Cover-Credits:
The partnered teams in the Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) 2023 circuit have been slowly rebuilding their rosters, hoping to have well-rounded teams going into the next season. Sentinels, one of the most-watched teams in the Valorant esports scene, announced the signing of reigning world champions Gustavo “Sacy” Rossi and Bryan “pANcada” Luna from the Brazilian team LOUD on 15th October. To make way for the newcomers, Sentinels decided to place its original players including Shahzeb “ShahZaM” Khan and Michael “dapr” Gulino on the inactive roster.
Sacy and pANcada will be joining Tyson “TenZ” Ngo and Zachary “zekken” Patrone and work under head coach Don “SyykoNT” Muir.
dapr talks about his options for the future
In a recent Valorant stream, dapr opened up about the options he has lined up for the future. When a viewer joked, “Overwatch 2 or homeless,” dapr immediately jumped in on it and said, “That’s my situation right now, pretty much.” He also joked about how “outside influences” have broken up him and TenZ. When another viewer posed the question of whether dapr would stay with Sentinels or leave the team, he replied, “I’m looking at options. Nothing is decided. Might stay, might not. Who knows?”
Notably, on 8th October, dapr tweeted, “Sentinels have offered me a role as a sub but have given me the ability to look for a new team as an unrestricted free agent.” ShahZaM, on the other hand, said he was not going anywhere and is still keen on competing after his contract was not renewed. He stated, “I’ve been extremely fortunate over the last three years. This is just a natural thing in life like I’ve been in this a long time. I've been here before. It’s like Jump King. You fall, you get back up.”
Meanwhile, zekken also had interesting takes on the new franchising model and the roster rejig. He joked, “The fact that you can have ten people on your roster, I’m gonna convince like I don’t know who the f*** actually makes the decision but I’m gonna convince them to get Shroud and Tarik and then zombs.”
Sentinels is yet to announce its fifth player to round out its roster. However, Dot Esports reported that in-game leader Rory “Dephh” Jackson, who previously played for XSET will join Sentinels soon.
Currently, Sentinels look extremely strong on paper. With Sacy and pANcada joining the team right after winning Valorant Champions 2022, Sentinels will look to continue this momentum into the next season. TenZ has always been a powerhouse performer for Sentinels and it shall be interesting to see how the new roster performs together.
