Bang: “Our bad days are really bad. Everything feels off, nothing feels normal” – VCT Americas Stage 2 Interview

Sentinels were one of the first teams to secure qualification for Valorant Champions, making their VCT Americas Stage 2 playoff run less about survival and more about sharpening their form. But after difficult losses against G2 and then in the lower bracket, the squad now looks toward Champions with plenty to reflect on.

Hotspawn caught up with Sean “bang” Bezerra after Sentinels’ elimination and third-place finish at Americas Stage 2 to discuss the team’s mindset, his personal journey from prodigy to veteran, clutch mentality, and what he wants to see improved before Champs.

Hotspawn: You were already qualified for Champions before playoffs.

How was the mindset heading into this run?

Bang: “I obviously were trying to go into playoffs with the intention to win everything. We had the belief that we could win everything. I think we really didn’t show up when we needed to. We kind of crumbled, to be honest. Just did not play at all.

“I mean, we talked about it, but we just have really good days, or we have a string of really good days and we play incredible – everyone understands what we’re doing and everyone’s on the same page. But our bad days are really bad. Everything feels off. Nothing feels normal. We’ll have a few rounds that go our way. But it felt like one of those days was today — really another really bad day for us. Yesterday was the same way against G2.

“So, yeah, we had a lot of confidence going in. But, you know, it is what it is.”

Hotspawn: This year people have talked about NA being a two-team region, and Sentinels are one of them.

How does it feel to be that consistent?

Bang: “Obviously it feels great. Wish we could have really proved that in this lower final. But, you know, it is what it is. It feels good that we’re able to make it very international and have such a level of consistency. Even though our international runs have been… we’ve been on the uptrend since Bangkok. But, you know, it sucks not being able to go as far as we feel like we could have in both of those tournaments.

“We just want to play a tournament… I feel like at least I want to play a tournament where I feel our whole team is at a point where we’re at the highest confidence we could possibly be. And that’s our goal for Champs.

“I think this event is just a learning step for that. I think we understand that we were not where we needed to be and we need to figure out why and fix the problems in this next month of scrims.

“But yeah, it does feel good being that one of the top two teams in Americas, but, you know, it’s not enough. We don’t want to be top two. We want to be number one.”

Hotspawn: You joined 100 Thieves very young, and now you’ve been in VCT for over three years.

How have you grown?

Bang: “Yeah, I would say that I’ve definitely learned a lot since I first joined 100 Thieves, and even before that when I was on TSM, I learned a lot.

“I learned a lot about how responsible and how important this job is, and what’s expected of you. I feel like fans probably feel like the life of a pro player is just sunshine and rainbows. Everyone loves playing video games for fun. But you get to understand just how intense, and it’s really fun…

“The winning is the most amazing thing, the most amazing feeling I’ve ever felt, honestly. Just being able to win these matches and prove to people that you’re as good as other people are saying you are. You’re as good as you feel like you are. It’s an incredible feeling.

“But yeah, I’ve learned so much over the time that I’ve been pro and I feel like I’ve transformed myself. In the beginning, I was just some kid. I didn’t really know much about esports. I never worked a real job, like, I never worked not esports job. So it’s a pretty crazy — just going right into the swing of things when I was like 16.”

Hotspawn: Fans often wonder about a typical day for an esports pro.

What’s your routine like?

Bang: “Practise day? I’d probably just wake up at around 10, 10:30. Practise starts at like 11 or 11:30. Maybe sometimes I wake up earlier.

“It depends on the week and how I’m feeling. But I think it’s a lot about managing your form and kind of managing how you want to ramp up, because you can’t expect to show up to practise every single day being the best version of yourself.

“An Americas split, it’s really good to start the week off and go upward throughout the week in regards to how well your form is, how much you’re playing the game, because you don’t want to play too much the entire time you’re in a split. It’s just way too much.”

“You can’t play ranked every single day, in DM every single day. Some people can, but it’s not me. It’s just — I think it’s about load management for me, and that’s kind of how I view it day to day.”

Hotspawn: Yesterday against G2 was rough.

Did that loss affect today’s match?

Bang: “I don’t think it really contributed much. Imagine if they would have played bad and we would have won with the way we played – we still probably would have lost today because the way we played wasn’t really great yesterday.

“What I think happened these last two days is just, we were in a lot of good positions this match and we were in positions to win the rounds and we just didn’t. We made small mistakes. People didn’t hit their shots.

“We were in a lot of good positions. Especially when I think of it, I think of Corrode’s defense. We were almost always in the right spots in the round. It’s just, someone got picked. Someone died in a way they shouldn’t have. Some player on their team made a hero play. I mean, brawk had an incredible series and won so many rounds for them.

“So, yeah, we were not winning a lot of our clutches. I felt like today and yesterday we didn’t win any clutches. We won some, but it just didn’t feel like it really went our way in majority of them.”

Hotspawn: You’re known for having one of the highest clutch percentages in Americas.

How do you stay calm?

Bang: “I mean, you’re just going through the situations and what could happen. If you have the time in the round and they’re not like, immediately on top of you, you’re kind of envisioning what you can do and the plays you can make and how you’re going to play to win the clutch, honestly.

“But obviously if you don’t have time, you’re just focusing on trying to put yourself in the best position to get kills and get individual duels when you’re in a 1vX. So, yeah, I think it’s just a lot of picturing what’s happening.”

Hotspawn: Who was your Valorant GOAT growing up?

Bang: “Honestly, probably my ex-teammate, Asuna. I think I watched him a lot when I was like in tier 2. I watched him and I watched some TSM players like Sabroza.

“Both ended up being my teammates, but I loved watching these guys. They were grinders, they played all the time and they were really fun to watch for me. I kind of related more to Asuna because I was at a similar age as he was, and it was fun watching him stream and just play all morning right before practice. It made me really motivated to play as well.”

Hotspawn: You’ve mainly been on Omen and Viper.

Do you prefer one?

Bang: “Honestly, I don’t have a preference. My biggest thing is I like just playing a lot of agents. I only do play Omen and Viper, but I wish I could play more of the controllers.

“It’s fun having that diversity and just being able to play a different agent per map, kind of. Obviously, I understand that’s not necessary and can be bad, especially when people are trying to be consistent, but I think it’s most fun to be able to play an array of different agents. I think, yeah, I don’t mind either one.”

Hotspawn: Who do you think will be the toughest opponent at Champs?

Bang: “I would say Paper Rex. We’ve played them twice this year, I think, and both times we kind of got smoked. I think that they would be really fun to get a rematch against and if we can beat them, I feel like we have the confidence to beat any team.”

Hotspawn: You’ve said Sentinels are unstoppable on good days, but struggle on bad ones.

How do you fix that?

Bang: “I mean, honestly, I feel like we need to have a match where it goes well. We need to be able to start on a good foot.

“We’re really good when we build momentum, in my opinion, and when we get a win going and we get a clean win going. It starts with a clean win. And once we get that going, we can get the ball rolling and we can actually start snowballing.

“These wins, these matches start becoming super simple for us. Mid rounds become simple situations because everyone’s confident in themselves and their decision making, and there’s no hesitation. And whenever we get that happening, we’re a team that’s really hard to beat.

“I feel like we just need to use this last month of practise, or whatever time we have left of practise — less than a month, to just clean up and get better at these mid rounds. Because that was the biggest issue. It was just small mistakes, mid round issues. But if we’re disciplined and play really well in practise, I think there’s no reason we can’t keep that momentum going into Champs.”

Hotspawn: Are you excited for Abyss returning to the pool?

Bang: “I mean, I’m down to see Icebox leaving for me. That’s, all I can really say on this.”

Hotspawn: Last one — who takes the trophy between G2 and NRG?

Bang: “My money’s on G2 probably. I’d say they are definitely a really hard team to beat and they don’t really have a lot of off days. So if they show up like they normally do, I think they’ll be really hard for NRG to beat.”

For Bang, Sentinels’ playoff run was a lesson in resilience and readiness. With Champs looming, his sights are firmly set on consistency: starting strong, building momentum, and cutting out the small mistakes. If they can do that, as he puts it, “on a good day, we’re the greatest in the world.”