Extending their off-season win streak to nine victories, Sentinels Sentinels North America Rank #4 N4RRATE Marshall Massey bang Sean Bezerra Zellsis Jordan Montemurro zekken Zachary Patrone johnqt Mohamed Amine Ouarid has defeated Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #21 paTiTek Patryk Fabrowski kamyk Maks Rychlewski nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin Keiko Georgio Sanassy kamo Kamil Frąckowiak 2-1. They are the first team to confirm their grand final appearance at the AfreecaTV Valorant League, where they will face Paper Rex Paper Rex Asia-Pacific Rank #3 mindfreak Aaron Leonhart Jinggg Wang Jing Jie f0rsakeN Jason Susanto d4v41 Khalish Rusyaidee something Ilya Petrov .

Despite the two organizations only playing each other once in the past, Champions 2021, five players featured in the first-ever international Valorant event, Masters Reykjavik 2021. Jamppi , Mistic , Sacy , TenZ , and Zellsis met each other on seven different occasions during the tournament.

Split, chosen by Sentinels, opened the series. Liquid took the early lead on defense, thanks in part to Mistic's anchoring, but the map was tied 6-6 by half time.

One of Liquid's two round wins on offense

On defense, Sentinels took complete control of the remainder of the map. Team Liquid only won two rounds, the pistol and a triple kill followed by a 1v1 clutch, courtesy of nAts . Notably, two key components of their attack, Keiko as the entry and nAts as the lurk player, were easily dealt with. One of the two was the first to die in five out of nine total rounds of the second half.

Now 1-0 in favor of the North American team, the match continued on Haven. Despite a pistol round loss, Liquid showed early on why they picked the map. Starting on offense, they were able to plant on 10 rounds, setting them up for favorable post-plants. The pressure provided by nAts was instrumental as well, with 15 eliminations and securing a 4v5 on three separate occasions.

Liquid won eight out of 10 post-plants on Haven

The half-time break didn't help Sentinels reset. The European squad won the first two rounds, losing only their bonus. Three more rounds were won by Liquid, ending the map 13-5 in their favor. Sentinels had a combined 20 eliminations in the second half, but only johnqt was able to get more than three kills.

The series concluded on Sunset, the decider map. Although Sentinels had played the map on six occasions in the past, with a 5-1 record, it would be the first time for Team Liquid. The experience, and lack of, was immediately apparent. Without skipping a beat, Sentinels took over, securing a 9-3 lead ahead of half-time.

zekken completes a 4k to win the map

The momentum continued in the second half. Sentinels needed four rounds to win the series, and Liquid could only prolong the inevitable. Eventually the map ended on round 18, giving Sentinels a 13-5 of their own. Zellsis and zekken ended the map with a 1.45 and 1.49 rating, respectively. The former had more assists, 19, than anyone on Liquid had eliminations. Similarly, 13 of zekken's kills were against Mistic and Enzo , who ended the map with a combined 10 eliminations.

Just over a month after announcing their 2024 roster, Team Liquid concludes their debut with a top four finish. Sentinels, on the other hand, will feature in their second grand final of the off-season, previously winning the Sentinels Invitational with a 2-0 against Oxygen Esports Oxygen Esports Inactive skuba Logan Jenkins mitch Mitch Semago Verno Andrew Maust Reduxx Yassin Aboulalazm dapr Michael Gulino . The North American team is currently undefeated against VCT teams after the conclusion of the 2023 season.

“We've definitely had some really hard games against some really good teams,” zekken said in the post-match interview. “I'm really proud of how we're playing.”