We’re only one match into the preseason of the 2024 VALORANT Champions Tour campaign, but Sentinels fans may already be a little bit anxious about the upcoming year after a mid-match collapse in yesterday’s showmatch.
From within the Sentinels compound, the most talked about and scrutinized VCT Americas team took on Moist x Shopify in a best-of-three, with org representatives and steaming stars Ludwig and tarik watching the entire series. But after a dominant map one win on Bind, things fell apart for Sentinels on Ascent and Haven, culminating in a one-vs-three clutch for MxS’ brawk that left tarik and Sentinels CEO Rob Moore stunned.
Sentinels superstar TenZ appears fully committed to the flex role and has added Harbor to his agent pool, permitting Sentinels to run the famed Harbor-Viper comp on Haven. While Haven didn’t go the way of Sentinels, TenZ looked more than capable on the controller, leading his team in kills and assists.
TenZ spoke about his transition away from the entry role in a recent interview with analyst and former coach Sean Gares, saying that flash initiators and supports suit his playstyle better. In that interview, TenZ admitted that playing Jett so much early in his career “put him on the wrong path,” and he said his new agent pool will allow him to flex his creativity more.
On the other side of the server, this victory could be the catalyst of a strong Challengers season for the Moist x Shopify roster. MxS have now beaten Sentinels and were able to hang with Cloud9 in an earlier showmatch—one that MxS might have even been able to win without the in-game disruptions.
After the showmatch yesterday, new Sentinels in-game leader Mouhamed “johnqt” Ouarid tweeted that the match was fun, but noted that the team has “got stuff to fix.” The bigger changes might have to come later as Sentinels face a gauntlet of preseason opponents over the next few weeks, with a match against new VCT Americas opponent G2 scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 26.
