On day 5 of the VALORANT Champions Tour 2022 North America Last Chance Qualifiers, the match between Sentinels and 100 Thieves had over 500,000 viewers at its peak.
According to Esports Charts, this match is the second of the NA LCQ to break 500k peak viewers. Both matches included popular team Sentinels, on top of a boost of viewers from streamer and esports player Michael “shroud” Grzesiek. 100 Thieves defeated Sentinels 2-1 and eliminated them from the tournament.
Sentinels bring viewers to VCT yet again
Just after the first map of Fracture ended, the match already hit over 490,000 concurrent viewers according to Esports Charts. This includes all streams and co-streams of the event, as former CS:GO player and current streamer Tarik “tarik” Celik’s co-stream consistently surpassed the original VALORANT stream. Then, as the series went to three maps, the 500K viewer barrier was broken.
Sentinels are the catalyst for viewership so far in this tournament, with their three matches also the top viewed series so far in the LCQ. Their first matchup against The Guard remains the most watched match in the 2022 NA LCQ, with over 600K viewers. The context around that viewership was how shroud and Jordan “Zellsis” Montemurro were making their debuts for Sentinels. As the match went the distance, the viewers piled in to see if shroud would win his first VCT game. The viewership alone was notable, as it was the second most popular series since 2022’s Stage 2 Masters began.
That match wasn’t his first win, but he would get it against Shopify Rebellion. That lower bracket series is the third most viewed series of the tournament, just under 450k peak viewers in a 2-0 sweep.
Nadeshot tips the cap
With their final match of the 2022 season, Sentinels once again brought the fans to the streams. Even their opponents agreed, with 100 Thieves founder and co-owner Matthew “Nadeshot” Haag tweeting about their popularity.
What a fucking match. Sentinels really didn't have to make me sweat like that. I gotta tip the cap to those guys, they're great for competitive Valorant no matter how you try to cut it. GG's @100T_Esports.
— 100T Nadeshot (@Nadeshot) August 11, 2022
Stating that Sentinels are “great for competitive VALORANT no matter how you try to cut it”, he understands the importance that their popularity brings to the scene. 100 Thieves themselves aren’t a small organization either, but the Sentinels viewers clearly showed up in the NA LCQ.
