VALORANT - Champions 2025: Sentinels, heading for a big performance? (11/16)

This year's Champions — VALORANT’s annual world championship — will be held in Paris from Sep 12 to Oct 5. To build up to the event, Sheep Esports is presenting one of the 16 qualified teams every day ahead of the tournament. This Saturday, the countdown continues with the introduction of Sentinels, VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT) Americas’s 3rd seed.

Sentinels’ 2024 season was full of Ups & Downs. The year started on a high with a 1st place at Kickoff and a title at Masters Madrid, but then it was more complicated with 7th-8th and 5th-6th places in Stages 1 and 2. The North American team still managed to bounce back at the Champions, finishing 4th.

For 2025, the goal seemed to be clear: return to Champions while finding greater consistency across the season. To make this challenge more complicated, Sentinels had to replace two of their players. Tyson “TenZ” Ngo, the team’s star Duelist and one of the most iconic players of VALORANT's history, announced his retirement from pro play (once again) to transition into a full-time content creator role.

Around the same time, veteran Gustavo “Sacy” Rossi also stepped away from competition. To fill the gaps, Sentinels brought in Marshall “N4RRATE” Massey from Karmine Corp and Sean “bang” Bezerra from 100 Thieves, as reported by Sheep Esports.

Sentinels started 2025 strong, but unlike the previous year, the team did not win the Kickoff, finishing second, losing the grand final to G2 Esports. This result qualified them for the first international event of the year, Masters Bangkok. However, their run there ended earlier than expected with a 7th–8th finish following defeats to DRX and Team Liquid.

Sentinels quickly bounced back in Stage 1. The team put together an impressive split, battling their way into the grand final and once again clashing with G2 — after beating them in Round 2. But in the end, the Samurai prevailed a second time, leaving Sentinels to settle for another silver medal despite their strong showing.

This finish brought them more international play as Sentinels qualified for Masters Toronto. This time, they advanced past the Swiss Stage but bowed out in the second round of playoffs, finishing 5th–6th.

Back in the VCT Americas, Sentinels topped Group Alpha with a flawless 5–0 record and advanced through playoffs with a win over Cloud9 before falling to G2 yet again in the upper bracket final. A 3–1 loss to NRG in the lower final left them in 3rd place for Stage 2.

Across the season, Sentinels delivered what they had lacked the year prior: consistency, with three podium finishes in three splits. Their international results were less dominant than in early 2024, but the team arrives in Paris as a proven contender.

Part of Sentinels’ optimism heading into Champions comes from the favorable map pool. Several of their strongest maps are included, such as Corrode (75% win rate across 4 games), Lotus (72% in 18 games), Haven (60% in 10 games) or Sunset and Abyss, which are closer to average with 55% in 11 games and 50% in 4 games, respectively.

Only two maps of the pool have been genuine problem points for them: Ascent (40% in 5 games) and Bind (33% in 3 games). While the Champions map pool takes away two strong maps for Sentinels, Split (64% WR in 11 games) and Pearl (70% in 10 games), it also removes a major thorn in the team's side by not including Icebox (22% in 9 games).

One of the reasons behind Sentinels’ good performances has been N4RRATE. The North American Initiator has steadily developed into a reliable playmaker throughout 2025.

At Kickoff, he posted the third-most assists (140) in the split. But his growth between Kickoff and Stage 1 was the real impressive deal. His Average Combat Score (ACS) rose from 193.5 to 205.4, and his K:D improved from 0.95 to 1.03. He also cracked the league’s top 10 in multiple key categories such as Kill/Assist/Survive/Trade % (KAST): 76% (tied for 8th), Assists per round: 0.43 (6th) and, Total assists: 204 (4th).

Stage 2 cemented his status as a strong player. N4RRATE posted the 8th-highest ACS (225.2), 9th-best K:D (1.17), 5th-best KAST (76%), 9th in average damage per round (144), and 10th in kills per round (0.78).

N4RRATE will therefore be one of the players to watch closely during the Champions on the Sentinels side — a player who could be key to secure a good performance in Paris.