LOUD has taken down NRG in the upper bracket semifinals of Valorant Champions 2026 as they find themselves one step closer to a spot at the Grand Final.
The showdown between the two teams went on for the full three games, with the Brazilian org eventually coming out on top and knocking down their competitors to the lower bracket.
Here’s everything that went down in today’s LOUD vs NRG game.
Map Veto
- NRG bans Split
- LOUD bans Lotus
- NRG picks Haven
- LOUD picks Sunset
- NRG bans Abyss
- LOUD bans Ascent
- Summit was left over
Game 1: Haven (Pick: NRG, Win: LOUD, Final Score: 13-9)
Despite being NRG’s own map pick, the first half of Haven saw the North American org struggle to gain its footing. After dropping four consecutive rounds to LOUD, NRG could grab their first couple of rounds, but couldn’t convert many more as LOUD was the more dominant side heading into the second half with a comfortable 9-3 lead.
NRG lost the second pistol-round of Haven as well, but looked much more comfortable on Defence as they shut down LOUD with a force-buy on the second round. The force-buy win enabled NRG to convert a few more rounds, but it wasn’t nearly enough to hold LOUD at bay, who eventually secured the map with a 13-9 score.
Game 2: Sunset (Pick: LOUD, Win: NRG, Final Score: 13-10)
NRG found a strong start to Sunset with four back-to-back round wins on Attack, but failed to gain a decisive lead as LOUD bounced back towards the end of the half, ending their CT-side with a 6-6 score.
LOUD took the lead for themselves at the start of the second half, but NRG retaliated hard as they pulled off some incredible plays to take the second map 13-10.
Game 3: Summit (Win: LOUD, Final Score: 13-3)
With both teams losing their own map picks, the decider map, Summit, appeared to be anyone’s game. However, that didn’t turn out to be the case, as LOUD were the overwhelmingly dominant side throughout the game, dropping only one round in the first half and closing the game in the second half with a 13-3 victory.
Lucca “lukxo” Travaioli was easily the MVP of the series, dropping a whopping 63 kills on his Chamber while dropping only 33 deaths.
LOUD will now move on to face the winners of G2 vs Vitality in the upper bracket finals, while NRG drops to the lower bracket and finds itself on the brink of elimination.
NRG will have to struggle for survival in a lower bracket round 2 game against 100 Thieves on October 11.
