Day 2 of Riot Games’ First Strike North America tournament began with Sentinels soundly defeating rival squad FaZe Clan, 2-0, in the quarterfinals.
Sentinels proved yet again that they are one of the best teams in the region with their strong and consistent play. They started the match with a dominating pistol round on Bind, stopping an A-short rush by FaZe. The team then continued their strong performance with clutch round wins from Hunter “SicK” Mims and Jay “Sinatraa” Won.
FaZe Clan would keep the match close after the half by winning the pistol round. But Sentinels won an all-important eco round right after, which gave the team an economic advantage up until the end of the game. Shahzeeb “ShahZaM” Khan joined the clutch party for Sentinels, winning a late round with only 7HP on his Sova. Sinatraa then finished the game with a perfectly played post-plant hold on Hookah.
Once the match moved to Split, Sentinels showed why they have an 85.2% win rate percentage on their map choice and dominated FaZe Clan with a 13-5 final score. What’s even more impressive is that Sentinels’ Jared “zombs” Gitlin told ONE Esports that they had only practiced with Skye five times before they picked her in Game 2.
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ShahZaM and SicK continued to dominate their parts of the map, which prevented FaZe from gaining any type of momentum. When the teams switched sides, Sentinels utilized crossfire angles that prevented FaZe from entering sites.
In the final two rounds of the match, Sentinels ramped up their aggressive play, running out and taking wide swings with full confidence that they would be able to out-aim FaZe Clan. In both games of the match, ShahZaM was Sentinels’ team MVP with a 39/24/9 KDA record.
With Sentinels’ quarterfinals win over FaZe Clan, they now advance to the semifinals where they’re set to face 100 Thieves for a spot in the finals. The teams have played against each other only once, which was during the Nerd Street Gamers closed qualifier tournament and ended with 100 Thieves emerging victorious, 2-1.
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