“Our teamwork fell short of what we expect when we practise.” TenZ Sentinels
Sentinels started the VALORANT Champions Tour Americas 2023 with an impressive victory over 100 Thieves. Despite being a relatively new roster, including the addition of Gustavo “Sacy” Rossi and Bryan “pANcada” Luna from LOUD, the team exceeded expectations in their opening match. However, in their following match against NRG Esports, considered to be one of the best teams in North America, Sentinels struggled to keep up.
On the Lotus map, Sentinels put up a good fight against NRG despite being down 9-3 in the first half. They managed to make a comeback in the second half, but ultimately lost 13-10. However, on Icebox, NRG dominated Sentinels and won the match 2-0 with a crushing 13-2 victory. This was the most one-sided map in any VCT Americas match so far.
Sentinels player Tyson “TenZ” Ngo commented on their loss to NRG Esports, stating that they knew NRG would play slowly, but they gave up too much map control. NRG also starved Sentinels of information and made them take risks, especially when defending on the Lotus map. TenZ felt that Sentinels played more cautiously than usual, and they struggled to identify the issue and make adjustments.
Although NRG looks like a slightly stronger team than 100 Thieves in the first two weeks of VCT Americas, TenZ believes that Sentinels’ struggles were due to their own underperformance. He felt that their energy, communication, and teamwork were not up to their usual standards.
Sentinels Tenz Official Tweet
Sentinels’ team hasn’t been competing together for long, and TenZ is optimistic that, while maps like Icebox vs NRG may occur in the early stages, the squad’s talents will become more apparent as the group continues to gel. “This iteration of Sentinels plays a lot more structured and as a team,” stated TenZ. “It does look really bad if we don’t play as a team, but we’re definitely going to learn and improve from this loss.” The good news is that we won’t have to appear as awful as we did today.”
The Sentinels must put the difficult setback to NRG behind them since an arguably tougher opponent is on the horizon. If SEN can pull off an upset against Argentinian powerhouse Leviatán on Sunday, April 16, at 12:00pm PT, it will be a resounding endorsement of SEN’s new lineup as a serious challenger for the crown.
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