The 2023 Valorant Pre-season Invitational semi-finals were held as scheduled in São Paulo, Brazil, with the first two teams coming out of the Pacific League Korea's DRX and the defending World Champion LOUD from the League of America. The tournament is a single-elimination BO5 knockout tournament. The reigning champions of the 2022 Intrepid Compact Global Championship, LOUD fought unstoppably at home, making it all the way to the semi-finals, while sitting at home with the enthusiastic support of the Brazilian crowd vowing to defend the world supremacy in their home country. As the sole champion of the Pacific League and Asia's last hope, Team DRX will undoubtedly gain great momentum if they can defeat LOUD and compete for their first world championship trophy.
Figure 1 Pearl of the Deep Sea
Attacker: DRX
Defender: LOUD
At the beginning of the first half, the two teams fought very fiercely, after LOUD scored two points, DRX rose to catch up with three points, but the world champion quickly showed strong coping ability and began to score again, DRX all the viper punch points that were determined to be won were perfectly solved by LOUD, and the LOUD who played the feeling completely suppressed DRX whether it was marksmanship or tactics, and the DRX team members were obviously affected mentality, frequent horse guns and big problems in decision-making, LOUD chose to switch defense to attack while the iron was hot, and aspas' jetwind directly boldly pressed forward to cut the double-kill, and DRX ended the first half with a dismal score of 3:9.
In the second half, the two sides switched attack and defense, the pistol game LOUD attacked A collectively, aspas had a wonderful dozen and two consecutive headshots, single-handedly broke DRX's return defense, and easily won the first game. The second game of economic advantage is also a natural and easy pocket. DRX's spear game became their last straw, but LOUD and the two intruded from the middle of the crossfire and directly penetrated DRX's defensive system, and LOUD took the lead in 12:3. DRX fought back tenaciously in a desperate situation and finally struggled to win back two points, but LOUD quickly stabilized his position, and his big heart beat DRX's extremely critical viper move, and finally won the first map 13:5, aspas used Jetwind to play 24-9 data, and won the MVP without suspense.
Figure 2 Sen Winter Port
Attacker: LOUD
Defender: DRX
After coming to Sen Cold Winter Port, LOUD was still in hot form, with the suppression of hard power to win the first two points, after the third game was lost, DRX's mentality was greatly affected again, the game almost became one-sided slaughter, LOUD was unstoppable and scored 6 points in a row to force DRX to hand over a timeout to adjust, LOUD still used unreasonable marksmanship to score two more points, until the ninth game DRX finally won a point through Qile's big move, avoiding the tragedy of being shaved head. Then BuZz's Hades played well to suppress LOUD's limelight, DRX Jedi countered to recover three points, and LOUD temporarily calmed down and turned to point A to score the last point of the first half, still entering the second half with a huge 9:3 advantage.
After the exchange of attack and defense, DRX was still completely suppressed by LOUD's marksmanship, aspas' very bright killing streak once again hit the morale of the whole team, DRX handed over the timeout to adjust the tactics and finally stopped the decline by cooperating with the gun, and then stax risked being worn to death in the A point under the bag successfully brushed a big move, controlled the bag point to regain a point again. These two hard-won victories finally allowed DRX to find its form, the tactical cooperation that he was originally good at gradually found its way, DRX chased 4 points in a row, aspas even if he played four kills could not change the game, Coach LOUD chose to hand over a timeout to help the players stabilize their mentality. LOUD caught BuZz's aggressive mistakes to regain his rhythm and take the match point at 12:8. In the match point, Less's Viper Hard Top Qile also released a big move, disrupting the rhythm of DRX's attack, aspas also attracted a lot of DRX's firepower, and LOUD unpacked to win the second map 13:8! MVP once again gives aspas a quick wind.
Figure 3 Neoncho
Attacker: LOUD
Defender: DRX
DRX, which lost all pistol rounds on two consecutive maps, finally got off to a good start in Neoncho, gradually regaining its marksmanship and confidence, and Mako and stax frequently played highlight performances during the return defense, breaking LOUD's offensive rhythm abruptly, and once played a huge 8:1 difference. The battle between the two sides was very intense, and even the first 10 games ended without unpacking or unpacking, and the two teams turned the game into a battle of annihilation. LOUD TRAILED FOR THE FIRST TIME IN TODAY'S GAME, AND WAS ALSO BROUGHT TO THE TOP BY THE FAST PACE OF THE FIRST GUN, AND ONLY AT THE END BEGAN TO USE THE NEXT BAG TO WIN BACK A FEW POINTS, AND THE LAST GAME OF THE FIRST HALF DRX STABILIZED THE POSITION TO WIN THE 1v1 ENDGAME, ENDING THE FIRST HALF AT 9:3, THE ENTIRE BO5 ENTERED THE SECOND HALF WITH A LEAD FOR THE FIRST TIME.
In the second half, the two sides switched attack and defense, and LOUD finally found the rhythm of the game they were good at, and after winning the pistol round, aspas cut 1-on-4 with a flying shot in the second game! After LOUD got better and got three points, DRX held on to the advantage and continued to create chances through tactical switching, and despite Less's one-on-5 kills, DRX managed to win the match point 12-6. LOUD HELD THE MATCH POINT AFTER A THRILLING 2v2, BUT DRX THEN USED THE BIG TRICK OF RINA AND VIPER TO WIN THE THIRD MAP 13:7, AND THE AGGREGATE SCORE WAS 1:2.
Figure IV Fission canyon
Attacker: LOUD
Defender: DRX
DRX took the pistol game by covering the demolition to gain an economic advantage and score a second point, while the long gun game cauanzin played well to clear the spot A and bring it back to the city. The next confrontation between the two sides is very fierce, LOUD just won three consecutive wins and was suppressed by DRX again, the two sides bite the score and continue to show each other, BuZz's horse has contributed wonderful performances many times, LOUD chose to turn to attack point A and continue to chase the score through smooth propulsion. In the last game of the first half, LOUD discovered through Peek that the position of the BuZz mount gun changed the offensive line with consequences, and DRX's return defense coordination had a big problem, and he instantly lost point B and was broken by LOUD one by one, and the two sides finally ended the first half with a 6-6 tie.
In the second half, the two sides switched attack and defense, and DRX's overall offensive ideas were very clear, and they cooperated tacitly to attack point B many times, and established an economic advantage at the beginning of the game and frequently scored a wave of 4:0 climax. LOUD'S STATE WAS CHAOTIC AND FORCED TO HAND OVER A TIMEOUT TO FIND A COUNTERMEASURE, BUT DRX WAS STILL VERY STRONG, GREATLY TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE MAP'S CHARACTERISTICS TO PULL LOUD'S DEFENSE WITH A TURN POINT, AND CONTINUED TO SCORE TWO CONSECUTIVE POINTS 12:6 TO WIN THE MATCH POINT. LOUD JEDI FINALLY SCORED A POINT TO AVOID THE EMBARRASSMENT OF BEING SHAVED IN THE SECOND HALF, BUT THEN LOUD WAS UNABLE TO HANDLE DRX'S STRONG DEFENSE OF BLASTERS WITH A 4-2 DEFEAT OF DRX FIRST, AND DRX PLAYED A HUGE SCORE OF 7:1 TO WIN THE FOURTH MAP WITH A TOTAL SCORE OF 13:7. At the same time, they also completed the two chasing two, and the two sides entered the final tiebreaker chart!
Figure 5 Yahai Hanging City
Attacker: LOUD
Defender: DRX
The morale of DRX, who chased two big points in a row, was very strong, and he scored two points in the opening game, but LOUD quickly adjusted, relying on the strong personal strength of the player to tear BuZz's horse many times to extend the lead, although DRX later managed to get three points to tie the score, but in the 11th inning, Mako killed three people in a row, DRX was defeated by LOUD with a collaborative error in the case of 4-on-2, and the morale and economy affected DRX finally did not win the last game of the first half, with 5 :7 behind into the second half.
LOUD METHODICALLY SCORED TWO POINTS AFTER SWITCHING SIDES THROUGH A VERY AGGRESSIVE FRONT PRESS, WHILE DRX'S SIDE STAX BROUGHT THREE CONSECUTIVE POINTS WITH A WONDERFUL PLAY, AND AT ONE POINT WAS ABOUT TO TIE. AS A WORLD CHAMPION, LOUD WAS VERY QUICK TO STABILIZE HIS GROUND, ONCE AGAIN SUPPRESSING DRX WITH FEROCIOUS GUN SKILLS, REOPENING THE SCORE GAP. DRX Collective Rush attacked B, but was once killed by LOUD's crossfire, and BuZz, who broke through the depths, hit people with their backs and was counter-killed, and the operation has been deformed. LOUD TOOK ADVANTAGE OF THE VICTORY TO GET THE MATCH POINT FIRST. In the match point, the two sides continued to attack and defend around point B, swapping heads many times, and the last remaining person of DRX in the endgame, Rb, successfully faced LOUD and the two turned sideways and were instantly counter-killed, and they were no longer able to prevent LOUD from removing the blaster. Congratulations to LOUD for winning the fifth map 13:8 and beating DRX 3:2 on aggregate, reaching the final of two consecutive international competitions!