Sentinels remained undefeated throughout the tournament.
The Sentinels Invitational powered by StarForge Systems has come to an end and Sentinels have emerged as the winners. The $20,000 tournament was a short three-day event that saw some of the best players from the region go up against each other.
Sentinels win the Sentinels Invitational 2023
The Sentinels Invitational 2023 was a four-team event with a $20,000 prize pool. The event kicked off on November 1 and continued for two more days. With a single round-robin format, the tournament saw stiff competition from each of the four participating teams.
However, it was Sentinels that emerged as the clear favorites after the group stage. The team won all three of its group stage matches ending the stage with a +14 round difference.
The tournament began with a 2-1 victory over Moist x Shopify with the final map - Split - going into overtime. However, Sacy and co. had the upper hand to start their event on a positive note. The second match was against G2 esports, arguably their toughest series of the event.
A 16-14 and a 13-11 victory over G2 in two maps saw Sentinels near the top of the table. But they still had one more opponent to secure their clean group stage performance. They achieved this with a 2-1 victory over Oxygen Esports.
A first-place standing in the group stage meant the team qualified directly to the Grand Finals. One series away from victory, Sentinels had their task cut out for them.
For many teams, while going directly through to the latter stages of the tournament might mean an easier route, it also robs them of some practice. So going up against a well-rehearsed Oxygen esports was no easy task for Sentinels. Sentinels won the Grand Finals with a 2-0 victory, with a 13-5 and a 13-11 score on both the maps.
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Controversial Listen-in
The tournament did have a controversial broadcast decision that left viewers with a rather one-sided view of the Sentinels' team communication. During one broadcast segment, the listen-in feature saw Sentinels JonahP say to his teammate "“Just stop talking. Just let me heal and reset, we got a kill.”
Without any context, the conversation sounds rather abrupt, however, in a subsequent tweet, the player added more context. He explained about the 'overcoming and missing timings' adding the conversation looks more disrespectful than it actually was.
With this victory, Sentinels won $10,000 and some much-needed practice for their upcoming events. Riot Games has announced several OFF//SEASON events, which will take place in the absence of official VALORANT Champions Tour events.
Sentinels' VALORANT roster is as follows:
- Zachary "zekken" Patrone
- Gustavo "Sacy" Rossi
- Tyson "TenZ" Ngo
- Mouhamed "johnqt" Ouarid
- Jordan "Zellsis" Montemurro
Stay tuned to esports.gg for the latest VALORANT news and updates.