Tasked with building an on-the-fly VALORANT roster that can compete with Sentinels, streaming star Tarik has gone out and made a pickup dream team that includes two world champions and even someone who’s supposed to be starting for Sentinels.
For the Sentinels vs. Tarik showmatch, scheduled for Nov. 15 at 8pm CT, Tarik has brought together two former world champions in Kelden “Boostio” Pupello and Bryan “pANcada” Luna, as well as Sam “s0m” Oh and Shahzeb “ShahZaM” Khan. The match will be a best-of-three simulcast on the Sentinels YouTube channel and Tarik’s Twitch channel.
There are question marks surrounding all four of Tarik’s teammates when it comes to if and where they’ll play next year. Boostio along with the rest of the reigning champion Evil Geniuses roster are reportedly stuck in contract jail, with the direction and standing of the organization in jeopardy following several reports, including an exclusive one by Dot Esports about EG’s work culture following layoffs earlier this month.
Both s0m and ShahZaM are looking most likely at a year of content creation next year; s0m and NRG parted ways this past offseason, while G2 moved on from last year’s Challengers roster to pick up the VCT-bound roster from The Guard, resulting in ShahZaM shifting to streaming.
The player on Tarik’s team that’s drawn the most attention from fans is pANcada, who many anticipated would be starting for Sentinels in 2024, and thus would be playing with the starting roster in this match. This would mean that Zellsis would be playing with the starting lineup, which he’s already done earlier this offseason during the Sentinels Invitational.
It remains to be seen whether this is nothing or something significant. Sentinels is notorious for farming impressions and clicks on their socials, and a running joke among the team and brand throughout the offseason has been Zellsis willing his way to a permanent starting spot. Still, it’s worth noting that Sentinels have won all five offseason matches, including two versus G2, that they’ve played with Zellsis.
