Category: Esports

Aspas Obliterates Sentinels With 47 Kills on Lotus

Week 2 of VCT Americas kicked off on Friday with the first game between 100T vs G2 and then the game that was on everyones minds, SEN vs LEV and it did not disappoint with a 2-0 victory to LEV taking down the Masters Madrid winners.

Despite it being a 2-0, the first map on Lotus, was 19-17 with Aspas breaking the kill record in VCT by dropping 47 kills on the Raze. He has put his name in the record books once again with his outstanding performance against the most in form team in the world. With this performance he beats out ZETA Dep’s record of 42 by 5 kills and he does it in a game where he had to perform to the best of his abilities to win the game.

The game came off the back of SEN beating 100T 2-0 and LEV losing to Cloud9 2-1 with the momentum going the favour of Sentinels. Despite this, it was a rare off-day for Zekken who normally tops the server with kills and it was aspas who stole the show going +34 in the two maps.

With aspas’ 47 kill map on Lotus, they went into Icebox hoping to take the game 2-0 and that is what they did. With Sentinels being known that their ‘jett‘ maps aren’t their strongest as Zekkens, Raze is top 3 in the world however his Jett has some work to do. With Icebox being a Jett map, Sentinels eventually ended up losing the map 13-11 leaving their first loss of VCT Americas Stage 1 starting against Leviatan who have got their first win against Sentinels.

It should also be noted that aspas’s 47 kill map on Lotus had more kills than ANY other player in the server across the two maps. kiNgg on LEV came close with 46 and Zekken with 41 but aspas dropping more on just one map tells the story on how impressive he was in this series and even in the series against Cloud9 he topped the server despite losing the game.

SEN go onto to face off against MIBR on Saturday 20th April at 10pm BST, with MIBR losing their opening game against KRU 2-0 where Sentinels will hope to get a win back and go on to gain their points for Masters Shanghai. Whereas Leviatan will go on to face the inform NRG who are coming off the back of a 2-0 win over FURIA.

Sentinels Take Down 100 Thieves in First Match of VCT Americas

The Masters Madrid Champions return back to VCT Americas to play their first game of Split 1 against their long term rivals, 100 Thieves in a game that they took by storm and dominated showing despite their lack of practice, they are still on the top of VCT.

There were questions on whether or not their IGL, johnqt, could make it back from Morocco in time for the game as he, alongside the LOUD guys, was dealing with heavy visa issues stopping him from getting into the USA to play against 100 Thieves. However, he did make it and played very well despite only getting into the country 24 hours earlier. He dropped 30 frags across the two maps which left him 4th in the lobby.

After a start that looked like 100 Thieves were competitive and were looking to disrupt the flow of the reining champions, Sacy just shifted into a different gear with the Brazilian dropping 22 kills and a crucial 4k in the final round of the map to take Icebox 13-10 and set up for Split which they are known for being the best worldwide at.

They took Split comfortably 13-6 leaving 100T fans wondering why Zikz didnt ban Split from SEN’s hands since their final map, if 100T were to beat SEN on Split, wouldve been Sunset. Sunset is a map that is played so well by Sentinels that some fans call the map SENset because of their prowess on the map.

Sentinels start off their year with confidence only losing 3 matches all year, 1 of them being a useless match against G2 in the lower brackets, and the other two against LOUD and GenG. They start off stage 1 looking confident ahead of their battle against Leviatan and Aspas who dropped 78 kills in a 3 map series against Cloud9.

100 Thieves, however, are off to a poor start with Boostio only dropping 10 kills across the two maps and some poor decisions individually from the players. They go on to face G2 who are looking strong with their new addition of Icy in their 2-0 victory over Evil Geniuses.

NRG Crush LOUD 2-0 In Redemption Game Back in Form

After bowing out of VCT Kick-off, NRG with their superteam had to come back and make a statement out of their first opponents of the VCT Americas stage 1. Their first opponent ended up being LOUD, their cores long term rivals with the OPTIC and NRG core facing off against LOUD for years.

However, they came into this years game with a different roster and outlook with their primary caller, FNS, being replaced by Ethan, and their fire power, yay, being replaced by the best player of 2023, Demon1. This roster got eliminated in Kick-off by the eventual Masters Madrid winners, Sentinels and were quite underwhelming despite the potential that this team has on paper.

They came into the game with LOUD only getting days to practice after having several visa issues leaving all of their Brazilian players stuck in Ireland with Saadhak the only player in LA meaning that they definitely were not to their full potential as a roster and it showed with an abysmal showing on Sunset despite Less’ monster performance on Breeze.

There was also a debut of new comps for NRG with the new meta being Yoru/ Raze being used by teams across the world, they implemented this into their game and put Ethan on Yoru for Breeze and Demon1 debuted his Raze for the first time ever, topping the lobby in kills.

To become a top duelist this year, you HAVE to be able to play Raze at a high level shown by top duelists from Masters Madrid such as Zekken, t3xture and f0rsaken. Demon1 is still improving and despite his Raze utility not being up to the level of Zekken or Jinggg, his aim makes up for his lack of experience with him just clicking heads effortlessly.

Their next game is against FURIA on the 14th of April where they will look to become a 2-0 side in VCT Americas and show that they mean business this year.

Runi Returns to Cloud9 Alongside moose To Round Out Roster

After Cloud9 announced the departures of wippie and jakee, there were two spots left to fill on the roster. It has been decided that the return of Runi to the roster will be implemented and Moose will make his VCT debut for the NA side.

Runi, was dropped from the roster for the start of the 2024 VCT season due to unknown reasons, however it seems that it was short lived with himself returning to a completely different roster where it is assumed that he will not be IGL’ing the roster since Vanity remains despite being the IGL last year which got them to second place in VCT Americas.

In an X video (seen above), Cloud9 announce their roster for Split 1 of VCT Americas where they are hoping for similar success to last year with a different roster only having Xeppaa and Runi remain from their top 2 run.

There were rumours of pANcada joining the team or possibly Monyet, after both of the players have been moved to the bench on their respective superteams despite being very impressive technical players mechanically and vocally.

moose found himself on the short end of the stick in challengers NA last year after going out to G2 Esports and M80 who were the two finalists in the Ascension for VCT Americas this year. After this loss, he briefly moved to Turtle Troop, another Challengers team, before opting to join YFP Gaming. The newly-formed troupe of talent breezed through the open qualifiers and secured a spot at Challengers in 2024 before moose left the team for a spot in franchising with Cloud9.

Cloud9 is now:

  •  Anthony “vanity” Malaspina (IGL)
  •  Erick “Xeppaa” Bach (Flex)
  •  Dylan “runi” Cade (Initiator)
  •  Kaleb “moose” Jayne (Sentinel/ Smokes)
  •  Francis “OXY” Hoang (Duelist)
  •  Ian “Immi” Harding (Coach)
  •  Guglielmo “GUGLi” Carraro (Assistant coach)

Cloud9’s new roster will debut against Latin American rivals Leviatán in Week 1 of the Stage 1 Americas League on April 6th streamed on YouTube and Twitch with watch parties coming from streamers such as Tarik, s0m and FNS.

Jinggg Makes Shock Return To Paper Rex Starting Roster

The MVP of Paper Rex’s run in VCT 2023, has made a shock announcement saying that he will return to the Paper Rex starting lineup after retiring last year due to mandatory military service.

In a tweet released by @pprxteam on X, they announce that due to ‘medical reasons’ Jinggg has been exempt from Military service and is allowed to return to professional play and will return to the starting lineup for Split 1 of VCT Pacific replacing Monyet after a semi-final run at Masters Madrid.

On the 6th of October 2023, Jinggg was placed on the reserve roster for Paper Rex with the organization expecting him to serve is military service for 2 years and then possibly return to the scene after its completion.

However, that downside to the team ended early with a surprise to fans across the world in his return to professional VALORANT coming in the following weeks. It is expected that he will remain on the roster for the rest of the season with Monyet going to the bench and willing to step in if needed for any reason.

The thought is that Jinggg will go back to Raze and the team will retain their 2023 roster that got them second at Champions in LA and 3rd at Masters Tokyo. Fans were making the comparison between Monyet and Jinggg and it is tough to compare the two, as for over a year, Jinggg has been known as the best Raze player in the world and with the meta being all around Raze players such as Zekken, Aspas and t3xture, Jinggg is sure to find success with his return to VCT after just 6 months of retirement.

Cloud9 Release jakee Before the Start of VCT Americas

Cloud9 have parted ways with Jake “jakee” Anderson ahead of VCT Americas Stage 1. This leaves only three players currently on the Cloud9 roster: Erick “Xeppaa” Bach, Francis “OXY” Hoang, and Anthony “vanity” Malaspina.

After coming in 2022 as the ‘yay’ replacement, fans werent expecting much from the rookie on his debut year of VCT however, he defied all expectations and odds and placed 2nd in the VCT Americas despite bombing out of the international qualifications.

After over a year on the roster, he has been dropped just a month after his teammate ‘wippie’ was dropped after their failure in the VCT Americas: Kick-Off event earlier this year.

There have been no names put up to replace these two stars in the roster however, there is speculation on reddit and other websites as to who will be joining the roster with some rumours pointing the way of low salaried players that aren’t looking for big paychecks.

If your hopes are up for s0m and FNS, the expectations for that would be ridiculously high as they arent planning for any big spending this year for their roster which was made clear when they put together their original roster for the upcoming season which has already expanded.

Cloud9 will face Leviatán to start Americas Stage 1 on April 6 with their matchup being the kick off of the VCT Americas 2024.

Sentinels Become Champions Once Again At Masters Madrid

It took 1,029 days but the Sentinels VALORANT side have won their second Masters trophy becoming the only organisation in VALORANT history to have TWO Masters trophies to their name.

They defeated GenG in the repeat of the Upper final game however this bout went blow for blow with both teams winning their map picks and then Sentinels eventually dominating Icebox to take the match 3-2 and finally, after all the hard work and determination, win the first Masters Event of the year.

TenZ joins Chronicle as the only two players to have won more than one Masters Event, with fans doubting his performance since Reykjavik, he really put the haters to rest this series putting up more frags than any of the other GenG players did on the flex role across the 5 maps where he played gekko, Omen and Kay/0.

However it wasnt TenZ that was the standout of this Masters win, it was Zekken, who equalled Demon1’s record of 101 kills in a Bo5 across the 5 maps on the Jett and the Raze putting himself up there as one of the best, if not the best duelist player in the world.

It has been a very long time since Sentinels have been at the top of VALORANT, however, fans across the world and even pros across the world were very confident in their chances to win the game and that is exactly what they went and did with all of the teams that they had to defeat on their path including the new super teams in Leviatan and NRG to qualify for Madrid, to then have to beat Paper Rex, Team Heretics and LOUD to eventually beat GenG in the final and get their well deserved trophy for their efforts and tribulation.

They put themselves down in history, especially Sacy, who has become the first player in history to win a Masters and a Champions trophy, and he did it with two different teams in two different languages alongside 2x Masters winner, TenZ, and JohnQT whos first time on the Masters stage brought him the win.

They go into the upcoming season with 6 Champions qualification points which gives them huge lee-way to their performance not needing to be top tier at the Americas league with them having to lose all of their games to not make it to Madrid. They only need to win 1 game to make it to Madrid in theory.

Paper Rex Knock Out Karmine Corp From Masters Madrid in MEGA Match

One of the surprise teams of VCT 2024, Karmine Corp, have been eliminated from Masters Madrid by the APAC international kings, Paper Rex in a 2-1 banger of a match.

It took the team 3 maps and a nail biting over time on the final map to secure the winner and send home the French side from Masters Madrid after their dream run in the playoffs.

The game ended with the so called ‘flex god‘ f0rsaken returning as Raze but also playing 3 different roles across the 3 maps to pretty much secure his team the win and bring them over the line in the final map with a ridiculous 3k to send Karmine Corp back to EMEA.

Monyet quietened the haters with his performance on Bind sending them in the right direction with a round 4 Ace putting the hopes of Paper Rex fans high despite the criticism he received after the previous game against Team Heretics.

Despite the seriousness of the tournament and the pressure that they are under, Paper Rex played their usual style and seemed to be having fun which is what the essence of Paper Rex is. They will always be smiling and laughing whilst destroying some of the best teams in the world.

They will go on to face GenG in the play-offs for a chance to finally win an international event after coming 2-3rd place so many times now that it is just a given that Paper Rex will go far in the tournament and reach at least the Upper Finals.

LOUD Obliterate EDG To Make Top Four At Masters Madrid

The Brazilian kings, LOUD, had a statement game with a complete domination of Edward Gaming only allowing them 5 total rounds across the two maps in this crucial knockout game at Masters Madrid.

LOUD once again brought the pheonix comp to Sunset with quick going 38-19 across the two maps showing fans that even without aspas, LOUD are a force to be reckoned with especially on their Sunset where quick went 24-7 on the Phoenix after a complete blowout on Icebox.

Unfortunate as it is, Zmjjkk wasnt enough to bring down the LAN Veterans in LOUD as they dominate Icebox 13-2 with the Chinese superstar going 4-15 and then ending Sunset 13-14 despite having quite a strong run of form coming into this game.

LOUD solidified their spot in the play-offs for the Grand Final with an utter domination of the Chinese side sending a message to their next opponent, Sentinels, that they are a force that wont go down easily despite losing their best player to Leviatan.

The draw for the play-offs was done after the two knockout games ended, with the two regions fighting within each other allowing for an upper bracket game and a lower bracket game to be NA vs APAC.

LOUD will play Sentinels on the 21st of March at 6pm after the Paper Rex vs GenG game concludes setting up for a huge match that went 3-2 in the way of Sentinels the last time that they met.

LOUD Eliminate FPX From Masters Madrid

After a disappointing early loss to Gen.G, LOUD bounced back against China’s second seed. A relatively quick 2-0 sent them into the decider round of the Swiss stage, one win away from playoffs.

LOUD completely dominated their map pick, converting Sunset 13-5 in a game that wasn’t even as close as the final score suggested. FunPlus Phoenix finally put up a fight on Breeze, led by a standout 25 kill performance from Autumn, but in the end, LOUD’s depth was too much to handle. A 13-11 score sent FPX packing.

Both teams brought Phoenix comps to Sunset, with quick picking Phoenix as his primary agent this year it seems. FPX compounded their uniqueness by adding in a Harbor and Chamber. Although their comp was very strong in the Chinese VCT, it has seen no success on the international stage at Madrid.

A pair of clutches against weaker buys kept FPX from getting demolished immediately, but LOUD cleanly accelerated past them. LOUD applied a lot of aggressive defensive pressure around the map which gave them a huge advantage against this fairly new roster.

LOUD held an 8-4 lead at the half and easily converted a 13-5 victory on their attack. Without a true sentinel, FPX were completely unable to stop LOUD from taking whatever map control they wanted.

In addition to calling a nearly flawless game, saadhak, the IGL of LOUD, closed Sunset with the most kills and fewest deaths in the server.

LOUD will go to face Edward Gaming, the other Chinese VCT side to appear at Masters Madrid. They will play an elimination game to see which team makes it to the playoffs alongside Sentinels and GenG to crown the Champion of the world at Masters Madrid.