobos tkzin Enzo Zimiani loan reigned supreme, defeating NRG NRG North America Rank #2 keiko Georgio Sanassy brawk Brock Somerhalder mada Adam Pampuch skuba Logan Jenkins Ethan Ethan Arnold 2-1 to secure a spot at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai.

The Americas clash began on NRG's map pick of Haven, a historically good map for the squad across Americas and international tournaments. For LOUD, however, Haven has historically been a weaker map.

NRG locked in their trademark double-Duelist composition centered around Ethan 's Phoenix and mada 's Neon. LOUD changed their comp as they expected NRG to pick Haven. lukxo took on Chamber duties, with tkzin playing Neon. Darker and erde anchored the squad on double-Controller.

LOUD opened the upper semifinals with a quick 2-0 lead after taking the pistol round. Repeating a trend from Americas Stage 2, LOUD stole the bonus round, which led to an NRG pause. Out of the pause, NRG activated. Consecutive rounds cut LOUD's lead to 4-2.

LOUD built their lead by holding A-site so well that NRG couldn't even plant the spike. But the North American org finally controlled the site after mada eliminated three players on an execute.

lukxo and erde dominated the first half. The duo combined for 33 kills, helping LOUD build a commanding 9-3 halftime lead. After winning the second-half pistol, LOUD had their eyes on Sunset. But the reigning champs weren't going down that easy. Thanks to a patented Americas Stinger force, NRG converted a round two win.

The force sparked NRG's momentum as they won three consecutive rounds. But a textbook A-site post-plant by LOUD halted the reigning champs' momentum. NRG responded quickly to stop the bleeding, but it wasn't enough. Multiple trades, double peeks, and clinical post-plants by LOUD sent NRG to the shadow realm, as LOUD took NRG's map pick 13-9.

Sunset promised a real grindfest. Taking down LOUD on their map pick would be no easy task for NRG, especially since they posted a 0-4 record on Sunset during Americas. NRG made a slight composition change, swapping brawk 's Sova for Fade. LOUD continued to play their Sage and Chamber composition that has seen success across various maps.

A chaotic start to the game showcased a skuba pistol round clutch, setting up a 2-0 lead for the reigning champs. In round three, every fight went the right way for NRG, allowing the squad to win a flawless round and go up 3-0. LOUD finally put a round on the board to close the gap to 4-1, but NRG fired back with a quick B-site execute.

skuba gets help from the spike in the 1v1 clutch.

DaviH 's crucial kills in the first half put out NRG's fire, wiping out their lead and tying the map 6-6 at halftime.

LOUD cashed the pistol round win into a bonus win and nearly secured a thrifty win, but skuba took out DaviH in the 1v1. Even with that loss, LOUD took their in-your-face playstyle to the B-site and exterminated NRG to build a 10-7 lead.

The final stretch of the second half was all NRG. Behind multi-kills by keiko , well-placed KAY/O utility by Ethan , and an 18-12 KDA by skuba , NRG won six consecutive rounds and slammed the door shut on Sunset. NRG stole LOUD's map pick 13-10.

Last but certainly not least came Summit, a map where LOUD invented the Sage and Chamber meta. On the other side of the server, NRG were undefeated on Summit, posting a 6-0 record.

As predicted, LOUD entered Summit with the Sage and Chamber composition. NRG locked in their unconventional but successful comp with keiko on Brimstone, Ethan on KAY/O, and skuba playing Cypher.

A scrappy pistol round win locked down an early 2-0 lead for LOUD. The South American squad couldn't convert their trademark third-round win, as NRG responded to cut the lead to 2-1. The first half belonged to lukxo and erde . Opening Operator picks, crucial late-round kills, and three straight ice-cold clutches shellshocked NRG as LOUD ran away with an 11-1 lead at the half.

erde extends the lead with a pseudo 1v4 clutch

NRG stood their ground by winning the pistol round and bonus round, but erde caught a timing to secure match point. Round 16 mirrored the rest of this match. LOUD perfectly stuffed NRG's attack to win the match 13-3 and secure, at a minimum, a top-three finish at Champions Shanghai.

lukxo and erde diffed NRG. lukxo posted a 63/33/9 KDA, while erde followed closely behind with a 50/30/23 KDA.

With the loss, NRG fall to the lower bracket to face fellow Americas squad 100 Thieves 100 Thieves North America Rank #1 Cryocells Matthew Panganiban Asuna Peter Mazuryk vora Jordan Pulwer Timotino Timothée Lavigne Dupont bang Sean Bezerra .

NRG Ethan on LOUD's breakthroughs: "On both sides, their team fights are really good. There are always together and their trades are always usually better than the other teams. Today, they had a lot of clutches and really good team fights."

LOUD Darker on becoming the first Colombian to reach the top three at Champions and who they'd like to face in the upper final: "I'd like Vitality to win. I think we would match up well against them. A big shout out to everyone in Colombia who's waking up early at 4:00 AM and 5:00 AM to watch the games. I love you all."

Champions Shanghai continues this weekend with the following matches: