OpTic Gaming Valorant’s in-game leader Pujan ‘FNS’ Mehta has said that he was impressed by the level of play Sentinels displayed in their first match with Michael ‘shroud’ Grzesiek.
Sentinels’ campaign in the VCT NA last-chance qualifier got off on the wrong foot after they fell to The Guard 2-1 in the first round of the upper bracket.
The match generated a lot of hype in the Valorant scene as it marked the debuts of shroud and Jordan ‘Zellsis’ Montemurro with the team. At one point, over 600,000 viewers were watching the series, setting a new viewership record for North American Valorant competition.
Despite the loss, FNS said that Sentinels showed some positive signs, noting that they were playing only their first official match with two players.
“Sentinels actually played so f***ing well,” FNS said on stream. “I’ll give them that. Their comps are really good. For their first match with shroud, they played really, really well.
“My takeaway is the fact that they were able to play those comps at such a level while having very little match experience with two players is pretty impressive. I’ll give that to Sentinels.”
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Two of the three maps of the series were decided in overtime — a clear sign of how closely-contested the match was.
Still, FNS stressed that The Guard were deserved winners, saying: “If there’s any motherf***er in this chat that thinks Sentinels should have won this game, you are braindead. They should have won map one and they should have won this map [Icebox] way earlier. You are crazy otherwise.
“The Guard was the better team. They did not get lucky winning this. They were the better team the entire way.”
Sentinels find themselves in a do-or-die situation in the lower bracket of the VCT NA LCQ. They will play for their tournament lives on August 7 against the losing side of the match between Shopify Rebellion and Cloud9.