VCT Masters Madrid winners Sentinels miss chance for Masters Shanghai

One of America's leading Valorant teams, Sentinels lost out on their chance to qualify for Masters Shanghai after LOUD defeated G2 Esports with a comfortable 2-0 lead. The team had previously secured the top prize by winning VCT 2024 Masters Madrid, but fell short of qualifying for Shanghai. Only three rosters from each region can make it to Masters Shanghai. Currently, the Americas region has the top six teams divided into groups Alpha and Omega.

Unfortunately, because of a round deficit, Sentinels are not one of these top six. G2 won 15 rounds in total against LOUD with the first map, Bind, going up to a 13-11 scoreline. The scores helped keep them in the top three teams in the Alpha group. Sentinels were the fourth team in terms of rankings. Now, the top three teams will fight from both groups. Here's more.

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Sentinels fail to make it to VCT Masters Shanghai

For Sentinels to have a chance to win, they would have needed G2 to lose to LOUD, but with one extra condition. It would have only worked out for them if G2 won fewer than 14 rounds against LOUD.

The matchup between LOUD and G2 Esports was thrilling for the first map, but looked rather lopsided in the former's favor during the last map - Icebox. The Brazilian team belonging to the Omega group won with a 13-4 lead.

However, as is now clear, G2 actually took home 15 rounds despite losing the overall matchup. This means that Sentinels will not make it to the Playoffs, and instead, the three teams to do so from the Alpha group are G2 Esports, Clou9, and KRÜ Esports. From the Omega group, it's 100 Thieves, Leviatan, and LOUD.

They still delivered a stunning performance back when they secured the trophy at VCT Masters Madrid. Unfortunately, this regular season at VCT Americas hasn't been entirely great for the team.

They played five matches in total, out of which three of them were losing battles. Sen lost to Leviatan, EG, and also LOUD. Two of these three have now made Playoffs.

G2 Esports and Sentinels have had an old rivalry, so the team's social media was instantly active after the LOUD loss to let the internet know that their rivals will no longer make it to Masters Shanghai since they couldn't even secure a spot in the Playoffs. Now, they will have to wait until Stage 2 to compete again, even though they were one of the best teams at VCT Americas league.

The Americas Playoffs to decide the final three teams to make it to Masters Shanghai will commence on May 8. KRU Esports and Levitan already have a spot in the Upper Semifinals thanks to their performances during the regular season.