Coming off a VALORANT world championship and a subsequent grand finals run at VCT LOCK//IN, the LOUD team out of Brazil understandably are entering the VCT Americas season with confidence at high expectations. They’re so confident that they’re making the game’s newest agent a pivotal part of their compositions.
Against MIBR, on both their Split and Lotus selections, LOUD opted to run with Gekko, with in-game leader and long-time initiator Matias “Saadhak” Delipetro taking the reins. Saadhak, who primarily played initiator during LOUD’s 2022 championship run, had moved away from the role during LOCK//IN, electing to rotate between Raze, Viper, and Killjoy depending on the map. LOUD decided to move away their highly regarded composition on Lotus.
In Gekko’s first VCT Americas appearance, Saadhak showed the best of his playmaking and space-creating abilities, but also inadvertently highlighted some of his weaknesses.
One of Saadhak’s most clever uses of Gekko ability is his Dizzy/Wingman flash/stun combo. Typically, Gekko players throwing just one of the two abilities will see it destroyed rather easily. By throwing both abilities around a corner or thru a Viper/Harbor wall, Saadhak creates a better chance for an enemy to be stunned or blinded, and in theory, he can go up to both his globules and pick them up right away.
Related: Tips and tricks for how to play Gekko in VALORANT
Saadhak also nicely combos Dizzy with Harbor cascades, as the moving water wall makes it significantly harder to shoot it down. Overall, Saadhak just uses Gekko’s utility wisely: throwing Dizzy off walls and angles for easy retrieval and only planting with Wingman when the angle is secure so LOUD can get to post-plant setups quickly.
Despite the overall high level of play, Saadhak and LOUD did highlight some of Gekko’s flaws. There were a couple of instances where the agent took too long to recollect his globules, allowing the enemy team to get into a better position more quickly or to pick him off. Additionally, MIBR started to pick up quickly that wherever Saadhak was using Gekko abilities was where LOUD would end up, prompting faster rotates.
Overall, it was still one of the best early examples of pro-level Gekko play that VALORANT fans have seen so far.
