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Sentinels part ways with head coach after underwhelming start to 2023 – VALORANT

Sentinels head coach Don “SyykoNT” Muir has been cut from the starting squad in the midst of their participation at the VCT 2023: Americas League, with Adam “kaplan” Kaplan picking up the helm as the VALORANT competition nears its halfway mark.

Sentinels CEO Rob Moore shared the following statement via social media platform Twitter on April 16th:

Former VALORANT head coach SyykoNT
Former VALORANT head coach SyykoNT

“We have come to the difficult decision to part ways with Don @SyykoNT Muir. Adam @itskaplan Kaplan will be stepping in as head coach effective immediately.”

Sadly for Sentinels fans, the decision was a difficult one, as SyykoNT was definitely beloved by the community. Nevertheless, results come first for any organization, with Sentinels deciding Kaplan was the right choice for the job, thus being instituted immediately in the roster.

As for the reasoning behind this sack, the community was left in the shadows. Of course underwhelming performances is a major factor around the situation, however the rapid change was unexpected especially in the middle of their competitive season. As of the moment Moore has not provided direct clarification or reasoning behind the sudden change.

SykkoNT signed with the organization back in October 2022 with the philosophy to “build a VALORANT super team” (in his words). During his coaching stint, the roster only managed to win 2 out of 7 series.

Sentinels have always been considered a top tier organization, thus expectations are always sky high. A string of underperformance has shown to be more than enough for management to step in and steady the ship. The current Sentinels lineup has officially won just 2 out of their last 15 games, with 7 map wins out of 34.

SykkoNT’s track record was a decent one, with the American previously sporting the XSET jersey as head coach of their VALORANT roster for 2 years. With his most notable achievement being a 5-6 finish at VALORANT Champions 2022, a respectable outcome for an organization with less resources than Sentinels.

As for Kaplan, he has coached a plethora of Tier 2 VALORANT squads, with him recently being a member of Sentinels as an assistant coach. The most notable organizations he has been a part of are: Ghost Gaming, Spacestation Gaming and Ghostbusters.

With Sentinels’ VCT 2023: Americas League still afloat, there’s the possibility this roster switch could be what is needed for them to get back on track. However it is important to take into account not only the new head coach is under pressure, as now the roster has no excuses to perform badly after the sacking of their previous head coach.

The VALORANT team is set to get back into action next weekend, on April 21st.

Don’t miss out on the rest of our content as we’ll be covering VALORANT information plus other tournaments and sharing our esports picks with you!

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