Shroud’s Sentinels debut in VCT NA LCQ crushes NA Valorant viewership record
When do Sentinels play?
Sentinelsmay have fallen on hard times in the VCT 2022 season, but they are still the team everyone wants to watch.
And since theshock additionof CS:GO pro turned Twitch celebrityMichael “Shroud” Grzesiek, the hype surrounding the team has reached a fever pitch.
In theiropening match against The Guardin theVCT NA Last Chance Qualifier, Shroud and his team smashed the peak viewership record for North American Valorant — a record that Sentinels had fittingly set themselves back in 2021.
Sentinels break their own NA Valorant viewership record
Alongside the official Valorant broadcast on Twitch,Tarik “tarik” Celik’s,Kyedae “Kyedae” Shymko’s, and shroud’s (hosted by Hannah “Bnans” Kennedy) co-streams drew in over 608,000 viewers at their peak, according toEsports Charts.
Viewership already sat at around 400,000 during the first map, and only continued to climb as the series went into a third map and double overtime.
Shroud kicked the series off on a high note, picking up the first kill in the LCQ on Breeze to mark his return to pro play after a five-year hiatus.
The previous record was set in VCT NA Stage 1 Masters, when over 361,000 viewers tuned in to watch Sentinels play Luminosity in the upper bracket quarter finals.
To put things in perspective, peak viewership atMasters Copenhagenonly surpassed 600,000 during the grand final betweenFunPlus PhoenixandPaper Rex, which went the full five maps.
The numbers are hardly surprisingly, considering how long it has been since fans were last able to watch Sentinels play. They played their last match against Cloud9 in June, during the VCT NA Stage 2 Challengers group stage.
The VCT NA LCQ is the team’s last chance to qualify for Valorant Championsin September. They will start their lower bracket run on August 7, 7:00 a.m. GMT+8 | August 6, 4:00 p.m. PT | August 6, 11:00 p.m. GMT, where they will face the loser of the match betweenShopify Rebellionand Cloud9.
All matches will be broadcast live on the official ValorantTwitchandYouTubechannels.
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