Sentinels Sign Two World Champions in Sacy and pancada

The LOUD duo of Gustavo “Sacy” Rossi and Bryan “pancada” Luna is the final two pieces of the Sentinels' rebuild. After bringing in star Duelist Zachary “Zekken” Patrone, in-game leader Rory “dephh” Jackson, former XSET head coach Dan “Sykko” Muir, and Ghost Gaming coach Adam Kaplan. In addition to the four new players joining the roster, Sentinels confirmed that Tyson “TenZ” Ngo would be returning for the 2023 season. 

With a five-man roster in place and an upgrade coaching staff, the 2021 VCT Masters Reyjavik roster overhaul is complete. There were reports of Michael “dapr” Gulino being approached as a sixth-man reserve, but he made it clear on Twitter that he would be pursuing other offers. 

In typical Sentinels fashion, the organization that bought out TenZ from Cloud9 for the inflated asking price and signed Mike “Shroud” Grzesiek to a short-term contract has now bought themselves into the defending champion narrative. After setting viewership records during North America’s Last Chance Qualifier with Shroud, two splash signings like this not only make them an International contender again but add two huge personalities from the Brazilian scene. 

Furthemore, it could build a bridge for Brazilian VALORANT fans to cheer for Sentinels. After Jared "zombs" Gitlin famously tweeted out disrespect towards the region as a whole. We could see the same region who despised the black and red dawning those colors in the near future.

What amounts to a shocking departure from a team that achieved the highest honor in VALORANT, Sentinels built their roster with experience in mind. Few, if any, players have as many LAN games on the VCT stage as Sacy (23 total). The idea is to build a similar formula to the 2021 Sentinels. It's an attempt to try an activate a sleeping giant in TenZ by surrounding him with better support pieces.

Unfortunately, the signing breaks up the famous Vivo Keyd duo of Sacy and Matias "Saadhak" Delipetro. As Saadkhak is presumably sticking with LOUD during their roster retool. It’s a side effect of the business to see two good friends and titans split. But, the two together broke every barrier placed in front of smaller region teams from Brazil and did the unthinkable: winning a World Champonship together.  

As for the roster makeup, Sentinels add one of the best smokes players in the game in pancada and arguably the best initiator in Sacy. At VCT Champions, pancada ended with a staggering 78% KAST and a 1.25 KD (according to vlr.gg). These numbers put him in the top five of both respective categories. Furthermore, Sacy and pancada excelled at staying alive, ending with a 0.60 DPR for Sacy and 0.59 for pancada. And, with Syyko building the system, he should be able to utilize this strength to elevate the duelist mains.

Moreover, we saw LOUD break ground with Felipe “Less’ de Loyola and Erick “aspas” Santos. Two relatively unknown players outside Brazil heading into 2022, who became international superstars with Sacy, pancada, and Saadhak.. That’s partially due to their incredible talent, but it’s also a sign of the support system around them. With Sentinels housing Zekken and TenZ, who boast some of the best Entry stats we’ve seen in VALORANT’s short history, pancada and Sacy can absolutely elevate those players to new heights. 

Coaches: Syyko and Kaplan

Feature image courtesy of Lance Skundrich/Riot Games