Sentinels Marved stands tall in narrow 1-2 loss to LOUD
- Sentinels sixth man Marved makes debut on VCT 2023: Americas League stage.
- Sentinels’ Zekken looks strong on Jett as former LOUD duo, pANcada and sacy shine on Pearl.
- How close were Sentinels to winning against LOUD?
- LOUD go 4-0, as they clinch Sentinels, and win 2-1 in VCT 2023: Americas League.
Nobody expected Sentinels to fight against LOUD, the number one team in the VCT 2023: Americas League.
Sentinels came into today’s series against LOUD with a number of conditions working against them. From coaching changes to playing without their franchise cornerstone Tyson “TenZ” Ngo, Sentinels came into today’s series against LOUD with zero expectations. It wasn’t that this new iteration with Sentinels substitute Jimmy “Marved” Nguyen was necessarily bad. It was mostly centered around how good LOUD has looked over the rest of the VCT 2023: Americas League.
After their extremely close series against MIBR in their VCT 2023: Americas League debut, LOUD has been able to move through the rest of their schedule with relative ease as they entered this match with a 3-0 record.
However, that was clearly not the case at all throughout this three-map thriller in Marved’s debut with Sentinels.
SEN Zekken’s Jett stands tall over LOUD’s aspas
Sentinels’ Brazilian duo of Bryan “pANcada” Luna and Gustavo “Sacy” Rossi were the top performers in the team’s opening map on Pearl. However, one of the most significant talking points going into this first map on Pearl was how Zachary “zekken” Patrone’s Jett would perform on the VCT 2023: Americas League stage. In short, it was quite impressive as Sentinels were able to shut down LOUD’s star player Erick “aspas” Santos on map one. Throughout Pearl, aspas was held to just a 0.70 Rating and 11 kills to his name as Sentinels jumped to a slight 7-5 lead on the attack side of Pearl.
Sentinels then extended their dominance over LOUD once they were placed onto defense as they took six of the seven rounds in the second half to close out map one with a 13-6 score.
How close was Sentinels from beating LOUD?
The second map was a heartbreaking scenario for Sentinels, who nearly took the entire series 2-0 on Haven. At one point on Haven, Sentinels had an 11-9 lead over LOUD and were two rounds away from clinching that major upset over LOUD. Unfortunately, Sentinels tripped up at the very end as LOUD brought it back to an even 11-11 score. Sentinels placed their prioritizations on taking the series to overtime in the 24th round, but it was not meant to be as LOUD closed out the second map with a 13-11 scoreline.
The underdog arc came to a heartbreaking end on Ascent as LOUD soared to an early 9-3 lead over Sentinels. While Marved looked impressive on Omen, LOUD’s control, and strong team play was evident as Sentinels found themselves constantly on the outskirts of being able to get rounds to mount a comeback.
While Sentinels came alive in the second half to bring the final map to a 12-8 standing, LOUD ultimately put the finishing touches on a 2-1 series of 13-8.
This loss puts Sentinels at 1-3 in the VCT 2023: Americas League. Regardless, the team has shown a lot of promise, even in their losses as the preparation continues to be very impressive.
As for LOUD, it’s another win added to their undefeated record in the VCT 2023: Americas League. Both teams will compete later this week during VCT 2023: Americas League super week.
