Sentinels coach shuts down roster change speculation after Valorant Champions exit

Sentinels head coach Shane ‘Rawkus’ Flaherty has rejected the possibility that the team will undergo roster changes in the offseason despite their disappointing run at Valorant Champions.

Sentinels were perhaps the biggest disappointment of Valorant Champions as they were eliminated in the group stage after losing to Team Liquid and KRÜ Esports.

The North Americans had looked unstoppable during the first half of 2021, winning a series of regional tournaments and the first LAN event in the game, VCT Stage 2 Masters in Reykjavík.

But then their flame burned out. At the VCT Stage 3 Masters in Berlin, Sentinels were sent packing in the first round of the playoffs by Envy after finishing second to G2 Esports in their group.

As Sentinels returned to Berlin for Valorant Champions, fans hoped for a better ride this time around. But the team looked disjointed and out of sorts, with Tyson ‘TenZ’ Ngo admitting that there was some rust after not playing any official matches in several months.

No roster changes for Sentinels

But despite the team’s struggles at Valorant Champions, Rawkus stressed that making player changes is off the table.

“You can clip this, f**king keep it public, there are no roster changes,” Rawkus told viewers on his stream on December 9. “Nothing is going to change.

“There is nothing that needs to be changed. We made a couple of f**k-ups in one match. That’s it. That’s all it is.”

The comments made by Rawkus, who joined Sentinels in November after leaving FaZe, are likely to calm speculation about the team’s roster for 2022. Prior to the start of Valorant Champions, in-game leader Shahzeb ‘ShahZaM’ Khan had said that this could be “the final run” for the team, hinting at starting a new chapter as a streamer.

• Read more: Valorant makes $15 million from two weapon skins with Champions bundle

Whether or not Sentinels make roster changes, the debate about the current state of the North American Valorant scene is on, especially after Liquid’s Travis ‘L1NK’ Mendoza suggested that players in NA are more worried about streaming than they are about winning.