Sentinels add new analyst, ShahZaM calls him their ‘secret weapon’
New stats wizard on board.
Sentinelshave finally bolstered their coaching staff with an analyst, just ahead of theVCT NA Last Chance Qualifierin August.
Stats guruMatt “Weltis” Liuwill be joining head coachShane “Rawkus” Flahertyin getting the retooled roster in shape for the upcoming LCQ.
Weltis’s signing comes a month after the organization said that it waslooking for two strategic analysts.
After the bombshell addition ofMichael “Shroud” Grzesiekand former Version1 playerJordan “Zellsis” Montemurro, all eyes will be on the team as they attempt to qualify for Valorant Champions.
Weltis joins Sentinels as an analyst
Weltis has been a source of several eye-opening statistics in the VCT over the past months. From graphs that shed light on team performances in specific scenarios to new ways to interpret player value, Weltis has become a mainstay among Valorant stats gurus.
In thegroup stageatMasters Copenhagen, he teased out a new statistic dubbed “true” first kills, defined as an opening kill that is not traded within three seconds and therefore creates a true advantage.
At the time, the players that ranked the highest were Northeption’s Kim “Meteor” Tae-O, DRX’sGoo “Rb” Sang-min, and XERXIA Esports’Thanachart “Surf” Rungapajaratkul.
Sentinels will need all the help they can get — in a recent stream, in-game leader Shahzeb “ShahZaM” Khan even described Weltis as their “secret weapon.” The team missed out on both Masters events this year, going 0-5 in theVCT NA Stage 2 Challengers group stage, where they only managed to win one map in their opener against the then Luminosity Gaming roster.
The team also had to play three games withoutHunter “SicK” Mims, while star playerTyson “TenZ” Ngo also missed the Week 3 matchagainstOpTic Gamingafter coming down with COVID-19.
Sentinels are now bootcamping in Texas as they work to iron out the kinks in their new roster. The competition at the VCT NA LCQ will be stiff — teams like The Guard, Cloud9, 100 Thieves, and NRG Esports are in attendance, but only one can make it to Valorant Champions.
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