Defeat at the hands of Gen.G has Sentinels dropping to the lower bracket final at Masters Madrid, where they will face off against Pacific’s Paper Rex who managed to avoid elimination by defeating LOUD.
After their respective matches, both teams spoke to the media about their thoughts on the upcoming match. The winner will move on to face Gen.G in Sunday’s Grand Final.
Photo by Colin Young-Wolff
Alecks commends Zellsis and TenZ
Coach of Paper Rex, Alecks, spoke highly of Sentinels when discussing the upcoming match, acknowledging their strength and previous victory over his team in the AfreecaTV VALORANT LEAGUE. He particularly praised Zellsis and TenZ for their contributions to the team.
“You could tell that they’re developing. I think having Zellsis in the team is a big deal, I think he manages to keep their emotions high and confident. I think TenZ is playing amazing on smokes, I think it’s been a revelation for him.”
Read also: TenZ: If we can beat LOUD, we can beat anyone
“They’re coming together very nicely. I think it feels like when they first won Reykjavik, it feels like they’re coming back into their confidence. TenZ is having great performances. We’re looking forward to the game and we expect a very difficult one.”
When asked about the map pool for the series, Alecks admitted, “We have one good map and I think the whole world knows this now.”
“I don’t think we’re playing Sunset. You never know… who knows? Maybe there are maps that they feel shaky on as well… we share a lot of maps that we like to play together, so there’s a good chance that we’re all going to get five maps that we like to play, regardless of how shaky our map pool is right now.”
Photo by Colin Young-Wolff
Kaplan focuses on rest for Sentinels
Sentinels coach, kaplan, emphasized the importance of rest and preparation with less than 24 hours before the series begins. He highlighted the need for his team to recharge after a busy tournament.
“I think right now we are going to prepare by getting really good rest and making sure we come in in the right headspace tomorrow and make sure we take the approach to game day that’s worked best for us so far and trust that. So that probably means a little rest for all the guys and even a rest for myself and Drew [DrewSpark]. And yeah, I think we need to trust our own game tomorrow and just make sure we’re in the right headspace as a team and just lean into that.”
Photo by Colin Young-Wolff
“They’re going to be tired as well as us and there’s just not gonna be a lot of turnaround time to prepare for each other… So we’re just gonna make sure we get really good rest and get into the right confident, loose, fun-having head space we need to be at our best.”
Who do you think will make it to the Grand Final, Paper Rex or Sentinels?
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