Cover-Credits:
Sentinels has been eliminated by Version1 at the Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) Stage 1 Challengers - North America (NA). The team was considered by many as the best in the world last year after it managed to win two Masters events back-to-back. But the team was not able to impress at last year’s world championship. While the team made it to all three Masters events last year, it failed to make it past the Challengers event for Stage 1 this time around.
Sentinels needs to rethink its strategy for Stage Two
Sentinels was simply outclassed by Version1 at the event with today’s matchup ending 2-1 in Version1’s favor. Sentinels lost two rounds 13-7 and 13-8 respectively in the best-of-three series.
While Tyson “TenZ” Ngo continues to be one of the most dominant players in the world, the team as a whole has been struggling in all events. TenZ secured an impressive 64 kills with no one else in the lobby coming close to him, but Valorant is a team game and Sentinels lost with a numbers advantage far too many times.
Sentinels barely made it out of the group stage with Version1 dominating Group B and securing five straight wins. Sentinels ended up with three wins and two losses and earned third-place during the group stage. The team managed to head into the playoffs only to lose against The Guard and Version 1 in back to back matchups.
While Sentinels’ loss is bad news for the team’s fans, the Valorant esports circuit in North America is finally opening up with multiple teams looking strong in this year’s Valorant Champions Tour events.
In 2021, not a single North American team made it to the semi-finals of the world championships and Sentinels was arguably the only threat against the dominant EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) region. 2022 has a completely different landscape with The Guard, Version1, Cloud9 and Optic Gaming rising up as potential contenders for Stage One Masters.
Cloud9 and Version1 were both undefeated during the ongoing VCT Stage 1 Challengers NA event, and are looking like strong contenders at the event. The two teams will go up against each other for the first time in the event on 25th March 2022. Sentinels on the other hand needs to start preparing for Stage Two as its first opportunity to make it to VCT Masters has been taken away by Version1.
Subscribe to AFK Gaming's Newsletter
Get a weekly recap of all the latest developments in the global esports industry with our esports business insights newsletter: AFK Weekly
Subscribe for free to receive insights, analysis and opinions on the biggest developments in esports business, provided by our team of experienced journalists in collaboration with thought leaders across the industry.
