“We just outclassed them” SicK on Sentinels’ win versus Team Vikings

Sentinels, North America’s top VALORANT team, faced Team Vikings in the VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT) Stage 2 Masters Reykjavík today and came out victorious. After the 2-0 win, Hunter “SicK” Mims spoke to Esportz Network about why Sentinels won, what NA VALORANT esports does right, and Riot’s technical issues.

Next up. ? pic.twitter.com/kC0loeNvIh

— Sentinels (@Sentinels) May 26, 2021

VCT Stage 2 Masters Reykjavík

During today’s match against the Brazilian esports squad, the NA representatives proved they are the team to beat in Iceland. When asked why both games were so one-sided games, SicK explained that “when it comes to Brazilian teams, they play a lot like us.” This was obvious with the round scores on each map. Map 1 on Icebox ended 13-7 while Map 2 on Haven finished 13-6. “We were in more of a comfort zone today and it really showed with our gameplay, setups, and how we didn’t overpeak too much. I think we played really well today.”

Boasting an average kill-death-assist score of 34-18-7 in today’s match, Sentinels’ VALORANT pro SicK truly shined. He played well on Sova in the first map but became a bigger threat in the second game as Phoenix. Now, the team advances to the tournament’s semifinals where they play their rival NA team or the Korean representative.

Three days of VCT Stage 2 Masters Reykjavík finished and the best is still to come. Unfortunately, Riot Games continues to experience technical difficulties and fans wonder what’s going on. SicK shared his thoughts on the situation. “In most other matches, someone crashed out the game and it could be detrimental to the momentum of whichever team is doing well. In my opinion, it comes with the territory, especially because Riot has never hosted an FPS LAN before. So far, I can’t complain too much about how they’re handling it.”

SicK Plays for Sentinels

Although Sentinels won both of their matches so far, SicK wasn’t playing his best VALORANT esports at first. Against FNATIC yesterday, he ended both maps at the bottom of the scoreboard. “I wasn’t as confident yesterday because of the new setup and since the games were so delayed, we were rushed into the server,” he explained. “I was getting caught out of position and was making bad plays. Today, it was more about reestablishing my confidence because we played this game way more confidently than against FNATIC.”

2-0 vs Vikings GGs got my confidence back up with that one. Top 4 secured now but we going for the gold of course!!!

— Hunter Mims (@SicK_cs) May 26, 2021

He made a big comeback today against Team Vikings and showed VCT Iceland what he’s made of. Of course, everyone at the Sentinels squad contributed too. SicK talked about the agents his team selects and why they excel with double duelists.

“As a team, we’re very aggressive and we take fights that are questionable sometimes. Having two duelists helps us propel into the lead. TenZ, ShahZaM, and I like playing aggressively. We all want to play these duelists and I think it helps us shine. If we just played meta comps like Europe, we probably wouldn’t shine as much as we do with the duelists we play.”

NA VALORANT Beating Europe

Version1 and Jordan “Zellsis” Montemurro showed Europe that VALORANT is NA’s field yesterday and today was Sentinels’ turn. Between V1 and Sentinels, the two North American teams have yet to lose a single match. When asked what NA VALORANT esports is doing right, SicK puts it down to a lack of LAN experience.

“Some of the players on a couple of the teams coming from Europe don’t have as much experience at LAN and that might have a bit of impact on how they’re playing. Honestly, they have pretty good tactics. But at the end of the day we just outclassed them with our aggression and aim.”

Ever since Sentinels won the first VCT Masters event, the roster has been unstoppable and rolled over everyone. With the addition of Tyson “TenZ” Ngo, the team got even better. The team’s next game takes place in two days on May 28 at 1 PM PST where they play Version1 or NUTURN Gaming. VCT Stage 2 Masters Reykjavík continues tomorrow with only four days of peak VALORANT esports left.

Written and interviewed by Justin Amin

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