Sentinels’ chances of Masters Shangai is now up in flames with LOUD getting their first win of the split against the current champions.
Sentinels going down to LOUD now means that their chance of their qualification mainly lands into the hands of other teams losing with them needing NRG and G2 to lose BOTH of their games for Sentinels to make it to play-offs.
why do we always face the championship version of Loud?
Despite LOUD not having a win all split after going down to Leviatan, Cloud9 and KRU, they turned up and played Sentinels down to a level that just isn’t acceptable in SEN fans eyes.
SEN now go on to face off against FURIA with the only game they have remaining is set to be played this weekend in the final week of Split 1 for VCT Americas.
LOUD’s chances for playoffs are very alive due to their group being the poorest group of all VCT with two teams going 0-4 and the final spot being contested between two other teams whilst Leviatan takes the lead for the group after taking down NRG and Sentinels.
Stats Courtesy of vlr.gg
After an un-characteristically bad performance from Zellsis he went 16 kills across the two maps and Sacy was the only player on Sentinels to keep his frags consistent.
On the other side, cauanzin had a strong return to form after being the bottom frag of the side for the first 3 matches, he turned up and dropped 41 kills on Sentinels and looked to be on a revenge tour of the remaining matches in the split.
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.
It has been 605 days since @100T_VAL has beaten @Sentinels. (August 11th, 2022 – NA LCQ 2022)
— VALORANT Esports NA (@valesports_na) April 7, 2024
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.
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.
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.
The second team to make it to the play-offs for Masters Madrid has been confirmed as GenG defeat Edward Gaming in convincing fashion after dominating 2 maps.
Despite the incredible performance from Zmjjkk on the EDG side, it seemed to be just Kang Kang who was turning up for the game and wanted to win. They get sent down to the 1-1 bracket in the Swiss System where they will go on to play LOUD, who they lost to 2-1 in last years Champions.
Edward Gaming took the first map on Icebox 13-8 with an unfortunate time for Lakia on the Gekko going 3-18 which ultimately led to Edward taking the map quite comfortably despite then going on to getting a combined 11 rounds across the next two maps.
Once again, Zmjjkk putting up ridiculous numbers which puts him currently in the top 5 performing players of the entire masters so far. Despite losing the game, they are still in the tournament where they will battle to try and make it to the play offs to possibly rematch GenG and try and make history for the Chinese VALORANT scene.
Gen.G have secured a minimum Top 4 Placement at #VALORANTMasters Madrid
It is the highest International Tournament placement for 4 of their players
GenG go on to the play-offs joining Sentinels where they will wait 3 days for their matches but they will find out the remaining two teams and see who will join them in getting closer to the Masters Madrid title.
— VALORANT Champions Tour (@ValorantEsports) March 15, 2024
It has been a long wait to see TenZ and Sentinels on the Masters stage but the wait has been well worth it. In the first round of his International return, he hit a huge Ace to send the motivation in the way of the Sentinels lads.
They went on to win the game 2-1 and beat the EMEA second seed and were sent to face off against the other side from Europe, Karmine Corp who were looking like tournament favourites coming into this Masters.
However TenZ really showed up when his team needed him the most, reminiscent to his Masters Reykjavik. He then ends the Karmine Corp game, a crucial play off game, with 42 kills on omen going +21 on his K/D which set Sentinels up for success and go on to beat the French giants to make it to play offs.
It is only the second team that Sentinels have beat 2-0 since MIBR of the play-ins. All of the other teams that they have faced have gone the distance including a 3-2 victory over LOUD in the Americas Kick-Off grand final.
— VALORANT Champions Tour (@ValorantEsports) March 16, 2024
The next game for Sentinels is yet to be drawn but they send Karmine Corp down to the 1-1 in the Swiss stage to face off against another team who will win or lose their next game.
With the upcoming Masters Madrid only days away, now is a good time to look back at the VCT Kick-off tournaments across the world and what better than to start with Americas where Sentinels took the crown this year.
There were so many changes in this league with no teams staying the same over the off-season leading to the creation of 4 superteams and 3 of them were seeded into group B leaving 100Thieves in a sticky spot to make it out, getting double eliminated.
Looking at stats, the best players in the tournament were similar to what American fans are used to. In this top 5 list, only players that have played over 125 rounds will be counted into the rankings, and for players that have the same rating off of vlr.gg, it will be ranked off who has the more rounds played as keeping a higher rating with more rounds is more impressive.
5. LOUD tuyz
Being one of the only teams to make 1 change this year, LOUD went into kick-off losing their star player and main firepower in aspas which meant that their rankings have changed dramatically from last years ratings.
Despite this, they made it to Madrid by defeating aspas and his new team Leviatan, with tuyz being a crucial part of their success and at times became the backbone of their CT side on maps running the controller role.
He was brought into the team to replace the MVP of Champions 2022, pANcada, and he hasn’t disappointed despite not winning an international trophy since that, they have shown consistent performances and did win the VCT Americas last year in quite comfortable fashion whilst being the only team to defeat FNATIC at all last year.
4. SEN TenZ
As many are already aware, TenZ is the face of VALORANT and has been that since the start of VALORANT. His record high performance at Masters Reykjavik with his ACS still holds the top spot to this day however, his play style has changed from Reyna and Jett to now playing the Omen and KAY/0.
However, despite dropping down from the main entry role on the team, his stats are still through the roof on the Omen where he is seeming to reinvent how Omen is played with picking up the AWP and taking fights that he can afford to take with the Teleport ability that Omen has.
His performance was very important to Sentinels success in the last season of VCT with the crucial game against NRG where he dropped 30 kills on the Omen on Sunset and showed what his Omen can do on the AWP on the Split.
3. LEV aspas
This is the first of the same rating where the top three players all have a rating of 1.15 across this tournament however, aspas, is the lowest of the three since Leviatan wasnt able to make it out of the group of death and only played 186 rounds on the Raze, Jett and Reyna.
He left LOUD in 2023 and moved to Leviatan for this VCT season and he ended up being taken down by his former team and left for April for the normal VCT season where he can try and get his revenge against his former team in LOUD and his replacement qck.
This will be the first LAN tournament that aspas has missed since Berlin 2020 Champions where he wasn’t there since he was in Brazil Challengers fighting to make a name for himself which he has done by being named one of the GOATs of VALORANT in its short history.
2. LOUD Less
Once again, Less had a 1.15 rating also but he made it to the Grand Final of the Kick-Off tournament and therefore played 271 rounds and showed why he deserves the respect that other players show him.
He has been the core of LOUD’s success for many years now with playing the Sentinel role on the side and still putting up numbers for ACS and kills alongside the superstars in aspas and now qck.
It has been very impressive to see the Brazilian take over and show his technique and aim that is admired across the VALORANT world, with ex-CSGO pro, Tarik, saying that Less has ‘ the best aim in the world‘.
1. SEN Zekken
The number one spot goes to Zekken of Sentinels with a 1.15 rating but a HUGE 432 rounds nearly doubling the second place, Less’, rounds with a very impressive play-in run to face off against NRG and then make it to Masters Madrid with himself topping the server that has Demon1, TenZ and Marved in there.
Zekken’s Raze has been admired by the world as the best Raze in the world since the retirement of Jinggg has left room for a new best Raze in the world. Sentinels have found the key to their success and it is Zekken on the Raze instead of TenZ on the duelist.
Zekken also plays the Jett at a very high level despite TenZ taking up the AWP role with Zekken being a top 5 rifler in the world.
Coming into Masters Madrid, SEN are looking like favourites to make it very far and Zekken’s performance is very important to their success with his entries making space for the team more than TenZ did last season, allowing the players to flood on site and the aim and game sense from their team, can carry them to a possible 2nd Masters trophy.
An honorable mention, goes to mwzera of FURIA, who actually topped the tournament as of rating with a 1.19 rating but he did get double eliminated from the tournament after losing 2-0 to both NRG and MIBR with FURIA not taking a map from any team. This being the truth, it didn’t feel correct to put him at the top of the ratings with this side not taking anything from the tournament.
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 7 games in the Kick-off event, Sentinels are crowned the VCT Americas Champions with a 3-2 victory over LOUD.
They beat the team that knocked them down to a lower bracket run with an incredible 5 map series where their old ‘GOAT‘ of VALORANT, TenZ got the MVP with 84 frags across the 5 maps on the flex role playing Omen, KAY/0 and Yoru.
They won the tournament in astonishing fashion beating every single team put in front of them despite having heavy doubts amongst fans in NA. They beat the two so called ‘superteams’ that were poised to make it through by themselves knocking both NRG and Leviatan out of the tournament in pretty comfortable fashion.
Despite having a rocky start to the season going down 2-0 to LOUD in their first game, they bounced back and won all of their following games including the rematch against LOUD where they went 2-0 up in the first two maps but took it all the way to a dominant map 5 where they closed it out on Lotus 13-4.
Their Split still seems unbreakable with Sentinels destroying LOUD 13-3 which set up for a possible 3-0 but it wasn’t meant to be as they lost Icebox in a close 13-11 map with fans biting their nails to the close game that has occured.
After so much speculation and criticism, TenZ really showed up when it was most needed in their 2-1 victory over NRG to secure Madrid and now in the Grand Final where he managed a 1.21 rating on vlr.gg ahead of his teammate Zekken who has been frying all teams this Kick-Off.
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 