Sentinels Replace SicK With Rawkus
The popular North American esports organisation, Sentinels, have announced a temporary change in their active Valorant lineup. The team’s coach, Shane “Rawkus” Flaherty, will replace Hunter “SicK” Mims, who will be taking an extended leave of absence to deal with some family matters.
Rawkus will remain in the active lineup throughout the remainder of the VCT North American Challengers 2 tournament.
What’s Happening With Sentinels?
It’s no secret that Sentinels have been struggling in this second Valorant Champions Tour season and haven’t been able to fully recover yet. They went from being the strongest Valorant team in the world in 2021, to being a middle-of-a-pack Valorant team. Their recent performance, while still pretty solid, has been a far cry from what they used to be. So what exactly happened?
Well, there’s a couple of reasons why Sentinels no longer dominate the North American region and the global LAN events.
They’re still the same exact team, and that’s a problem in itself. While other teams improved over the past year, Sentinels remained in the same spot. They’ve always been good, but the competition they were facing was far weaker than it is now. Thus, they’re now struggling to find a way to beat others. No longer are they steamrolling through events and taking trophies like it’s nothing, they’re actually hitting that wall right now.
Also, it’s very possible that they lack the proper motivation. They demolished the NA region once, claimed all the rewards, and then simply lost interest. It could be the case. Back in 2021, nobody could stand up to them. And when a team has no real challenge, they begin to loosen up and let their guard down.
SicK taking an extended leave and TenZ getting sick were also two unfortunate events that further derailed their progress in the Valorant Champions Tour. They’ll still continue playing and give it their all, but their chances of actually pulling through and making any significant strides in this current event are slim to none.
Sentinels Without SicK
Sentinels will have to play the last two matches of the VCT NA Challengers 2 group stage without Sick, and that’s going to be challenging. They’re already 0 – 3 into the group stage and losing one more match would mean elimination. Even if they win both matches, there’s no guarantee they’ll pass. The worst case scenario would be if Sentinels, a team that once ruled the region, ends the group stage with 5 consecutive losses. That would be a real tragedy.
On the bright side, SicK is not leaving permanently. He has some family matters to attend to and Sentinels fully support him.
Hunter “SicK” Mims will be taking an extended leave of absence to attend to an on-going family matter. SicK has our full support during this difficult time. Coach Rawkus will fill in for the remainder of Challengers.
Sentinels will be playing against FaZe on June 4th, so make sure not to miss this match as it’ll be an exciting one. SicK won’t be there, but you’ll get a chance to see the team’s coach, Rawkus, in action.
