zekken talks SEN vs. LOUD and shuts down stimulant allegations

Sentinels is putting on a show in the 2025 VCT Americas Kickoff tournament, much like they did in 2024. The team has a bit of a different look this year, but Zachary "zekken" Patron is a piece of the puzzle that remained in place.

He and his SEN squad will have to take on G2 Esports to reach the Grand Final of the tournament, but first they had to go through LOUD. After that series, we spoke with zekken about shutting down some allegations, some of the plays he made, and much more about the match and current VALORANT meta.

"I'm here with zekken of Sentinels, coming off a huge win against LOUD. Give us a second, he's got to send out a tweet. Something is getting him mad. Do you mind telling us a little bit about that?"

zekken: "Yeah, I saw a thread where people are saying that I'm on a bunch of stimulants. Adderall, Ritalin, Vyvanse, anything you can name, and people have been saying it for a while. Because my eyes, dude, when I focus, my eyes get like that <widens eyes>, but literally the only thing I do is caffeine. And I'm just fed up, because I see it so much that."

"Hopefully you can get that behind you. I appreciate you letting us know what's going on, but let's just get into it. What a match. That's probably one of the better matches we'll see all year and it is only January. How fast is your heart racing from that one?"

zekken: "Oh, it's definitely racing. It was a slow burn. It was close the whole way through and I was trying to stay calm, but when we were starting to get to the end, I think we were up 11:9 or 12:9, my heart really started to race. I was getting real into it at the end."

"When both teams duke it out like that, win or lose, do you come out of it feeling happy to have put on such a show?"

zekken: "I mean, me personally, I'm so competitive that if I don't win, I'm going to be real sad. But I was very happy with the match in general. I think it was good VALORANT, I think both us and them were playing well.

"Punishing each other's mistakes. And I think we both showed good form. So, I would've been sad if we lost. I couldn't have just taken it and been like, oh well we played good, I guess. But I am happy with the VALORANT that was played."

"There were a lot of people questioning LOUD’s previous wins and didn’t think they’d perform well with Saadhak and Less moving to EMEA. Obviously, you guys wouldn’t have underestimated them, but did you expect this from them?"

zekken: "Yeah, LOUD, historically, they will put up a great fight no matter what. Even if they're trying weird stuff, like when they were playing with Saadhak and qck, playing Phoenix on every map. They can whip out a weird comp.

"They can do something off meta, but they're always going to put up a good fight and play good VALORANT. So, I definitely expected a close game. I didn't think it would be this close. I thought maybe we could win a little bit harder, but they showed great form."

"All three maps were crazy close. When it came down to them starting to pull ahead and you guys having to come back just a little bit there on Split, what was going through your mind? What was the team thinking, the comms and everything, to make sure you guys were able to catch up and close it out?"

zekken: "We started the second half of Split, we won the pistol. We lost the bonus, but I think it was a good close bonus. And we won the round after that. And then, fifth round, we lost because they were on an eco and I went one for one.

"Then they went into A, if I remember correctly, and they closed out a post-plant. But at that time, we just talked in the freeze time, that we really need to clean up. We knew we could be, on defense at least, we could be better than what we showed in the first five rounds.

"Even though we were winning that half, three to two, we still thought we were capable of being a lot cleaner than we were. I think after that, that kind of talk we had, I forgot if it was in the timeout or just in the freeze time, but after that talk, we really cleaned up and we showed out a lot better for the rest of that half and were able to close it out."

"Now, I’ve got to ask about a couple of plays. The way Pearl ended was wild. You step into that smoke and shoot the Sova that you see, but the Cypher just happens to be behind him. Then you get the Jett and that’s that. Were you surprised in the moment by that second kill?"

zekken: "Yeah, 100%. I did not expect the Cypher to die when I shot the Sova. At first I was like, wow. I heard the crowd react and I went, wow, I hit a nice shot. I guess they're reacting to my nice shot. And then I look at the kill feed and two of them died.

"I was like, oh. And then I went through and got the third. But that one was definitely accidental. But I think I made a good play in the moment. And, you know, sometimes you make good plays, you get rewarded by getting lucky."

"When something like that happens, an average player might slip up from the nerves or excitement caused by that kind of accident. As a pro, what goes into keep your composing in strange high pressure moments like that?"

zekken: "I think in this game, it's just really important to recognize what the win and lose conditions are in the round. Technically, when I got those two kills, I could have just ran away and played time. So, it was a small overheat by me going for the third.

"But dgzin was Oping and I was close to him, so I thought it was a fight that, like if he misses the no scope, which is pretty random, it's likely that I can get the kill. But I do think in those moments, what separates a pro from a regular player, is being able to realize what wins and loses you the round and then playing it correctly from there."

"Onto Split then, you had that Ace. Where you almost missed it at the end. Just not enough shots put in. I mean, you even put down the spray and pulled out your knife! So, you switched to the Shorty and got that fifth. How much crap would you have gotten from the team if you didn’t get the Ace there?"

zekken: "I would've gotten inflamed, for sure, 100%. <laughs> I would've gotten flamed. But I thought, to be frank, I thought I shot him in the head. That's why I didn't put more bullets in. So, I thought it was a done deal, but obviously I didn't.

"I think I missed him, barely hit him, at the top of his chest. But even after I pulled my knife out and ran away, it was still a pretty advantageous situation, because he was low and I had a Shorty. So, unless he insta-killed me, which like, man, that match might have gone different, but thankfully he didn't. And I got finish it. But yeah, I would've gotten flamed, for sure, if I messed that up."

"Well, the big plays weren't just you. It felt like hero play after hero play for the team today. A 4K here, the Ace there, clutches galore. Do you worry at all that the time may come when you can’t rely on those huge individual plays, and it might be in a super important series?"

zekken: "I think for a team to win the big trophies, I think individual plays are necessary. You need to have people firing on all cylinders, even if they're making a suboptimal play. I do think in the current meta, it's a lot faster than previous ones.

"Like in 2022, with the Chamber, it was really slow, 2023 was also pretty slow when FNATIC were dominating everything. But I think in the current meta, with how good Tejo and Breach, that combo is, how good Yoru is right now, a lot of it is fast plays.

"Then fast plays which put people in spots to make individual plays. So, I do think in the current meta, individual plays are kind of necessary and people just have to step up and make them when they see the opportunity.

"But I do think, optimally, the best team, like if a team was to play perfect, it would be a mix of the two. Really, really strong, sound strategy, but also having the players and the firepower to make individual plays when you need them. I do think, in this match, both us and them were just going for stuff.

"There were a couple rounds on Lotus where cauanzin would just run through a smoke and kill two or three of us. And, sometimes you just have to be able to account for that. That's just how the game is, with how the shooting mechanics are.

"If you're in a spot and they don't expect you, you can just kill three people instantly with how good people are controlling the recoil now. So, I'm yapping a bit, but I do think the best teams will be a mix of the two. The strategy is obviously very important as well."

"Alright, then, talk to me about Yoru now. All Yoru, all day today against LOUD. Last year, he was definitely viewed as a secondary Duelist, slotting in alongside the likes of Jett, Raze, and even Neon at times. What about the meta this year makes it so fast-paced and him work well on his own?"

zekken: "I'll go half to half. I think on defense, he has a lot of the same qualities that old Chamber used to have. Being able to go into a spot, punish someone, and instantly get out is incredibly strong and will always be valuable in this game.

"You know, having at get out of jail free card, it's never a bad thing, especially on defense. So, I think that's what makes him so strong on that half. And that is pretty easy to see his value in. I think on offense, his teleport is really nice against some of the Sentinels right now.

"Specifically Cypher and Vyse, being able to TP pass the Vyse wall and then have your teammates follow up, and run through it on their own timing is very valuable. And also the clone, being able to break a trip with the clone or bait out the Vyse wall with it is also really strong.

"His kit in this current meta is just very rewarding and you can get a lot of out it on offense, but I think he requires a bit of a slower pace. Especially if, I mean, we didn't run into it today, but if you play against a double Senti, like a Vyse and Deadlock or Vyse and Killjoy.

"You really have to be able to bait those things out and the clone gets a lot of value in that. I think he's viable against a variety of comps and I think that's why we find him so valuable right now, and I think other teams do as well. But yeah, he just offers that, which a lot of other Duelists can't.

"I mean, Jett has the get out of jail free, but then she just gets destroyed by like Vyse vines and Cypher trips and stuff. You can't break 'em. Raze is nice on offense. You get to break all the things, but you don't have the get out of jail free on defense.

"Phoenix is...you got nothing if I'm keeping it a hundred percent, he doesn't really have much. Same with Reyna. And Iso, if you have a crack player, it's nice to put him on, but he doesn't really get the value that Yoru does. I just think he's really strong in the current meta."

"And lastly, following up on something I asked Zellsis when we spoke. I asked him what he thought the potential of this team is, with bang and N4RRATE replacing the icons TenZ and Sacy. He feels this team could go even further than last year’s, so I just want to finish off by hearing your thoughts on that."

zekken: "I agree with him. I think the ceiling on this team is ridiculous. I don't want to call us scrimmers, but there are some scrims where we just dominate people. Even really good teams and really good players.

"Sometimes we just dominate and, and you know, we didn't show it today, but I do think we're capable of that. It's the same kind of feeling as last year, where I thought we had a really high ceiling and we just needed time to keep practicing.

"And this team, in practice, they work really hard. We get a lot of value out of the practice. We're trying not to waste time as much as possible. And Kaplan's good at keeping us on top of that. But I agree completely with Jordan (Zellsis). I think our ceiling on this team is ridiculous and I hope we can reach that potential."

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