Reading through the post to read WHY. Only read that they DID win. Am I missing something here?
Don't forget they still have to make it through past Gambit, Acend and Sentinels. Depending on form, Envy and Vision Strikers could probably put up a good fight.

It's not impossible for them, but I'd call them a dark horse at best.

The time to sell his contract is now tbh. With how close Fnatic played against Sentinels, that Sentinels chokehold on number 1 may be over at Champions.

If Sentinels win, good for them. But if Sentinels lose with TenZ on loan, it plummets his value, even if he performs decently.

As a fragger, you don't offer much in terms of teamplay. So if he performs decent, and SEN doesn't get to the finals; Jack will leave so much money on the table.

Both of their defenses looked awful

Both of their defenses looked awful

Magnum is creeping up to be the main star of FNC. When Derke and Doma go missing, Magnum is always there.
What a star

Actually such a stupid take, 13-11, 13-10, then first 2 maps of grand finals go to OT. Pretty close, dude

NU getting read like a book on Haven. jfc

So it seems like we have 3 groups of people.

TenZ/Sen Fanboys
TenZ/Sen Haters
Intelligent Humans

FNC's teamwork is such a joy to watch. Some of those flash/dash setups were timed so well.

Scared for SEN tbh, but excited to see them play!

I agree with most of this, except for TenZ's impact. Some plays are very risky, but then again, he also provides some new looks for this lineup.
I don't recall a time where double OP looked as oppressive with sinatraa on the lineup. Shahzam has also seemed to reel back some of TenZ's "reddit/twitch play" tendencies and made him even more dangerous and unpredictable.

As a thought experiment, change all the Sentinel players to others with similar skill. If the IGL wasn't Shahzam, this whole thing wouldn't be a conversation. Shahz being able and willing to give up one of his signature picks (Jett), and play something else like Sova, is the reason why TenZ looks so good on this team.

It's actually pretty sad for that guy, but the flair seems to check out.

NA has had some rough go's at global competition. But I'm glad to see that we are tournament favourites now. With NA's most recent win in CSGO, you'd be more likely to win the lottery than find a single people who knew about the game and predicted C9 to win the major/

If Sentinels can adapt (steal Fnatic's teamwork), Sentinels can actually make a case for a "Faze Clan/Astralis" era in Valorant.

Mostly regional pride, NA fans (incl myself) have been cheering and been disappointed by our global performances for way too long. Every time we feel like we have that ONE team that breaks through, they choke at the global event.

And EU has always given us shit about it (deservedly so).

I love the fact we can compete with, and even beat top EU teams. But it's even better know that they are close, competitive games. Even if things didn't swing in NA's favour, I'd be happy knowing that we put up a great fight

Sentinels is definitely better with TenZ. Results aside, they look more cooperative with trade fragging and have significantly more firepower with Tenz in the lineup.
With sinatraa, they were innovative and smart how they played. They didn't have the same firepower.
My theory is that TenZ raised the Sentinels ceiling, but they still have the foundation of 4 solid players. If Tenz dies early trying a "star play", the other 4 have the teamwork to stave off a 5 man push.