Sentinels survive Wolves attack: Masters Toronto reaction

Fan favourites Sentinels survived an initial scare from China’s Wolves Esports to win their opening series at Masters Toronto. Wolves came out swinging with an early lead in map one, starting 4-0, but Sentinels managed to get a grip on the match and ended with a 2-0 series scoreline.

Wolves performance gives hope

Though the loss has already placed them on the verge of elimination, their performance was some way above what many had expected given that Wolves are widely regarded as one of the weakest, if not the weakest, team at the tournament.

Wolves came out swinging in the opener on Split, typically a strong map for Sentinels, starting 4-0 and leading 8-4 going into halftime before an eventual turnaround by SEN. Discussing the map whilst speaking to the media in a post-match press conference, coach Hoc Wah “Fayde” Chong explained how his side understood how Sentinels would “move around the map, mainly on their defence”.

“We kind of abused that movement a lot on defence to string so many rounds on the attack.”

In-game leader Pong “SiuFatBB” Ka-hei was also asked to comment on his team’s strong opening to map one and whether pressure had any effect on the result.

“I don’t really think the pressure effected us, because I think the main issue is our communication and we are kind of slow to make the decisions. And for our opponent, they kept expanding their advantages. But I think we still keep adjusting as well.”

The match was the first-ever on a global stage for Wolves Esports as an organisation, and also a first for SiuFat himself. The IGL explained how he feels he’s already learned a lot from the debut series.

“As the IGL I think I’ve quickly learned from Sentinels because it’s kind of like a battle between two IGLs. And I think I’ve learned so much experience from them. When they get information, they have a super quick counter strategy into us.

“I’m super happy that we played so good today. I think also our cohesion, like the rest of the players, they conduct a gameplan so fast. But I think we just lack a little bit of experience from the global events. I think they’re — Sentinels — super experienced as well. And they can find our gaps, they can find our counters so fast.

“I also want to appreciate Sentinels too because they gave me so much energy on stage. The interactions on stage give me energy and hype me up as well.”

Sentinels get the job done

While they would surely have liked to have won in a more dominant fashion, Sentinels ultimately did their job in picking up an expected victory to start their Masters Toronto campaign 1-0. This victory means that another win in the next series will secure their spot in the playoffs.

In Sentinels’ press conference, Hotspawn asked coach Adam “kaplan” Kaplan for his thoughts on the perceived strength of Wolves and whether his side may have underestimated them.

“You know, I think we make a point not to go into these games with too many expectations. I’d be lying if I said we weren’t more comfortable with the draw than other scenarios. But we knew, you know, no game is free. We got to work for everything and underestimating is a great way to lose a game.

“So we all went in just focused on our own stuff: ‘What are we planning to do? How are we going to improve today?’ And I thought Wolves put up a really good fight, and I’m not surprised that they did. I think they’re an excellent team and I think China’s really become an excellent region in the last couple of years.”

Kaplan was also asked about the difference in the team dynamics this year after losing veteran players TenZ and Sacy to retirement, replaced by the relatively more inexperienced Marshall “N4RRATE” Massey and Sean “bang” Bezerra, despite having kept a ‘core’ of players from last year.

“Yeah, it was definitely a big change. It’s a very different team with two players changed, even though you can say we still kept a core of three. I think that johnqt and Zellsis and zekken all did a great job stepping up and really making Marshall and Sean feel comfortable.

“I also think their experience is definitely underrated as well. Obviously they’re younger than the shoes they filled, but you know, Sean has been playing competitive VALORANT for many years — pretty much since the start of the game — on top teams, and Marshall has had a very productive year competing at pretty high levels in Europe. And yeah, they’ve they’ve made it easy for me. I’m lucky to be working with them.”