The first step of Sentinels’ playoff miracle run has been taken. The star-studded must-watch VALORANT team secured a vital victory against KRU today in the penultimate week of the VCT Americas season.
The third different version of this Sentinels roster made its official debut on May 14, with duelist superstar Tyson “TenZ” Ngo returning to the starting roster after some extended time off and controller player/former sixth man Jimmy “Marved” Nguyen taking on the shot-calling responsibilities. The moves paid off, with an overtime win on Lotus and a win on KRU’s map pick of Bind that was capped off by a magical one-vs-three Sheriff clutch from pANcada.
Coach Kaplan, who himself was subbed in following the organization’s decision to let go of head coach Syyko, confirmed prior to the start of the match that Marved would take on the IGL role, with “the expectation that everyone else chimes in with ideas and plays to support him.” As seen in the comms from previous Sentinels matches, Marved has done some mid-round calling and secondary shot-calling recently, but this is his first time as the main IGL since when he played for FaZe in 2020 and 2021.
Related: Playoff scenarios for every VCT Americas team
TenZ didn’t put on a superstar-like performance as we’ve seen in previous years, but he looked comfortable playing aggressively and taking duels on Neon and Jett—and it was his best match rating of the entire year outside of the opening week victory against 100T. On top of that, he had some superstar-esque highlight plays as well.
100T are just one of the teams Sentinels are still chasing in the standings, but the win against KRU today was only the first step, and arguably the easiest. Sentinels still need to win against FURIA next week, and likely by a decisive number, to gain an edge in tiebreakers. Plus, an unlikely 100T loss to a struggling MIBR is also vital to Sentinels’ playoff chances.
