- Sentinels suffered a close defeat by 100 Thieves at the VCT Last Chance Qualifier
- Shroud says the team had only five days of practice before its match against 100T
- He still believes the team will perform terrifically with more practice
Following the Sentinels’ lackluster performance at the 2022 North American VCT Last Chance Qualifier, Shroud explained the team would have done better if it had more time to train.
Shroud Blames Lack of Practice
The 2022 North American VCT Last Chance Qualifier ended recently and 100 Thieves have been performing amazingly, recently defeating FaZe Clan in a spectacular 3-0 match. One of 100T’s other victims were the Sentinels, who failed to make use of the Last Chance Qualifier. Now that the team is licking its battle wounds, Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek went on Twitch to talk about Sentinels’ fall to 100 Thieves.
The Canadian pro blames the lack of practice for the team’s bad performance. Although being some of the top fan favorites, Sentinels struggled to perform up to the expectations that they had set for themselves the year before with back-to-back Masters wins. Even though the team brought Jordan “Zellsis” Montemurro on board and signed Shroud a couple of months ago, its performance was still lacking.
The team hoped these two players would seal the deal for them, but now that the LCQ is now over, Shroud explained in a recent Twitch stream that he thinks the lack of practice is what the team is in. “We had f*cking five days to practice before 100 Thieves,” Shroud said. “We didn’t practice, Tyson (TenZ) got really, really sick. Unlucky, I think he’s feeling much better now, which is good, but f*ck man. We had plans, we were going to change some comps up, we were gonna have a good time.”
What Awaits Sentinels?
Having been eliminated from the VCT NA Last Chance Qualifier, following a closely-fought 1-2 loss to 100 Thieves, the Sentinels have a lot to think about for their future. Although we will not see them at the VCT, we might instead watch the Sentinels perform in Riot Games’ new franchising model set to roll out in 2023.
While Sentinels have yet to formally lock in a spot in the new Americas league, they are looking like a heavy favorite to do so. Considering Sentinels are the most-watched VALORANT team on the planet, it seems unlikely that Riot Games will not select the Sentinels as part of the League.
However, Shroud’s future in the team seems a little uncertain. The 28-year-old has said that he would stay with Sentinels if certain conditions are met. Furthermore, he still believes that Sentinels have a good player selection, just not enough time to train them. “Honestly, I don’t think we’ve gotten close to our ceiling because we’ve been at boot camp for two weeks,” he said. “If this roster would stay together, I think it would be dangerous.”
Regardless if Sentinels will not perform in the VALORANT Champions Tour, we will still be seeing them in the near future in other events, when they have hopefully had enough time to practice.
