SicK on Sentinels’ map loss to G2: ‘They thought we were tilted because we lost the map’

North America finally got to see its top seed play at Masters: Berlin in an epic matchup that pitted Europe vs. NA. Sentinels and G2 faced off in a tight match that ended with a 2-1 Sentinels vcitory.

The NA vs. EU fight was much-anticipated among fans, and garnered a lot of viewers across all platforms, with a peak of 808,283 watching, according to Esports Charts. That’s the most viewers for Masters: Berlin so far and second only to the Masters: Reykjavík grand final as far as people viewing a VALORANT tournament.

Sentinels started off the match with a win on the pistol round, and the first half followed suit, with Sentinels taking most of the rounds from G2 in dominant fashion. The half ended 8-4.

Shahzeb “ShahZaM” Khan was on top of his game, decimating everyone in his view alongside Tyson “TenZ” Ngo who was also an absolute nightmare to play against for G2.

The second map on Icebox is where things got difficult for Sentinels. Žygimantas “nukkye” Chmieliauskas was a huge pain in the Sentinels’ side and constantly was able to pick off Sentinels players from far across the map. Nukkye and Cista “keloqz” Wassim dominated the scoreboard with over 20 kills each.

Hunter “SicK” Mims told Nerd Street in an interview after the match that G2 played Icebox slower than they were used to.

“Sometimes if you play slow, we're able to get picks, or play back more, but they honestly played really good, and I think since they played a little differently on Haven, we were able to play against that and use our own aggression,” he said.

G2 ended Icebox 13-8, handing Sentinels their first map loss in international play, but it didn’t bother them.

“I feel like it's really good for us to lose maps instead of the series,” SicK said. “When we lose maps, we tend to learn a lot more about losing the maps in the match instead [of scrims] because sometimes scrims aren’t as productive.”

Before the third map on Haven, SicK said he noticed one of G2’s players waving his hands in the air right as the match was starting, but if their objective was to intimidate him or his team, it didn’t work.

“They thought we were tilted because we lost the map,” SicK said. “If people are trying to get into my head, I normally just try to feed off of it. It was so funny because I did feed off of it and I had an insane map [on Haven].”

SicK did indeed have an outstanding map, finishing with an ACS of 360 and a K/D/A of 27/12/7. The third map on Haven went very well for Sentinels. They ended the half 11-1. They had a hard time finding the momentum again after the half, but they were able to secure the win, ending Haven 13-8, and winning the match 2-1.

Not only was the gameplay for both of these teams incredibly aggressive on both sides, but the banter was, too. Plenty of trash talk was being spewed between both teams across the stage, but SicK says that it’s all in good fun.

Photo credit: Riot Games

“I felt like it was really high energy from both sides. And even though there's a lot of banter, and maybe I said some things, it's all good fun. I had a lot of fun in that match. I'm sure the other guys did, too,” SicK said.

The rivalry between the two teams started to heat up just before the match after G2 tweeted a video of a plane that G2 CEO and founder Carlos “ocelote” Rodriguez hired with a sign trailing behind it that said “F--- Sentinels.”

SicK poked some fun at G2 after the match.

“The plane was when we got involved with the beef, because the whole thing with G2, I mean, Carlos is their CEO and he just trolls anyway, but we had to troll back after that. We can’t just let that happen with the plane. That's just crazy. We hadn’t even played them yet,” SicK said. “We had to clap back a little bit like a couple of us. I mean, it's all in good fun. I don't mind it because, again, it's just energy to feed off of for the match. So I enjoy it.”

G2 and Sentinels will have another chance to troll each other and banter on stage in their rematch Wednesday. Sentinels and G2 are in a round-robin-style group of three teams alongside F4Q since Bren Esports had to drop out due to visa issues.

Lead image credit: Riot Games