Sentinels: Has the organisation lost their initial spark?

Yuvansh Ruia
|PublishedMar 01, 2022

Sentinels lost 2-1 to OpTic Gaming recently. Sentinels fans left disappointed after recent matchup.

Senitinels kicked off NA VCT Main Event with a match against NRG. They won closely 2-1 and didn’t seem as dominant as they were at Masters 2021. It seemed like they were out of practice which was true. They hadn’t practiced in almost two weeks before kicking off against NRG.

Their second match versus Knights was also won 2-1 by Sentinels. But even losing a map against a Tier 3 team is somewhat an embarrassment. Given the stature of the organisation, it should have been a clean sweep. The first two matches were against the Tier 3 teams and Sentinels could easily out-aim them despite their obvious flaws. However, these flaws were exposed in front of OpTic gaming and lost 1-2. The top power ranked teams going into the Main Event. So what flaws are we talking about here?

Also read: Optic Gaming defeats Sentinels in the NA VCT Main Event and Secures the second position in the leaderboard

Visible flaws in Sentinels playing style

We know that SEN have incredibly talented players who more often than not win. But today’s Optic matchup was just one of those days where you could literally see SEN being outclassed by utility and setplay.

Despite Shahzam admitting that they were outplayed in the utility department during Champs nothing seems to have changed at all. Tenz for whatever reason seems to be still stuck on Jett.

By far in all 3 maps there is not one single instance of setplay that we have seen from SEN. All of their plans include either bombing into the site, using an ultimate or some ridiculous hero play from one of them.

SEN have a great team but without their util and setplays they will always hover around the top but can never be the rank 1. However SEN never lose big enough to change their ways, and even if they do will they change?

Even FNC Boaster chimed in on a post on Reddit with suggestions of what Sentinels can do better. He commented,” I think they need a coach and an IGL dedicated to IGLing.”

Upcoming Sentinels matches

Will Sentinels overcome their latest loss and prove the analysts wrong? Their next match is against Rise on 5th March, 2022 at 2:30 am IST. Rise is currently 4th in Group B and gave OpTic their first loss in the Main Event. Taking them lightly, will be the biggest mistake Sentinels can make.

After Rise, they will battle it out in their last match of Stage 1 against currently the best team in Group B. Version 1 is no joke at all with their star studded roster and sitting comfortably at #1 with 0 losses. The match will be on 13th March, 2022 at 2:30 am IST.