Sentinels Sentinels North America Rank #4 N4RRATE Marshall Massey bang Sean Bezerra Zellsis Jordan Montemurro zekken Zachary Patrone johnqt Mohamed Amine Ouarid took down Karmine Corp Karmine Corp Europe Rank #31 saadhak Matias Delipetro Avez Hazem Khaled Elite Efe Teber SUYGETSU Dmitry Ilyushin marteen Martin Pátek in a matchup of 1-0 teams to become the first team to qualify for the Champions Tour 2024: Masters Madrid Playoffs. In a matchup of top ranked teams from their respective regions, SEN was able to outlast KC to win 2-0.
Sentinels were led by a vintage TenZ performance, posting 42 kills and a 1.45 rating across the two maps. N4RRATE once again led the way for KC with 30 kills despite a losing record.
The "clout matchup" lived up to the hype, with a number of exciting rounds across both maps. With only 14 hours to prepare for KC, Sentinels came into today's match with a plan.
"We had no time, but we made sure to trust ourselves. We predicted the veto, and we were aware of their strategies on Lotus and Split, and they didn't change much," said johnqt in the post-match interview.
Coach kaplan echoed his sentiments, stating, "It was tough conditions having so little time away from the arena, and the turnaround time was short."
Karmine Corp let Split through in the Map veto, and Sentinels showed why they are the most dominant team in the world on that map with a 13-8 victory. Tenz and Zekken, who compare themselves to "Kobe and Shaq," definitely lived up to the nickname on the opening map.
After jumping out to an early 5-1 lead on Split, KC quickly regained form and tied the match at 6-6 going into the second half. Sentinels have one of the best defensive sides on Split, and after losing the first two rounds of the half, they quickly settled into a rhythm. Leading 10-8, a great play from Zekken with his blast packs and a Shorty gave Sentinels an 11-8 lead.
Zekken uses blast packs to give SEN 11-8 leadSentinels would close out the map 13-8 after only dropping the first two rounds of the half. They were led by Tenz and Zekken on Split, contributing 20 and 26 kills respectively.
After falling behind 1-0 in the series, KC faced an early deficit on Lotus, once again starting the map down 5-1. On an attack-sided map, KC would have felt good about their chances going into their attack half. A back-and-forth half saw KC tie the match at 11-11 thanks to an incredible 1v3 by N4RRATE.
In the series' penultimate round, Sentinels were on the brink of elimination with the map tied at 11 and on a thrifty. An incredible call from JohnQT and a great individual performance from Zekken led the way to Sentinels taking an improbable 12-11 lead.
Thrifty to put SEN on the brink of a series winOne more round win from Sentinels saw them clinch the series 2-0. Tenz once again was a driving force on Lotus with 22 kills and 13 assists in the map win. JohnQT also provided 21 kills in the win.
Zellsis , always a salesman, had a special shoutout postgame as their key to success today: "You know who we can give credit to, buy the Sentinels bundle."
Sentinels have a few days to rest and get ready for the playoffs, while KC will play an elimination match on Monday against a team to be determined.