Sentinels vs Paper Rex – VCT Masters Madrid Lower Final: SEN goes 3:1 to make the Grand Final

VCT Masters Madrid is almost at its conclusion. One match remains prior to the Grand Final. Reminder, this is a best-of-five series, as we see Sentinels vs Paper Rex determines who goes up against Gen.G to win it all.

Follow along for a recap of this all-important series.

Sentinels vs Paper Rex is a first-time matchup here at Masters Madrid. They battled in the off-season during the AfreecaTV VALORANT League, but have yet to run into each other at the VCT's first Masters event of the year.

Sentinels, coming off a loss against Gen.G, has all of the ability to rebound. They've decimated the Americas league and this is the only blemish on their record since then. A rematch is absolutely in the cards.

Paper Rex might have other plans, however. They just defeated LOUD in a statement victory to keep their tournament hopes alive. Defeating the other Americas representative is a must if they want to face Gen.G yet again, for an all-Pacific Grand Final series.

All official VALORANT channels on YouTube and Twitch are showcasing this banger match up. Of course, you can watch there, or just stay right here with the embedded stream below to catch Sentinels vs Paper Rex as we highlight it for you.

Read on for a recap and clips to highlight the Lower Final.

Sentinels drew first blood against Paper Rex, taking the Lotus pistol round and the following. They continued ahead by converting their bonus. A close round finally went in favor of PRX, as they looked to get their attacking side rolling. A big Clutch by d4v41 made sure of it.

Soon, it was a tied game and Sentinels appeared to be reeling. Paper Rex jumped ahead and were ready to ensure a lead at halftime. A beautiful retake by Sentinels halted that for the time being. And they halted it completely, tying it at six a piece.

The second half started with a super close pistol round, as mindfreak took down four to secure it for PRX. Another went to the Pacific team, but Sentinels played fast to get the Spike down and reach seven. They tied it easily in the next, truly making this anyone's game.

Leave it to f0rsakeN to rip SEN apart with the Odin and take back the lead. SEN responded, and then a Flawless round pushed them to double digits first. And while f0rsakeN took down three, it wasn't enough to cement a Spike defuse as SEN hit 11. Still, PRX persevered and somehow managed to force overtime.

The first OT round saw Sentinels with a great defensive hold. A Flawless victory decimated a PRX push and put them one away from victory. The following round saw Sentinels play a bit slow, while the defensive team of PRX showed aggression. The SEN strategy prevailed here, and map one was theirs by an inch.

Another opening pistol round went to SEN. Of course, the next was theirs as well. A post-plant saw PRX get on the board, but they lost just about every member of their team for a Monyet 4K. That should have given Sentinels the leg up for quite some time, but a huge Thrifty with a statement knife kill kept PRX in it.

In fact, it more than kept them in it. It gave them a lead, as the half looked to be similar to that of Lotus. A well-placed Hunter's Fury by sacy and great positioning by TenZ stopped the PRX snowball. And with that, we had ourselves another tied halftime score.

The closeness continued, with Sentinels squeezing by in the second half pistol. Their attack plan seemed unbeatable in the early stages of it. It was not long until they grabbed themselves a comfortable lead. SEN hit double digits before PRX got another round to their name, forcing the Pacific team into a timeout.

The timeout did not turn the map in their favor, as they would have liked. Sentinels stole away their 11th round and looked poise to go up 2:0 in the series. A 3K by the fragging IGL johnqt put them to map point, and from there, it was a quick ending for SEN.

We all know Split is Sentinels' playground, but Paper Rex managed to get on the board first here. Round 3 saw a huge 4K and Clutch by Zellsis to give SEN their first. It was Zellsis who would also finish off the next round, tying it up early on.

A good defensive stand by PRX prevented SEN from running away with it. That gave them a bit of momentum to take charge, until SEN tied it once more. The back and forth then continued for a bit, until PRX finally broke the streak and ensured a halftime lead.

Paper Rex pulled ahead even more with a second half pistol victory. Immediately after saw them hit double digits for the first time since Lotus. As they continued to push to victory, Monyet snagged a killer Ace to keep it up.

Their aggressive W Gaming playstyle worked perfectly as the attackers on Split. Tack another three kills onto Monyet's count and map point was reached. One more 3K came in for PRX, this time from mindfreak, as they prevented a sweep and got their first map.

Monyet continued to frag out on Sunset, taking down three in the pistol round. Sentinels responded with a TenZ 3K to win a Thrifty. SEN got the next, but PRX retaliated to keep things tied. The trend of very tight first halves continued here.

It was short-lived, however, as TenZ and company began to pull ahead. They easily secured at least a tie before halftime. That soon became a guaranteed lead, with PRX unable to get much more going on their attacking side.

Double digits were an immediate for Sentinels after halftime. Things looked rather bleak for Paper Rex, as the pistol round went to SEN, with the following an easy 11th. PRX did what they could to delay the inevitable, but it was not enough.

Sentinels got the Spike down on A Site and Paper Rex made a solid retake. It was d4v41 to finish off the SEN team, but it was too late as the Spike detonated and got SEN to series point. A massive battle in mid ended with a 1v1, and of course, TenZ finished it off to give Sentinels a Grand Final appearance.

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