Sentinels sweep FaZe Clan to win NA Valorant Masters

Nina Forneloza Published 23/03/2021

Sentinels took a decisive victory over FaZe Clan in the Valorant Masters North America grand final, cementing the team as the top NA Valorant team.

Things looked dicey for both teams after a tight 13-11 score on Ascent, but Sentinels seemed to find their groove on Bind, where they took a 13-7 victory. Their momentum carried them through the last map with a score of 13-4, and earned Sentinels their first-ever major tournament title in Valorant with a 3-0 sweep.

FaZe Clan came into the tournament riding their momentum from VCT Challengers 3 and fought its way through the upper bracket until Sentinels sent them down to play Gen.G in the lower bracket final. FaZe eliminated Gen.G and climbed to the grand final, but couldn’t finish the comeback.

Sentinels seemed prepared for the aggressive playstyle that FaZe been succeeding with since VCT Challengers 2. Many fights that FaZe felt confident taking ended up backfiring and going in favor of Sentinels. On loan from Cloud9, Tyson “TenZ” Ngo was just as aggressive and took every duel needed to carry Sentinels to the title.

TenZ proves to be an upgrade over sinatraa for Sentinels

There was little to no time for Sentinels to prep for their last-minute replacement after Jay “sinatraa” Won was suspended pending an investigation of sexual assault claims made by his ex-girlfriend. Just a few days before the tournament, Sentinels found themselves scrambling for a replacement. TenZ comes from a Cloud9 roster that had great difficulty finding success in competitions. In January, TenZ stepped down from Cloud9’s active roster and moved towards streaming until Sentinels and Cloud9 worked out a deal to loan him to Sentinels for the Masters tournament.

TenZ was asked multiple times throughout the tournament whether he wanted to stay with Sentinels. His answer to this question was vague until after Sentinels won Masters. “Yeah, It feels amazing to win. I definitely have that competitive edge and I really notice it most just through winning and just playing with a bunch of fantastic players that I do want to be a pro player,” TenZ said.

From what I know, Tenz’s buyout was already well over 1 million before Masters

After Masters, who the hell knows

What a performance after streaming for a few months @Sentinels with Tenz can go toe to toe with any team in the world
— The Esports Writer (@FionnOnFire) March 21, 2021

Whether TenZ will stay on the roster might depend on the outcome of sinatraa’s investigation and whether Sentinels can afford TenZ’s contract buyout from Cloud9.

The next major tournament will be held in Iceland, and will be an international tournament held in a LAN setting later this year.

Nina Forneloza

About Nina Forneloza

Nina Forneloza is a huge fan of gaming, but her favorite genres of games above all other are gacha games, first-person shooting games, and role-playing games. When she isn’t looking for a lucky pull in the latest gacha, you’re likely to find her in a competitive Valorant lobby or playing the latest big single-player RPG. Either way, you can be assured that she’ll be into it and ready to write about the experience.

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