SEN pANcada talks superweek in VCT Americas: "Marved fit like a glove."
The past few weeks of VALORANT Champions Tour Americas 2023 have been a bit of a rollercoaster for Sentinels. Following the abrupt firing of head coach Donald "Sykko" Muir and the subsequent promotion of coach Adam "kaplan" Kaplan to the lead of the staff, the org announced that star player Tyson "TenZ" Ngo would be taking time away from the starting roster due to health issues and Jimmy “Marved” Nguyen would be taking his place.
Despite all of the changes and Marved arriving only a few days prior to the superweek due to visa issues, Sentinels arguably showed their best form of VCT Americas thus far. In their first match, SEN dispatched of the undefeated LOUD 13-6 on Pearl, but ultimately lost the series after falling 13-11 on Haven and 13-8 on Ascent. While the match ended in a loss, it was an impressive performance for the recently retooled Sentinels, and they rode that momentum straight through MIBR two days later for a 2-0 victory.
Marved was undoubtedly the star of the show against MIBR, but his influence on the outcome of the match went beyond just his individual abilities. “Marved fit like a glove and I feel like that essentially brought us into unison as a team,” Sentinels’ Bryan "pANcada" Luna told Esports Illustrated after the win. “He helped us establish what happened today and that gave us a lot of confidence.”
Part of what helped Sentinels integrate Marved so quickly is the familiarity with the other players on the roster. pANcada played with Gustavo “Sacy” Rossi on LOUD last year when they crowned themselves VCT 2022 champions, and that synergy has been retained since the pair joined SEN both on and off the stage.
“I don’t speak much English, but Sacy does,” pANcada explained. “That gave me the confidence to jump in with Sentinels and be able to do my best without being intimated.”
With Marved fully in the mix in lieu of TenZ’s health break, an announcement from Sentinels regarding their VCT Americas roster in the coming weeks is likely ahead of their next match against Cloud9 on Sunday, April 30 at 12:00pm PT.
