The brackets for the upcoming VCT North America Last Chance Qualifiers, where only the victorious team advances to Valorous Champions Istanbul, have been officially released by Riot Games.
The highly anticipated tournament debut of Sentinels‘ new Valorant roster, which includes well-known Twitch streamer Shroud takes place in the opening game. After working as a full-time content creator for the past several years, the former CS:GO professional has come out of retirement.
The Guard, the winners of the VCT NA Stage 1 Challengers, will face Shroud, well-known Valorant pros TenZ, ShahZaM, dapr, and newcomer Zellsis in the upper bracket quarterfinals of the VCT NA LCQ playoffs.
The VCT circuit point standing was used to determine each team’s seeding in the tournament. The Guard, the group with the most points (220), faced the Sentinels, the group with the fewest points (45).
These rankings indicate that The Guard may have an advantage over Sentinels, but their recent tournament performances have revealed that neither team has been doing well lately.
The Guard placed ninth or tenth at the VCT NA Stage 2 Challengers after failing to win a single match at Masters Reykjavik 2022. The team tried out new agent roles for its players, but it didn’t work out.
The main event of the VCT NA Stage 2 Challengers required a top-tier Raze player, according to The Guard’s head coach mCe. He explained that while Sayaplayer, their star duelist, was a competent Raze player, he wasn’t able to achieve the same results when playing Jett.
Sentinels’ performance has also been lacking as a result of the roster instability that plagued them throughout the VCT 2022 season. After testing positive for COVID-19 in Week 3 of the VCT NA Stage 2 Challengers Main Event, TenZ was unable to compete against OpTic Gaming. In the meantime, SicK, the team’s veteran flex player, took a protracted leave of absence due to an undisclosed family matter, forcing Sentinels to play with stand-ins.
Prior to the VCT NA LCQ, Sentinels benched Kanpekand added Shroud and Zellsis to their roster. They’re adjusting their agent comps at their boot camp in Texas now that their roster is complete.
Recently, TenZ revealed that he has switched from Jett to Chamber on Split in a scrim match against FaZe Clan. TenZ may be following in the footsteps of former Jett mains like OpTic Gaming’s Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker, who still rules the Valorant scene with the French agent.
One of the most powerful agents in the current Valorant meta is Chamber. Despite the recent nerf to his Trademark traps, the dapper weapons expert had the highest pick rate at 77 percent during Masters Copenhagen.
To win the last and final spot at Valorous Champions Istanbul, both teams must strive to be at the top of their game. On August 5 at 4:00 in the morning, Sentinels will take on The Guard. August 4, 1:00 p.m. GMT+8 August 4 at 7:00 p.m. PT GMT. The match will be streamed live on Riot Games’ official Valorant YouTube and Twitch channels.
