Sentinels start out the VCT Challengers 2 group stage 0-2 after a loss to Evil Geniuses on Saturday. It’s a new low for the former Masters champions, as Evil Geniuses posted their first win in the main event after going 0-5 in Challengers One, and dropping their opening match of the group stage to Cloud9 last week.
Ascent was the opening map of the best-of-three series, chosen by Sentinels, but it was EG who came out on top to start the series 1-0. After going into halftime tied at six rounds apiece, EG gained momentum early with the first three rounds of the second half. Despite a valiant comeback from Sentinels, EG finished things out strong to win 13-11 and move on to Icebox. C0M led the way for EG on Ascent with a 1.53 K/D as Sova, alongside a headshot percentage of 23.
The series shifted to EG’s map pick, Icebox, but once again things were close at the half, with EG maintaining a slim 7-5 advantage over Sentinels. Similar to Ascent, EG dominated the opening pistol rounds of the second half, and managed to close things out 13-10 on their own map pick. With a 13-10 win they ended the series 2-0, and upped their record to 1-1 in Group B. On Icebox, jawgemo pulled his team over the line with great duelist play on Jett. A 1.8 total K/D earned him over 40 kills across the series and MVP honors.
On May 27, Evil Geniuses will look to build on their improvement in Challengers 2, taking on Luminosity Gaming for the third week of the group stage. Meanwhile, Sentinels will have to take on defending Masters: Reykjavík champions OpTic Gaming on May 28.
