Sentinels have reclaimed its spot as the best team in North America, and they’ve done so after signing a substitute at the last possible moment. They ran over FaZe Clan in the grand finals in just three maps, claiming the VCT NA Masters One Championship. For Sentinels, it was their second straight sweep over FaZe, going 5-0 against them overall during Masters.
Sentinels won the first VCT Masters event and defeated Faze in the grand finals. Image via Sentinels.
FaZe began the series by jumping out to a big lead on Ascent, up 8-4 at halftime. FaZe’s agression on attack wasn’t as helpful on their defense. They struggled on retakes in the second half. Sentinels trailed the entire map until they won four straight rounds to narrowly survive on their own map pick, 13-11.
On Bind, FaZe’s aggression gave them the early advantage in multiple rounds. But they weren’t able to secure many of these rounds and trailed 8-4 at halftime. Sentinels punished their aggression in the second half pistol round and used teleports throughout the second half to force FaZe into tough retakes. Michael “dapr” Gulino had a pretty 4k from hookah to close out the second map 13-7.
With Sentinels up 2-0, the series moved to Haven, another pick and a strong map choice for Sentinels. What was a close series (despite the overall score) turned ugly on map three. Sentinels crushed FaZe on their attack side 10-2. The map and the series didn’t go much longer, as they claimed Haven 13-4 and closed out the series 3-0. Dapr earned MVP honors for the series, with 61 kills over 41 deaths across three maps and a series high +5 first kill/death differential. FaZe’s Jett main Andrej “babybay” Francisty was the lone positive for FaZe: 56 kills over 43 deaths.
Sentinels were considered a favorite to win leading up to the night before Masters when abuse allegations towards Jay “sinatraa” Won surfaced. Both Sentinels and Riot Games announced they would suspend him for the duration of the investigation. The team scrambled to find a last-minute replacement. But they found one of the best options available in Tyson “TenZ” Ngo, the former C9 star who left its competitive roster in January. TenZ stepped into the Jett role mostly, with Shahzeb “ShahZaM” Khan switching over to Sova on several occasions. TenZ did change it up slightly with some maps on Reyna, including their second grand finals map on Bind.
Sentinels claim the $60,000 prize and 100 important VCT points towards qualifying for Champions at the end of the year with the victory. FaZe Clan earns 70 VCT points with its second-place finish.
