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Valorant has entered its franchising era and solidified its foothold. Riot Games has recently announced the official list of 30 teams and organizations that were selected for the Valorant Partnership Program, which is a tremendous change in the title's esports scene as the teams that secured their slots will enjoy a multitude of perks.
Most of the selected teams are currently creating a new roster with the best players they can get their hands on.
Sentinels are one of the big names that made it onto the Valorant Partnership Program. Despite their unfortunate performances in the last few VCT events, they managed to get through Riot’s strict filtering and selection process.
The team has been one of the earliest pillars of Valorant in the NA region and now is reportedly looking to bring about some changes to their roster as well.
Let's take a look at what Sentinel's In-Game Leader (IGL) Shahzam had to say about being potentially dropped from the roster.
ShahZaM reportedly dropped from Sentinels’ Valorant roster
Sentinels have one of the largest fan communities under their umbrella and were a prevailing force in the early days of Valorant. They stood on the highest pedestal, setting the standard for the esports scene of the game. However, fans feel that the team has weakened since then and received criticism for its failure to compete in the VCT Champions.
The community feels that the team has lost its edge and failed to regularly update their strategies. ShahZaM in a recent stream talked about the blame for this automatically shifting towards the IGL.
Considering that the IGL calls the shots and prepares the strategies for matches, ShahZaM controlled how the roster played out in their professional events.
He stated that there are multiple appropriate reasons why the team could not perform as per the expectations of the fans and the organization and hinted at internal conflicts that are known within, but cannot be revealed to the masses directly, effectiving Sentinel’s performance.
ShahZaM shows obvious discomfort for the fact that he had to take the fall and how it appears to the general viewers. He described it as a truly unfortunate reason why the team could not perform as he hoped and that the VCT Lower Closed Qualifiers became the last stage where he could show his potential.
The team has been a pivotal name in the Valorant esports scene with a mostly consistent roster. The decision to reportedly remove the IGL from the team could lead to major repercussions. But it is ultimately the will of the organization to have a better chance at the upcoming VCT 2023 Champions.
Sentinels have secured their place in the first franchising list, and thus, get to keep their slot in the upcoming VCT Champions event for the next 5 years. This is a huge opportunity for the team to bring themselves back on the world stage with a carefully picked roster.
Be sure to keep up with Sportskeeda as we will be following all the developments around the topic regularly.
