Hi vlr, today I want to talk about sentinels, and why I think 2025 might be the future of no-sentinels compositions. And also, why composition with 2 smoker and either 2 initiators or 2 duelist may be the meta for 2025. and I m’ not gonna use the argument « Tejo destroy every sentinels spells » because, using a basic spell to destroy a basic spell is good but not that OP, and I see mush more intresting things to say here.
Alright, so let’s look at the situation of late 2024 and see how the 0 sentinel compositions have made so far. When I look at spells archetypes and take every maps, 0-sentinel composition ended the year with 54 % NonMirror Winrate, wish is a reeally great result, but this result is a little bit biased by the fact Sage did amazingely and I didn’t count her as a Sentinel, and by the fact some type of archetype that doesnt require a sentinel can be a huge troll, like for exemple the 2 initiator 2 duelist composition.
If you want some exemple, they are even map, where no sentinel where meta, Bind was always a no senitnel map and Split have significant good result on doble controller and doble duelist composition. And if you take most recent international event : GenG won the last master being unbeaten on Breeze with 3 win without a sentinel and EDG won last champion being unbeaten on their 2 games of Abyss and their 5 games of Lotus playing no sentinels on both map.
So no… You can’t say « 0 sentinel composition arent viable », they where already quite good bfore Tejo’s release, and they may be even stronger after.
So let’s just look at the class archetype and target at the 2 archetype that I think have the most potential : 2 controller archetypes with either double duelist or double intitator composition. If you except the 4 archetype with Sage, you can see that, globally this 2 archetypes are the 2 best one. Doble initiator composition have 55 % Non Mirror Winrate and in second position we have doble duelist composition with 52 %, but this one is far to be significant.
So we ended the year with composition without Sentinel being already good. But after the year end, few thing happened, first Vyze was release, wish is good for composition with a sentinel, because, she is a sentinel and I still think she is a hidden broken pick. Then we got a cople of up and nerf, Cypher was hardely nerf, wish is obvisouly bad for the Sentinel pickrate… Neon was also nerf, and since Cypher is a counter of Neon, her nerf also is an indirect nerf of Cypher, then Astra was up, and Astra is a good alternative of picking a senitinel… And Finally Tejo was release.
And Tejo is hard countering the last meta sentinel : Killjoy… Why ? Because you remember when I said using a basic spell to break a basic spell isnt that op ? Well when it’s a refillable basic spell can break an ultimate so easily then… Yeah, now we can call this OP… Also, keep in mind, that Killjoy ultimate is the main quality of Killjoy, and I dont really think she have maps where she is played without having a gamebreaker ultimate. So since they are no draft in Valorant, picking Killjoy knowing the opponent team might pick Tejo and nullify your impact doesnt seems a good choice.
So let’s look at every sentinel, and see who is strong, who is weak and who you should pick, one by on :
- And lets start with Cypher, 44 % Pickrate, negative in winrate before his nerf, and I really think his nerf will make him suffer a lot. Cypher also suffer for neon nerf, he was the main counter of her, and now she was heavily nerfed they are no point to pick him to prevent a potential Neon pick.
- Lets continue with Killjoy, that have 38 % Pickrate, slightly above 50 % Winrate, but now is Tejo release, and he can litterally remove her ult from the game… well… I don’t think you shoul continue pick her.
- Next Deadlock, 4 % pickrate negative in winrate, she is even not played in solo sentinel, I just still think Dealock is puretrash
- Next Chamber, 2 % pickrate negative in Winrate, it’s Chamber, he is still too weak
- Next is Vyze, that lack of data, in one hand I still she is a hidden broken pick, but, in other hand in split 3, really few team have pick her, so maybe i’m overhyping her.
- And finally Sage, 7 % Pickrate, and a good winrate, I let you judge if she is consider as a sentinel or not.
So we are potentially in a situation where a complete class of agent is bad, and since we are not forced to pick a sentinel in a composition, because they are no rolelock, and some of thoose composition are good. THEN… Real question… Shouldn’t we consider to stop playing Sentinels ? Some team did it in the past and it worked really nice !
So I can’t wait for next year. Will Killjoy and Cypher still be the best option after Cypher nerf, Neon Nerf, Tejo’s release, Vyze’s release, Sage up, Astra up ? I’m not really sure of that, and I really hope some team try to drop thoose 2, and try new thing, it can be pick Vyze, pick Sage, or fully commit on no sentinel on new map, and maybe this is even the best solution. Anyway byyye.
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