The first matchup in the VALORANT Champions Tour 2022 North America Last Chance Qualifiers introduced the internet to a revamped Sentinels roster against The Guard. Popular streamer and esports player Michael “shroud” Grzesiek and former Version1 player Jordan “Zellsis” Montemurro joined the Sentinels roster Thursday and made their debut.
As the series stretched to three maps, fans got a full series to watch Sentinels try and win with big roster changes.
Plat Chat, Bren and Sentinels bring the shroud hype
Excitement heading into the match was high, and it was no higher than from Brennon “Bren” Hook on Plat Chat VALORANT. Why? “They have shroud,” Bren said about 10 times in a row.
we have shroud pic.twitter.com/AQZfENpIkv
— Sentinels (@Sentinels) August 3, 2022
The official Sentinels account noticed it and clipped the moment as well. Bren also provided some support for Zellsis during the match.
zellsis is going to champs
— Brennon Hook (@BrenCasts) August 4, 2022
Simply saying that “Zellsis is going to Champs,” Bren is confident in the new roster.
The official The Guard Twitter chips in
One of the first notable things was the shroud fans watching the competition, supporting their streamer in the process. Only three rounds in, the broadcast surpassed 100,000 viewers, which the official The Guard Twitter account commented on.
Hello @shroud fans! 👋 pic.twitter.com/Jqx8kkru1E
— The Guard (@TheGuard) August 4, 2022
Nothing like a quick hello to shroud fans from your opponents.
Caster Ender comments on shroud’s good start
Shroud also started off strong in his VCT debut, helping his team hit the first map Breeze up 7-5. He was higher in the player rankings than teammate Tyson “TenZ” Ngo, so people got to hyping shroud up. One of them was caster Christy “Ender” Frierson, who tweeted an edited thumbnail from one of shroud’s VALORANT videos.
#VALORANTLCQ pic.twitter.com/DVThiUbDLK
— ender (@endercasts) August 4, 2022
The new title was changed to “8 minutes of Shroud outfragging TenZ in VCT”, a change from the original “8 minutes of Shroud impressing TenZ in VALORANT”.
Shroud clutches OT on Breeze; Vansilli boosts the new guys
In overtime on Breeze, shroud got back-to-back clutch rounds to win Sentinels the map. Then, not only did caster Alex “Vansilli” Nguyen bring the moment to light as one of the two casting the match, but he tweeted about that map afterwards with nothing but praise for the new Sentinels players.
It’s safe to say the caster was impressed.
@shroud and @Zellsis are our NA saviors #VCT , WATCH OUT CHAMPIONS TEAMS!
— Vansilli (@Vansilli) August 4, 2022
“Shroud and Zellsis are our NA saviors,” Vansilli said on Twitter. “Watch out Champions teams.”
