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.
— VALORANT Champions Tour (@ValorantEsports) March 24, 2024
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.
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 and EDward Gaming meet again so soon
The last time they saw each was Champions 2023 where LOUD eliminated EDG in a 2-1 series pic.twitter.com/PcpVlnEaq5
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.
A gruelling match up between two teams that are on form this season battled it out for a spot in the 1-1 bracket and to fight for survival in this tournament and the outcome was one that upset the home fans in Madrid as the crazy style of Paper Rex was too much for Team Heretics.
🇸🇬 PAPER REX ARE THROUGH TO THE FINAL ROUND OF THE SWISS STAGE!
The Pacific representatives beat 🇪🇸 Team Heretics to join LOUD, Karmine Corp, and EDward Gaming in the 2-1 pool
f0rsaken has been put into history books once again as he debuted a new agent for the VCT with Raze after they moved from their triple duelist comp that seemed to work in Pacific VCT but didn’t win them anything here at Masters Madrid against the tough competition.
f0rsaken took up the Raze and Monyet moved onto the Omen which was a shock to some fans as f0rsaken has now ran nearly all of the agents to a high degree including Raze which he dropped 22 kills on and MVP’d the final map to take the win to Paper Rex.
They went down 6-1 with BenjyFishy had a ridiculous start to the map going 19-5 shutting down the A bomb site, however it took individual brilliance from something and f0rsaken with multiple 4k’s to send them to the map win and sending the home side back to EMEA.
Paper Rex will go on to face Karmine Corp as they were unable to repeat their game against EDG and was only able to face one of KC or LOUD and they got the French side who are creating waves across VALORANT with N4RRATE playing out of his skin this tournament,
The international Veterans, LOUD, put up a strong fight but the number 1 seed from APAC were too much for the Brazilians to handle with a 2-1 victory sending LOUD one game away from elimination.
Despite Less having the most frags across the three maps, he alone wasn’t enough to defeat GenG who seemed formidable in their play.
Stats Courtesy of vlr.gg
LOUD brought another Ascent comp to the table with Quick playing Yoru and finding no success against the GenG traditional comp on Ascent of Jett, Killjoy, KAY/0, Omen and Sova.
The first map, Icebox, went GenG’s way with a ridiculous clutch from Karon on his international debut against Less of all people. Less put up 27 frags on the Icebox but it wasn’t enough and a stick of the defuse was the end of Icebox.
🇰🇷 GEN.G END THE FIRST DAY OF MADRID WITH A WIN OVER 🇧🇷 LOUD, 2-1!
The Breeze did go the way of LOUD, with TuyZ activating and dropping 22 frags with GenG’s Yoru comp not getting much use and only dropping 9 frags despite t3xture going 21/18 on the Jett and having some crazy entries. He was also confusing fans across the world by only using the phantom, which was confusing because of the natural long distance fights that will occur on a map like Breeze.
This game sends LOUD down to the 0-1 games potentially face FPX after they lost to KC earlier in the day. The draw for the following games is yet to happen since there are 2 more games today with Edward Gaming facing off against Paper Rex and Team Heretics facing off against Sentinels to find the next games in this Swiss system.
The first game of VCT Masters Madrid has kicked off with a statement 2-0 victory over Chinese side FPX.
The number 1 seed from EMEA takes down the number 2 seed from the Chinese league asserting their dominance on the international stage for the first time since Lock-In last year.
Stats courtesy of vlr.gg
N4RRATE put up huge numbers going +19 on the initiator role. They played the same as fans have been watching in EMEA where they play slow and find out information that is critical to them getting the crucial rounds and eventually leads to their win.
FPX came into the game looking for their first international win after not having any success in their previous tournaments. Life, previously of Edward Gaming, was showing up with 41 frags on the Reyna and the Chamber, agents that arent used to full effect usually in the pro scene.
He managed an incredible Reyna ace on Icebox to put some pressure onto KC but in the end, the French side was too much and denied the Chinese side their first international win.
The second map was Lotus with FPX abandoning the usual Killjoy or Cypher for a Chamber which eventually lent towards their downfall as going up 8-4 at the half, their defensive side only gave them 2 rounds ending the game 13-10.
As this Masters is a Swiss format, so both teams will play another game and first teams to go to 2 wins will proceed and if FPX play their follow on game and lose it, they will be eliminated from Masters Madrid.
With all the teams finalised for the first Masters of the 2024 VCT Season, there are many players that are making their first international LAN debut with many teams from across the world including 4 out of the 5 from Team Heretics.
In this article, we will list 5 players to keep an eye on this Masters with some players firing into the season from their upset wins in their regions and new champions being crowned across all of the regions.
5. Dominykas ‘MiniBoo‘ Lukaševičius
MiniBoo, as the name states, is the younger brother of his teammate, Boo. They are a brother duo that took EMEA by storm with Boo on the Controller and MiniBoo on the duelist role.
They qualified through EMEA Kick-off by defeating FUTEsports and the once kings, NaVi. They defied all the odds with a team of players with an average age of 19 and the signing of many T2 players and a previous Fortnite superstar, Benjyfishy.
MiniBoo took fans by surprise in their qualification game for Masters against NaVi dropping a 49/29 KD and going 24/6 on Yoru for them to close out a 2-0 victory over the old FPX roster.
Coming into Masters they are on fire but their young roster and inexperience at LAN could cause them to fall at the first hurdle that is Sentinels.
4. Kim ‘t3xture’ Na-ra
After GenG made a surprising run through APAC to actually get the number 1 seed into Masters Madrid over Paper Rex, their star duelist player, t3xture, sent waves across APAC with his Raze movement and aim that would fill the hole of Jinggg very well despite being on a different team.
GenG were in group C and despite beating RRQ in their opening game they did lose to Paper Rex in a close 2-1 game to drop down to play-ins and eventually made it all the way to final without losing one game.
They beat Paper Rex in the final in a 3-1 dominating game with t3xture top fragging the lobby with 65 kills on Raze and Jett, outfragging international superstars such as something, f0rsaken and Monyet.
3. Martin ‘marteen’ Pátek
Another roster that shocked the world was Karmine Corp. With their shocking year last year with many memorable moments for the worst reasons, they bounced back with a brand new roster only keeping sh1n from their old roster and completely revamping bringing in 3 duelist players and moving them around on different agents.
marteen was the perfect choice for their main duelist with his very high sensitvity, he performs flashy flicks and kills onto the best players in the region dropping ACS of near 400 in some maps.
He really showed up when it was most crucial against FNATIC when we went 40/26 against the best team of 2023 and is running the Yoru composition that had FNATIC struggling and eventually sent them home 2-0 after a shock result in the EMEA region.
It will be his first LAN however, but they will be facing off against FPX, who could be considered the worst team at the tournament.
2. Tyson ‘TenZ‘ Ngo
TenZ has always been a talking point when it comes to LAN performance as Sentinels haven’t made an invitational LAN in over 3 years. However, this year, the most clouted organisation in VALORANT made it to Masters in astonishing fashion defeating superteams Leviatan, NRG and LOUD to make the number 1 seed from VCT Americas.
It was the team that came together and really put on a performance for the fans at home but there was nothing but positives for the canadian who has gone from the primary duelist role onto the Omen, KAY/0 and Yoru this year.
His Omen has been a spectacle to watch as he still has that duelist mentality on Omen dropping 30 kills to take Sunset from NRG and then having an MVP performance against LOUD in the Grand final of Kick-off against LOUD dropping 84 frags across the 5 maps going +14 in KD.
1. Marshall ‘N4RRATE‘ Massey
The biggest surprise of the VCT 2024 Kick-off was the NA import to Karmine Corp, N4RRATE, putting up crazy numbers on the initiator role for the French megaside.
He spent last year in the second tier of NA Valorant on MAD Lions where they had an average year, and N4RRATE was on the primary duelist role still dropping good numbers. His performance caught the attention of NRG where he was reported to be trailing for the side and was their number 1 choice before Demon1 became available to them and they couldn’t pass up that opportunity.
This year he has shocked the world with his performance over in EMEA, asking the question of whether or not NA VALORANT is too saturated and has so many talented players sat in the 2nd tier whilst the superstars take the top flight spots.
This Masters will be his first event so there is always the chance of the LAN and the opportunity getting to him, but if he can perform as he was against FNATIC where he Raze diffed Derke, he has a real chance to leave an impact on the world of VALORANT and have another crazy rookie year, similar to Demon1 on EG last year.
There are many more players that haven’t been mentioned such as:
Zachary ‘Zekken’ Patrone
Zheng ‘Zmjjkk’ Yongkang
Felipe ‘Less‘ de Loyola
Benjy ‘BenjyFishy‘ David Fish
This Masters Madrid will not have NRG, FNATIC or DRX there giving a big change from last year and not allowing FNATIC to defend their Masters Championship and allowing for a new holder to be crowned.
Will Sentinels regain their former glory and take home another Masters or will a new Champion be etched into VCT history?
Masters Madrid begins on the 14th of March at 15:00 GMT with Karmine Corp facing off against FunPlus Pheonix.
After 932 days, Sentinels finally make their way back to an international LAN event with a 2-1 victory over NRG after closing out the matchup in a 13-3 destruction on Split.
It took over 600 rounds for Sentinels to make it to play offs and take their great players into Masters Madrid. Fans are exhilarated with the defeat of super team NRG leaving fans wondering if they are even all that.
It took the introduction of JohnQT to really turn this team around and bring them to their first international LAN in over 3 years. It has been a long journey for fans of the organisation and Zellsis has become a core part of the team throughout the process of building this roster.
TenZ really turned up for this crucial matchup with his insane Omen playstyle especially on Sunset where he dropped 30 kills and then on Split where he pulled out the Operator and was hitting ridiculous shots onto the world champions Demon1 and Ethan.
The final team has been announced for Masters Madrid with the VCT Americas league ending off with their two teams in Sentinels and LOUD.
The eight teams to make it to Masters Madrid are –
Paper Rex
Gen-G
Edward Gaming
FunPlus Pheonix
Karmine Corp
Team Heretics
LOUD
Sentinels
It is set to begin on the 14th of March with the matchups yet to be announced.
Power Pitches 