"We didn't prepare really well": EDward Gaming's coach, AfteR talks about their loss on Ascent against LOUD in Valorant Champions 2023 (Exclusive)

Valorant Champions 2023 has been one of the most competitive international events in the VCT. Day 13 of the event led to two incredible matches, and the first one between LOUD and EDward Gaming was an extremely close affair. Both teams won on their respective map picks. However, LOUD barely avoided Overtime on the decider map and closed out the Bo3 (best-of-three) series by 2-1.

The second match was between DRX and Fnatic. It looked like it was gonna be a huge upset as DRX completely annihilated Fnatic on the first map. However, the reigning champions were able to make a comeback and took back the Bo3 series by 2-1, eliminating DRX from the series.

Once the first match concluded, Sportskeeda Esports' Sneh Jadhav got the opportunity to talk EDward Gaming's coach, AfteR, to ask him about what went wrong for his team on the second map of the series. He responded, saying:

"We didn't prepare really well."

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EDward Gaming's coach, AfteR talks about their defeat on Ascent against LOUD in Valorant Champions 2023

The Bo3 series started off very strong for EDward Gaming. They came up with a new strategy on Bind where they implemented Reyna in the Agent composition. This helped them close out their map pick, and the team looked great tactically while doing so.

However, in the second map, Ascent, EDward Gaming felt very disconnected. They ended up making a lot of mistakes that cost them the map. LOUD was able to breeze through as they closed it out with a 13-4 win.

During the post-match conference, Sportskeeda Esports approached EDward Gaming's coach AfteR to ask him about what went wrong that allowed LOUD to have such a dominant win on Ascent. Here's what he had to say,

"So first of all, I think the loss on Ascent was basically our fault. We didn't prepare really well on this map, so this is the very direct reason that we lost today's result. Hopefully next time when we are able to challenge on international stage that we can deal with the problems on maps."

EDward Gaming's loss against LOUD has led to their elimination from Valorant Champions 2023. The team will secure themselves a fifth-sixth place finish with price winnings of $85,000.

EDward Gaming put China in the spotlight in VCT 2023. The team has evolved quite a lot in a short amount of time and it will be exciting to see how far they can go in Valorant's 2024 season.