Andbox upset Sentinels in first round of Challengers 3

Andbox upset Sentinels 2-0 in the VALORANT Champions Tour Challengers 3 tournament April 22. Sentinels will have to fight for Challengers Finals qualification in the lower bracket.

Andbox picked the Masters 1 champions apart in their first round matchup. They took Haven in overtime 15-13 and Split 13-11. They move on to face Cloud9 Blue in the upper semifinals as Sentinels move to the lower bracket to battle T1.

Do not underestimate us. Ggs @Sentinels. 2-0. pic.twitter.com/SDAmko8FxB

— NYXL (@NYXL) April 22, 2021

How Andbox upset Sentinels

Andbox have been an up-and-coming squad for awhile, but never put together a big win until now. The team just went through some roster changes that switched around the in-game leader role and added a new Duelist player. With the addition of Daniel “vice” Kim and Adam “mada” Pampuch, Andbox looked more cohesive as a squad. On Haven, the team controlled the first half on defense. They won the pistol round and snowballed that into a 7-5 half. Sentinels did the same in the second half, snowballing a pistol win into multiple rounds. Sentinels sent the game into overtime with round wins on the 23 and 24 round.

In overtime, Sebastian “seb” Bucki and Adam “mada” Pampuch were the stars. They both notched multiple kills in the final rounds to put Sentinels away. Andbox took Sentinels’ best map 15-13 and had the momentum going into the second map.

Split was a different story in the first half. Sentinels rolled over Andbox on defense thanks to Astra’s utility and Hunter “SicK” Mims’ form on Sage. Andbox came into the second half down 4-9, only four rounds away from a third map force by Sentinels. But, the team pulled through thanks to their own Sage and Raze play.

?????????????????@ShahZaMk #VCTChallengersNA pic.twitter.com/GF1qNlbpFp

— Sentinels (@Sentinels) April 22, 2021

Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker on the Sentinel, and mada on the Raze helped lead Andbox’s comeback against the North American champions. Both topped the leaderboard with a combined 49 kills. They executed well on defense and tied the game in round 20 at 10-10. Andbox then finished the series by winning the final two rounds as Sentinels closed the gap to 11 by round 22.

Andbox continues in the upper bracket while Sentinels must battle in the lower side to fight for spots at Challengers Finals and eventually Masters 2 in Iceland.