With the season on the road and a frightening however doable path to the VCT Americas 2023 playoffs forward of Sentinels, the VALORANT workforce’s younger sensation has proven up massive previously two matches after a tough midseason stoop.
Zachary “zekken” Patrone has led the way in which for his workforce on the scoreboard previously two matches, together with his finest general sequence of the 12 months in what was a must-have win for Sentinels against KRU on Could 14. Zekken didn’t permit KRU’s first win of the 12 months to come back at Sentinels’ expense, notching a +14 Okay/D, a 283 ACS, and a server excessive 92 p.c KAST p.c (kill, help, commerce, survive). This adopted a powerful private efficiency towards EG in what was in any other case a dismal loss for Sentinels.
Nevertheless it hasn’t been the whole star-making season for Zekken. The turnaround got here after a brutal loss to the now unquestionably good Cloud9 workforce, in what was considered one of Zekken’s worst video games of his younger profession: -13 Okay/D, -10 in opening duels, and a 143 ACS. The match was arguably worse than his LOCK//IN efficiency towards Fnatic and got here on the heels of some good however not nice exhibiting towards NRG, LOUD, and Leviatán (aside from an outstanding Sova sport versus LEV on Ascent).
The stoop in the course of the season can hardly be positioned on his shoulders alone, although. Sentinels have needed to navigate position modifications and training modifications amidst three different versions of the roster; no different workforce in all three VCT leagues has been modified drastically this a lot over the break up. Whereas TenZ was gone, zekken needed to play extra Jett too, a duelist he’s not as comfy on.
Associated: Sentinels coach Kaplan on the team’s comms, TenZ’s return, and more
Nonetheless, he’s been in a position to appropriate the course, one thing former coach Syyko mentioned he labored on with zekken following the aforementioned Fnatic sport in Brazil. On prime of taking a look at what went incorrect in that sport particularly, Syyko mentioned the workforce labored with zekken to have the ability to determine when a nasty begin to a sport may worsen, and “course appropriate” to “a extra profitable particular person efficiency.”
Zekken clearly has retained these classes and been in a position to keep heading in the right direction throughout all of the Sentinels modifications this 12 months. No matter what occurs with this season, the workforce needs to be completely happy about their long-term prospects with a assured zekken on the roster.
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