i heckin love SyykoNT batchest
I'm starting a new series of articles where I'll be going over the history and rosters of all the orgs that made the partnered league, first starting with the Americas, then EMEA, and lastly Pacific. I'll try and do 2 every day, any and all feedback is welcome!
ORG HISTORY
-Sentinels first entered esports through League of Legends, then under a different name, Phoenix1. P1 played in the LCS for 2 years, from 2016-2018, with varying results. When the league became franchised in 2018, P1 opted to sell their spot
-Phoenix1 would then partner with Kroenke Sports (the same business that owns the LA Rams and The Guard) in 2018 to enter the Overwatch League with the Los Angeles Gladiators. Shortly after this, Phoenix1 would officially rebrand to Sentinels.
-In 2018, SEN would establish a hearthstone divison, and signing several Fortnite players, including Bugha, the solo world cup champion.
-A year later, CEO Rob Moore would take legal action again Kroenke after they purchased another organization without his knowledge, resulting in Sentinels splitting from Kroenke, which is why SEN no longer have a stake in the LA Gladiators
-In early 2020, Sentinels would expand into Halo, and later VALORANT
-There are no public earnings reports on Sentinel's revenue or equity as an organization
ROSTER HISTORY
2020
-SEN would enter Valorant by signing former CS pros SicK and Shahzam, Apex pro zombs, and Overwatch MVP sinatraa. dapr would round out the roster a month later. Sentinel's starting lineup going into the ignition series would be:
-sick
-sinatraa
-shahzam
-dapr
-zombs-Sentinels would have a rocky start with some 5th-8th place finishes in the first set of ignition series, but would quickly find their form. The team would win the Pax Area Invitiational, the 30Bomb summer cup, and the Pop Flash invitational
-Moving into first strike, Sentinels would make it all the way into playoffs, before falling to 100 Thieves in the semi-finals, exiting the tournament in 3rd-4th place. 100T would go on to win the entire tournament.
-Sen would get their rematch against 100T in the JBL Quantum cup, the last major tournament of 2020, and would not only win their rematch, but win the entire tournament
2021
-Sentinels would start the VCT season off strong, getting into the closed qualifier despite a loss to Immortals, and winning Challengers 1 in a rematch against Immortals.
-Sen would again have a high placement in the second challengers, guaranteeing a slot in the first regional masters. They would place second after getting swept by Envy in the grand finals, the only grand finals they have lost in a VCT match to date
-2 days before the start of Masters 1, sinatraa was suspended from competitive play due to allegations of sexual abuse. TenZ was brought in from C9 as a last minute stand-in.
-Sentinels would dominate Masters 1, only losing a single map in the process. They would have a 2-1 series against LG, sweep 100T, and then sweep Faze twice.
-Despite the win at Masters, Sentinels would find themselves out of the first closed qualifier following an embarassing 2-0 loss to BBG, but would regain their stride shortly after. They would make a run through the second open qualifier to make it to closed, and then tear through the Stage 2 Challengers 2 closed bracket, beating Cloud9 to secure a top seed going into Challengers Finals
-At Challengers Finals, Sentinels once again showed their prior form, riding the upper bracket all the way to the grand final, where they beat Version1 3-0 to secure a top seed placement going into Masters 2, Valorant's first international lan in Iceland.
-In Iceland, Sentinels would win the entire tournament without dropping a map, sweeping Fnatic twice, nuturn, and vikings. To this day, no team has ever replicating that level of dominance at an international tournament.
-Following this win, Sen would make TenZ official, making the starting lineup:
-dapr
-tenz
-sick
-shahzam
-zombs-Their win at Iceland would also automatically qualify them for Champions through circuit points, making them the first team qualified
-Sentinels would continue their success going into stage 3 by once again making it into the closed qualifier, winning it, and securing a spot in Challengers finals.
-In Challengers finals, they would beat a newly revamped Envy team to qualify, and would beat 100T in the grand finals to secure the top seed
-At Berlin, Sen would make it to playoffs after a 3-1 group stage record (with a loss to G2), but would get shut down 2-0 by Envy, who would place 2nd overall in the tournament. This was the first tournament that Sentinels didn't win since their loss to BBG over 5 months earlier.
-Between Masters 3 and Champions, Sen would sign Rawkus, a former FaZe player, as a coach.
-At Champions, Sen won their opening match against Furia, before losing a tight match to Liquid, and would get upset by KRU, giving them a 9th-12th place exit, and ending their VCT season
2022
-Sentinels received a bye into the Challengers group stage due to their strong performance throughout 2022. Rawkus would also not be coaching for the first stage due to contract issues with FaZe.
-After a 3-2 group stage with losses only to OpTic and the 5-0 V1, Sentinels had their first playoff match against The Guard, who picked apart SEN, especially on Icebox where they were pummeled 13-1. They would then lose to V1 in the lower bracket in a tight 1-2 loss.
-Following their loss in playoffs, Sen would bench zombs and bring in Kanpeki from akrew, their first roster move in over a year. After having to fight through both open brackets, Sentinels were once again in the group stage. Unfortunately, this stage would be plagued with issues for the team
-The squad would start off 0-2, and had to play their potential elimination match against OpTic with stand-ins for SicK and TenZ.
-SicK would end up taking an extended leave from the team citing mental health concerns, and Rawkus would fill in for the remainder of the Group Stage. Sentinels would end 0-5 without winning a single map. Due to ghost bombing out of playoffs, they would still be able to attend LCQ
-Going into LCQ, Sen would bolster their ranks, signing shroud and Zellsis on one month contracts, 2 analysts, and a dedicated bootcamp. The LCQ roster would be:
-shroud
-zellsis
-dapr
-shahzam
-tenz-Despite their heavy prep and hype going into LCQ, they would exit 5th-6th place after a loss to 100T, the first time they had lost to 100T since First Strike. 100T would also go on to win LCQ as a whole.
-Zellsis would then return to V1 and is now rumored to be joining C9, Shroud has returned to streaming but has expressed interest in returning to playing pro
PLACEMENTS AND TOURNAMENTS
-1st at PAX Arena Invitational (2020)
-1st at 30Bomb summer cup (2020)
-1st at Pop Flash Invitational (2020)
-3rd-4th at First Strike (2020)
-1st at JBL Quantum Cup (2020)
-1st at Stage 1 Challengers 1 (2021)
-2nd at Stage 1 Challengers 2 (2021)
-1st at Stage 1 Masters (2021)
-1st at Stage 2 Challengers 2 (2021)
-1st at Stage 2 Challengers Finals (2021)
-1st at Masters 2 Reykjavik (2021)
-1st at Stage 3 Challengers 1 (2021)
-1st at Stage 3 Challengers Playoffs (2021)
-5th-8th at Masters 3 Berlin (2021)
-9th-12th at Champions (2021)
-7th-8th at Challengers 1 (2022)
-11th-12th at Challengers 2 (2022)
-5th-6th at LCQ (2022)
RUMORED ROSTER MOVES
-Sentinels signed SyykoNT from XSET and Kaplan from GHOST earlier today as Head Coach and Strategic Coach respectively. Rawkus has left the team
-Dapr is the only one confirmed to be staying on the roster
-Shahzam and Tenz both have their contracts expire at the end of the year, leading many to believe one, if not both of them will not be on the team next year
-Currently, the Sentinels roster consists of:
-dapr
-tenz
-shahzam
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