Battling for the opportunity to deny G2 Esports G2 Esports North America Rank #1 jawgemo Alexander Mor BABYBAY Andrej Francisty stand-in trent Trent Cairns valyn Jacob Batio JonahP Jonah Pulice the chance at an Americas clean sweep in 2025, Sentinels Sentinels North America Rank #4 N4RRATE Marshall Massey bang Sean Bezerra Zellsis Jordan Montemurro zekken Zachary Patrone johnqt Mohamed Amine Ouarid and NRG NRG North America Rank #2 s0m Sam Oh brawk Brock Somerhalder mada Adam Pampuch skuba Logan Jenkins Ethan Ethan Arnold met in the VCT Americas Stage 2 lower final.

The match was the first time the two teams clashed this year. They were placed in opposing groups in Stage 1, and finished Stage 2 atop their respective groups.

Sentinels banned Ascent, a map that they have banned in six out of seven matches in Stage 2. Meanwhile, NRG banned Bind, a map that hasn't been the worst for them, but has left room for improvement. The series was played out on Lotus, Icebox, Sunset, and Corrode.

NRG won Lotus 13-4, Icebox 13-11, Sentinels won Sunset 13-10, and NRG won Corrode 13-8, making Haven unnecessary.

Sentinels entered Saturday's match 9-0 in its last nine Lotus appearances in VCT, a run that extends back to Stage 1. NRG had its fair share of success on the three-site map too, going a perfect 4-0 in Stage 2. In a clash of mirror comps, with the Omen-Viper double-Controller duo assisted by Vyse, Fade, and Raze, NRG displayed one of the most dominant defender sides of any team to open up play.

Rather than the traditional round three Operator, NRG bought into the round three Odin, arming brawk and s0m with the heavy-duty weapon to take advantage of the thinner walls around the map. NRG bolted out to a 6-0 start, wrapping up its defender side with a massive 10-2 lead.

While Sentinels did pick up the pistol round to start the second half, it only delayed the inevitable. NRG snapped Sentinels' hot streak on the map after dropping a pair of rounds, finishing with a statement 13-4 victory. The map was the first of many leading performances for brawk, as he finished 19/6, trailed closely by in-game leader Ethan 's 18/8.

After fielding identical comps on Lotus, the two teams went for different ideas on Icebox. While Sentinels went for the popular Sage-Killjoy Sentinel pairing, NRG went for the somewhat retro "swamp comp", pairing Viper and Harbor. zekken 's Jett wreaked havoc on Sen's attack side. He had 15 kills, including a perfect 4-0 record in first duels that helped the side to an 8-4 attack side advantage.

With two wall-based Controllers, NRG was methodical in its attacking half, using Ethan's Harbor Cascade to cut off the expected angles, allowing for skuba to find timings on the lurk. zekken and N4RRATE combined for 54 kills on the map, even that wasn't enough. NRG got into its attack-side rhythm quickly, popping off for six straight rounds to seize a narrow 10-8 lead. Sentinels tied things up at 11-11 to make things close, but NRG squeezed past 13-11 to come within one map of winning the series.

Sunset, the third map of the series, is one of Sentinels' premier maps. It's been one of their strongest playgrounds since the map's introduction to the game. Both teams had identical double-Initiator comps, with Sentinels opting for N4RRATE on Fade and NRG's brawk on Sova. Sentinels opened the map on attack, winning four of the opening five rounds.

Just five on attack proved to be enough for Sentinels, who picked up both pistol rounds on the map to set up yet another quick start in the second half. Playing behind zekken, who went 7-4 in first duels on the map, Sentinels avoided the sweep by standing strong on its trademark Sunset, winning 13-10.

NRG and Sentinels were both early adopters of Corrode, developing some of the earliest comps on the map. A case of divergent evolution has seen Sentinels stick with its Vyse, Neon, Fade comp, while NRG has adopted a more aggressive double-Initiator look with KAY/O, Sova, and Waylay.

Mid control is typically the name of the game on Corrode, and with both teams armed with a Viper in the double-Controller comp,

Sentinels is well-known for its dominant attack side on Corrode, a map that typically leans defender-sided. That meant the task at hand for NRG out of the gates was to grab as many rounds as they could on their own attack half to shut down a potential reverse-sweep. Three maps after securing a dominant 10-2 on defense, NRG wrapped up an even more dominant 11-1 on attack.

A pistol round helped Sentinels step into a rhythm for its attack side, and they did much more than just avoid a blowout. Sentinels won five straight rounds before NRG finally reached match point, up 12-6. With six chances to close out the map, NRG worked towards getting an Operator into mada 's hands. In the end, it was an early pick of Sentinels IGL johnqt with the sniper that opened the floodgates. Sentinels ripped N4RRATE's Nightfall and Zellsis 's Steel Garden, but the two ults weren't enough to shut down the NRG retake.

brawk finished with a server-high 82 kills. The next-best mark in that category was zekken, whose 69 were not enough. The result also locks Sentinels out of contention for Americas crown for the second straight year, a title that has eluded them since Americas Kickoff to start 2024.

Up Next

With the 3-1 win over Sentinels, NRG moves on to the grand final, where G2 Esports awaits. The grand final will be G2's fifth best-of-five series this season. For several NRG players, Saturday's lower final was their first best-of-five played at the VCT level.

"I think today, our energy was pretty low, especially the last two maps," mada said following the match. "We definitely dipped. We've been playing back to back to back matches."

The Stage 2 grand final will also be NRG's first participation in a grand final since 2023, when the NRG outfit was worn by FiNESSE , ardiis , crashies , and Marved . The only player from that squad still on the team today is s0m .