LOUD’s Jett main Erick “aspas” Santos is one of brightest players in VALORANT, according to former 100 Thieves head coach turned content creator Sean Gares.
The Brazilian established himself as one of the best players in professional VALORANT last year after he helped LOUD win VCT Champions 2022 in September, and thus far, is carrying on that form in 2023 at VCT LOCK//IN São Paulo. The 19-year-old is LOUD’s highest-rated player in the event with a 1.18 rating, according to VLR.gg, and played a key role in his team’s nail-biter victory against DRX in the semifinals yesterday as he topped both rating and ACS statistics.
Sean was hosting a watch party on his Twitch channel to follow LOUD vs. DRX when he praised aspas’ intelligence for placing a perfect Cloudburst with his Jett to defuse the Spike and avoid getting killed. Aspas had missed his ultimate in an attempt of a flank earlier in the round but managed to keep his composure and assisted LOUD to win the round, which impressed Sean.
“Guys, this guy is like a fucking tutorial on how to play on a micro level,” Sean said after Aspas defused the Spike. “His decisions are so goddamn good. He is flanking, he misses his blades. Most Jetts get kind of emo and will int [to purposely get yourself killed] at that moment. [Most players] will do something stupid as fuck, or they’ll overstay their welcome and they’ll wait and their team loses the round. This guy just shoots his knife through the wall and says, ‘Fuck it, I’m out’, and he goes back and he has his Cloudburst to defuse the Spike.”
What also caught Sean’s attention is that aspas is capable of taking the best decisions while also being incredibly skilled at the game. For Sean, aspas is the definition of “never quitting” because of his mentality in VALORANT.
Aspas has a shot to become VCT LOCK//IN’s MVP should he help LOUD defeat either Natus Vincere or Fnatic in the grand finals tomorrow. The European teams will face each other today at 11am CT to find out who play LOUD tomorrow.
