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VCT LOCK//IN São Paulo Recap: After all this time, Fnatic has won its first ever major tournament

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Mar 6, 2023

Miss any of the LOCK//IN action? Or simply looking to relive the biggest VALORANT tournament to date? We’ve got a full rundown of everything that happened in São Paulo. 

VCT LOCK//IN Brazil: Final Standings

Below are the final standings for VCT LOCK//IN Brazil, from 1st to 32nd place.

Place

Team

1

Fnatic

2

LOUD

3 - 4

DRX

Natus Vincere

5 - 8

NRG 

Talon Esports

Leviatán

100 Thieves

9 - 16

Giants

Karmine Corp

Cloud9

Evil Geniuses

Team Secret

Team Vitality

FUT Esports

FURIA

17 - 32

KOI

DetonatioN FocusMe

Gen.G

FunPlus Phoenix

BBL Esports

Paper Rex

Team Heretics

MIBR

Team Liquid

KRÜ Esports

ZETA DIVISION

Global Esports

Rex Regum Qeon

EDward Gaming

Sentinels 

T1

A dominant performance from EMEA

While LOCK//IN was a tournament defined by insane plays and seriously stiff competition, EMEA’s top squads showed up and shut down. Both NAVI and Fnatic surged through the early stages of the tournament, with Fnatic not dropping a single map until their final against LOUD.

Kyrylo ‘ANGE1’ Karasov came alive during NAVI’s run, helping propel the team to decisive victories. At the age of 33, the Ukrainian firecracker has thrown caution to the wind, recementing his place as one of the world’s best VALORANT players, whilst being one of the oldest players at LOCK//IN.

Fnatic’s Nikita ‘Derke’ Simitev also stood out this tournament, picking up three out of five MVP awards for the squad. Sniping the competition as Jett and bringing the party as Raze, his K/D ratios would literally make your head spin - dropping a 1.9 twice throughout the tournament. Madness, I tell you.

What’s even wilder, though, is that Fnatic took down three of the Americas’ finest on their road to the finale, eliminating Sentinels, before going on to hand FURIA and 100 Thieves the L. NAVI also took down Leviatán before being beaten by Fnatic, leaving LOUD as the only Americas team left in the running. 

Of course, sparks flew throughout the final, which went the full five games. Fnatic opened the series with two comfortable wins on Ascent and Fracture, in which Leo "Leo" Jannesson was electric, averaging a 2.0 K/D (46/23) across both. Fnatic looked set to 3-0, and become the second team to win an international VCT event without dropping a map (after Sentinels at Masters Reykjavík), but LOUD were quick to bring things back to a 2-2 on Split and Lotus. 

It came down to Icebox, Fnatic’s favorite map, and one that has brought them so much success in the past, but the first half was a failure, with Fnatic only managing 3 rounds on defense. The reverse sweep looked all but certain after LOUD picked up the pistol and the following round, bringing the score to 3-11. But Fnatic did the impossible, clawing things back to 11-11, with some ridiculously close rounds going their way. Derke 1v1’d Erick "aspas" Santos in a crucial post-plant situation to make it 5-11, and Emir "Alfajer" Beder 1v2’d in a similar situation, with aspas and Cauan "cauanzin" Pereira lining up to make things 12-11, and bring the game to all 24 rounds. 

LOUD then proceeded to force overtime, but Fnatic put their foot down and took both rounds to win 14-12, taking the 5th map, the grand final, and the tournament! Congratulations Boaster, Leo, Derke, Chronicle, Alfajer, and Mini - we look forward to seeing you in just a few weeks (March 27th, save the date) for the start of VCT EMEA!

VCT LOCK//IN Brazil: Vods

If you missed out on any of the LOCK//IN action, you can check out the VODs of the event on https://www.twitch.tv/valorant.