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Sentinels were shown the exit door at the Valorant Champions 2021 after losing to KRU Esports in a best-of-three series with a 2-1 scoreline. The North American side had to return home empty-handed after the Argentine side pulled off an upset for the ages last night.
Sentinels was the champion of the Valorant Champions Tour Masters Reykjavik. The NA side hadn't dropped a single map in that tournament. However, their performance has deteriorated significantly since then.
They were knocked out of the Berlin Masters in the Quarterfinals, and this time, they failed to even clear the Group Stages.
Five talking points after Sentinels' poor performance in the Valorant Champions 2021
Sentinels came to Berlin as the top seed from the North American region. They were bunched in Group B alongside Team Liquid, Furia Esports, and KRU Esports.
The star team started its campaign with a victory over Furia Esports. However, it was a hard-fought win for the North American side as Furia Esports almost pulled off a miracle in their very first game in the Valorant Champions 2021.
After their win against Furia Esports, Sentinels lost back-to-back games against Team Liquid and KRU Esports and were knocked out of the competition. Their loss to the latter has given rise to lots of questions regarding their performances at the mega event.
Here are five reasons why Sentinels were eliminated from the Valorant Champions 2021:
1) Lacking in strategies
Valorant is a much more strategic game than the other FPS titles in the market. A team needs to be on top of its game along with its strategic approach to matches. The more it evolves, the more players have become dependent on agent abilities and strategies than their gunplay.
Sentinels always lacked in the strategic part of the game, and it haunted them once again in the Valorant Champions 2021. Although they appointed Shane "Rawkus" Flaherty recently as their head coach, he surely needs some more time to make his team function in a proper, strategic way.
2) Poor performance on Split
Split has become a nightmare for Sentinels in vital games, as they currently have a five-game losing streak on this particular map. The team also lost the final map against KRU Esports on Split with a 13-11 scoreline.
Sentinels needs to work on this map and find a solution for better performances in the future.
3) Less adaptation to changing meta
The developers keep changing the meta of the game by tweaking the agent abilities and other fundamental factors. It makes Valorant more interesting, and teams need to come up with new strategies to outclass their opponents.
In the current Valorant meta, most sides prefer to go with a single-duelist and double-initiator composition. Sentinels have tried to adapt to the same, with Tenz being their primary duelist and other players like Sick and Shahzam trying to fill the initiator's roles in the game.
They seem to be uncomfortable with their changed agent composition, which has significantly affected their gameplay.
4) Tenz's poor performance against KRU Esports
Tyson "TenZ" Ngo is arguably the best player in the world currently. He was also the best player for Sentinels in the first two games against Furia Esports and Team Liquid.
However, he failed to perform against KRU Esports last night. His poor performance put Sentinels in deep trouble and resulted in the early elimination from the Valorant Champions 2021.
5) Overconfidence paired with pressure to win the series
Sentinels is always known for their confidence in themselves ahead of any game. However, the situation outside the server was not in their favor.
Recently, Zomb's derogatory remarks about the entire Brazilian region turned them against Sentinels. Zombs also joked about KRU Esports ahead of the match. All these incidents somehow enhanced the pressure on Sentinels to win the series, and it backfired on them.
These are some of the reasons behind Sentinels' early exit from the Valorant Champions 2021. The Reykjavik Masters winners had to return home empty-handed, and their journey in 2021 has finally come to an end.
Some fans have raised their voice regarding the roster changes and pointed out some other problems. It will be interesting to see how the organization deals with this failure and gets itself ready for a new season next year.
Note: This article reflects the author's views.
