Brick by Brick: Sentinels start the rebuild ahead of VCT 2023 season

Valorant's first-ever International Champions Sentinels have finally started making moves for their VCT 2023 Roster. As a part of 30 teams selected for the Partnership program, Sentinels confirmed the addition of Coaches Sykko and Kaplan, followed by the news of them adding dephh and Zekken from XSET to rebuild the team.

What have Sentinels been up to?

After recovering from the nightmare that was the 2022 VCT regular season, Sentinels made a significant comeback in the VCT NA LCQ, adding much better support staff and showing signs of how much they want to improve the team.

Despite not winning the VCT NA LCQ, the run and the roster moves made the new Sentinels' debut one of the most watched Valorant matches of 2022, falling behind only to Valorant Champions 2022. It was Michael "Shroud" Grzesiek's return to competitive play that made the match shine, kudos them as an organisation for making that move.

While many criticised the decision as many active players were available and Sentinels were chasing clout, a strong performance from them and only losing by a round made the run incredible. The org and the team seemed to be invested in the whole run.These decisions might not have resulted in an LCQ win but translated into Sentinels getting a spot amongst the five NA organisations selected for the Valorant Partnership Program. It was evident that they would be chosen since they are a fan favourite irrespective of the results.

From a business perspective, Sentinels are the best marketing tool Riot can get for Valorant, and unlike other organisations, they do not have adverse history impacting the decision. So them getting into the Partnership Program was etched on a stone since the announcement of the Partnership Program.

After announcing all the partnered organisations, All teams were requested to submit an initial roster before 15th October 2022. All the organisations began to move with 100 Thieves starting with adding Cryocells soon, Cloud9 followed by Yay and Zellsis, while NRG seemed to be in talks to acquire Optic core.

Sentinels were MIA all the time, and with ShahZam and TenZ nearing the end of thier contract, it was reported by George Geddes that they might be parting ways with both ShahZam and TenZ. But none of it is yet confirmed by both parties.

The New Era

Sentinels made their first move by adding ex-XSET's Coach and GM Don "SykkoNT" Muir as the head coach and Ghost Gaming's Coach Adam "Kaplan" Kaplan as the Strategic Coach, releasing Adam "Rawkus" Flaherty from the roster.

https://twitter.com/Sentinels/status/1577027645329395712

Sykko and Kaplan talking with Tarik, expressed interest in creating a roster that will win and their plans for the team.

https://twitter.com/Sentinels/status/1577369334048993280

Last night, George Geddes also reported Sentinels being in talks with Zekken and Dephh from XSET as the potential first members of the new sentinels rebuild. The team is yet to make an announcement, and with the date for roster submissions closing in, we will only get more of the Rostermania. Soon Sentinels confirmed the addition of Zekken as the first player ahead of the 2023 VCT kickoff tournament.

https://twitter.com/Sentinels/status/1577792479813722112 

As of now, the team looks as follows:

• Shahzeb "ShahZaM" Khan
• Tyson "TenZ" Ngo
• Michael "dapr" Gulino
• Rory "Dephh" Jackson (tentative)
• Zachary "zekken" Patrone
• Don "SyykoNT" Muir (Head coach)
• Adam "kaplan" Kaplan (Coach)
• Matthew "Weltis" Liu (Analyst)

Image source: Riot Games