SEN Kaplan talks about the growing pains of Sentinels Valorant
Sentinels are the poster team for North America. With multiple content creators like Tarik, Aceu, 39Daph, Sentinels has the biggest following of any NA Valorant team. After the shaky split which had roster changes, coaching staff changes and Marved coming in. Sentinels still came into the LCQ as the heavy favorites to win. In the very first game, they faced 100 Thieves. In an intense best of three maps series, Sentinels were able to pull ahead and won the series 2-1 after an underwhelming map 1 loss. Strafe sat down with Sentinel's coach Adam “Kaplan” Kaplan for an exclusive interview. In an exclusive one on one interview SEN Kaplan talks about the 100 Thieves win, growing pains for Sentinels and more
Q. Congratulations on your win. How are you feeling about the win?
SEN Kaplan: “Thank you. I am feeling great. We had some troubled but in the end we came out on top”
Q. You had an amazing first half on Pearl, but on post-plants you guys were caught off-guard a lot. What do you think was going wrong on Pearl post-plants?
SEN Kaplan: “So there’s obviously some stuff we could do some stuff differently but I am happy with our fast plays and I think we just needed to be just more relaxed in the post plants. I think we were too excited because there was a match. We sounded very different than we have in practice in the last two months and it affected the way we play post plants in terms of playing together.
Q. Did you address that before the second game?
SEN Kaplan: “I told them, we just have to calm down. And we have looked incredible for a long time and it’s just another day of Valorant. And we need to make it sound like a scrim in order to play like a scrim. So I just asked everyone to start loosening up and start having fun making jokes and calling each other out when they start to sound too excited and especially loading in when we saw their comp I told them I want you to be really relaxed and not worried about anything this half and I was we would win in defense no matter the scoreline and use the half to relax, sound relax and whatever happens we are going to win the map.”
Q. Did you expect the Chamber on Split and then Yoru on Bind from 100 Thieves?
SEN Kaplan: “I thought it was very likely they’d play a Chamber on Split. And again I was really confident about how we’d play against the Chamber on Split. But I did not expect the Yoru on Bind at all. I would’ve never guessed in a million years that they’d also play it on the map.”
Q. You’d face Cloud9 in your next game. How’d you prepare for them?
SEN Kaplan: “It’s really difficult to prepare against any team when there has been such a long break. I know that those players are really confident playing multiple roles and agents and being flexible and I know mCe and qpert are the type of staff to cook up comps and play the game their own way and switch things up. So if there is any team that would switch things up between the split and the LCQ in the entire tournament I’d expect that from them the most. So I don’t think there is a lot of prep we can do. So mostly just planning to continue to play our game, sticking to the game plan we made in the last two months and being self aware of what we have shown.”
Q. Any specific player you would ask your team to look out for?
SEN Kaplan: “No I am lucky to coach such a stacked roster and I would know my players would hold their own against any player”
Q. What do you think was the biggest concern you had to address as a team before coming into the LCQ?
SEN Kaplan: “I think it was just really hard to get on our feet. We had Brazilian Visas so we couldn’t start practice until January. We were flying out to Brazil to play LOCK//IN. We were dealing with a meta that I don’t think anyone expected with the comps LOUD started playing. We had a lot to figure out in terms of team chemistry, roles and so on and we had very little breathing room to grind that out.
So we had to keep trying things just to try to get a match win each week. Now we had two months, and especially with drewspark as coaching staff, we were able to look at okay we have two months, how do we want to proceed, where do we want to go with the team and the roles and what kinda style of comps and play we want to play, we had a really clear vision, from the moment we walked out of the game playing with FURIA. And it helped a lot being able to know what we are going to work on for two months straight”
Q. What do you want to address before the game against Cloud9?
SEN Kaplan: “Yeah just reiterating that’s it’s just another scrim, another game. And I would rather we figure out and run into this problem and conquer it right now rather than a really important grand finals or best of three where we are a little less confident about winning map two and three. Just want to reiterate that you guys were able to control it and sound great, just instead of doing it in the middle of the game and start like that”
Q. Was there a particular reason Zekken is the primary Duelist/Jett operator on Pearl?
SEN Kaplan: “I absolutely love TenZ Op. But I also think Zekken has a great op. Outside of the op, I love Zekken as a duelist, he is most comfortable in his comms and playmaking as a duelist, calling asking for support. And certainly throughout the year, it has become obvious that TenZ is more comfortable and talkative as a second in type player and as a support. So even though he has a legendary Jett that he has been for years. In my observation of the player strengths is that I would rather have Zekken the solo duelist then TenZ the support when possible”
Q. Who is currently IGLing for Sentinels?
SEN Kaplan: “It is Marved”
Q. What was the thought process behind choosing Marved over Sacy as the IGL?
SEN Kaplan: “As somebody who has stepped into IGL’ing myself, and done it in my own career and stepping into a leader as coach. I have learnt a simple fact about leadership which is that the first and most important ingredient is a willingness to do it. And it takes a lot of work and it is a selfless job. Marved was the most eager to give a try, which was a great starting point and he has not disappointed yet so don’t fix what ain’t broke.”
Q. Any conclusive notes or a word for the fans?
SEN Kaplan: “Umm No. Thank you to all the fans who are being patient with us. I know it has been a really bumpy league split from us. I am confident we would continue to show the team we are capable of being, with some time and hardwork.”
Q. Who do you think would be your toughest opponent in the rest of the tournament?
SEN Kaplan: “Cloud9”
After the 100T win, Sentinels lost to Cloud9 in the upper semifinals. In the Lower bracket round 1, Sentinels played Leviatan and lost. With the loss to Leviatan, Sentinel’s VCT 2023 journey comes to an end. Despite the mixed results, Sentinels remained the heavy favorites throughout the tournament. You can follow the updates regarding the same on VCT NA twitter.
Credits: Riot Games // VCT Americas
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