Sentinels silence LOUD, advance to upper final

Another El Classico matchup concluded today in the Americas Kickoff as Sentinels Sentinels North America Rank #3 N4RRATE Marshall Massey bang Sean Bezerra Zellsis Jordan Montemurro zekken Zachary Patrone johnqt Mohamed Amine Ouarid outlasted LOUD LOUD Brazil Rank #1 dgzin Douglas Silva v1nny Vínicius Gonçalves pANcada Bryan Luna tuyz Arthur Andrade cauanzin Cauan Pereira in the upper semifinals 2-1. Sentinels will face the winner of G2 Esports G2 Esports North America Rank #1 jawgemo Alexander Mor trent Trent Cairns valyn Jacob Batio JonahP Jonah Pulice leaf Nathan Orf and LEVIATÁN LEVIATÁN Latin America South Rank #1 Demon1 Max Mazanov tex Ian Botsch kiNgg Francisco Aravena C0M Corbin Lee nataNk Nathan Bocqueho next week, while Brazil's pride will have to fight for their survival against the winner of NRG Esports NRG Esports North America Rank #4 FiNESSE Pujan Mehta s0m Sam Oh Verno Andrew Maust mada Adam Pampuch Ethan Ethan Arnold and KRÜ Esports KRÜ Esports Latin America South Rank #2 keznit Angelo Mori Mazino Roberto Rivas adverso Benjamín Poblete Shyy Fabian Usnayo Melser Marco Eliot Machuca Amaro .

LOUD's pick of Lotus started off slow, with both teams opting to utilize different team compositions. On Sentinel's defensive pick, LOUD targeted the C site, adapting to Zellsis ' Vyse utility and snagging a couple rounds off of fast hits and good stalls. Sentinels on the other hand answered back with multi kills from N4RRATE and Zellsis to secure rounds. By halftime, both teams sat at 6-6, evenly matched.

However, the scales slowly tipped in LOUD's favor in the second half, as openers from pANcada and cauanzin allowed their team to slowly mount a lead. Timeouts helped change the tide of the game for both sides, but in the end the very C hit that won Sentinels their rounds on attack was read and shut down by a double-OP setup from LOUD to end the map 13-11 in favor of the green.

A revenge match seemed to ignite a fire within pANcada, as the Controller ended Lotus with a 1.31 Rating and a 20/14/12 KDA on Omen. His survivability and five first bloods gave LOUD the edge they needed to outlast Sentinels, accompanied by cauanzin's 21/17/9 KDA.

Sen City refused to burn, however, and entered their map pick of Pearl, disciplined and unworried. After losing the pistol, an unaffected Sentinels relied on openers from zekken to force their way back into sites.

Retakes were the name of the game for the boys in red on their defensive half as LOUD just could not counter the utility Sentinels threw on their way out. Eventually, Sen were able to stabilize what could have been a lead for LOUD into a 5-7 half.

Heading into their attack, Sen mimicked LOUD's map ideology and continuously looked to end B. LOUD took a leaf from kaplan 's playbook and opted to either retake or save depending on the tune of the round. Like Lotus, rounds were traded back and forth, until a hero round from Zellsis secured Sen a 12-11 lead. On the final round of play, zekken stepped up once again with a 3k to take the crowd to a Split.

The Yoru worked out for zekken, as the young Duelist dropped a 23/17/11 KDA while maintaining a 1.35 rating accompanied by a modest +3 in opening duels. His spacetaking with the Dimensional Drift helped clear out areas for his team and assisted johnqt in dumping Tejo utility to flush out defenders.

After a nail biting second map, LOUD were eager to close out the series. pANcada started off Split by shutting down Sentinels two rounds in a row and setting up LOUD to take the bonus and following eco for a 4-0 lead. Sentinels answered back with three rounds of their own, forcing a LOUD timeout which was quickly countered by a pause from kaplan.

Blows were exchanged, rounds came down to the wire, and eventually, in a repeat of Lotus, a 6-6 scoreline was all she wrote at halftime. Both teams knew the taste of defeat at their opponent's hand, and both teams fought desperately for a ticket to Bangkok.

While zekken had been performing well the entire series, bang stepped up exponentially throughout Split. The young Controller converted a 2/9/4 KDA in the first half into a 16/4/1 on defense. His performance helped Sentinels secure a hefty lead as LOUD were bullied into submission.

The majority of LOUD's rounds came courtesy of heavy lifting by not just pANcada, but dgzin . The Duelist dropped a whopping 23 kills with a 1.59 rating on Raze, ever so close to taking his team towards another win.

Unfortunately, the rest of LOUD, especially tuyz and v1nny , were unable to keep up with the competition and failed to crack double digits in frags. Eventually, the Brazilian roster went down with a faint whimper as Sentinels took Split and the series 13-9.

One match away from Bangkok, Sentinels need to stay in shape against one of their most dangerous matchups yet, while LOUD look to hold a more consistent performance in a pressure-heavy series.