"South American style can be better countered online" - M80 johnqt on facing The Union in VCT 2023 Americas: Ascension

2023's VCT will come to a close in a few more months, and the Valorant Champions tournament to be held in August in Los Angeles will mark its end for franchised teams. The most important tournaments in Tier 2 of this title are currently going on in the three regions: Americas, Pacific, and EMEA. The winners of these events will be upgraded to their respective region's Tier 1 leagues for 2024 and 2025's VCT seasons.

The Americas Ascension tournament is underway in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Of the two North American representatives in it, M80 have already played two matches. They lost the first to Brazil's The Union on Day 1 and defeated LATAM's FUSION on Day 2 of this tournament.

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johnqt speaks about how M80 bounced back strong after a shaky start on Day 1 of VCT 2023 Americas: Ascension

M80 were the first seed from North America. Throughout the VCT's 2023 season, they have seemed to be a notch above the other teams in the NA's Challengers League. However, when this squad faced off against Brazil's #1 seed in the opening match of Ascension, they seemed to struggle with even Valorant's basics.

When Sportskeeda esports asked Mohamed "johnqt" Ouarid about the possible reasons behind this sudden drop in performance, he said:

"We were just not used to the LAN setups, while the opponents were way more used to it. Thing is, we had too much white noise. The first map was quite difficult because it took us time to get used to it. By Pearl, the game was way closer. We just need more LAN reps and get used to the sound levels."

While The Union won the series 2-0, this game's first map, Fracture, was much more one-sided and ended with a scoreline of 13-7. By the second map, M80 started to play better, losing the match 15-17 in favor of The Union.

As stated by johnqt, the results were affected by the VCT Americas: Ascension's LAN environment. The fact that M80 were facing a Brazillian team in an official match for the first time also played a role in their loss.

When asked whether this was the case, Ouarid said:

"I think South American playstyles are more aggressive, while North American ones are more methodical. The South American style can be better countered online, where you can actually hear people running or their util (utility) coming. We will be better equipped to deal with it in the playoffs."

The format of this ongoing tournament is such that all involved teams will make it to the playoffs. So M80 will have some more chances to gain confidence in this new environment to solidify their place in VCT Americas League in the next two seasons.