Two of the biggest names in Valorant have officially joined forces for the upcoming VCT North American Last Chace Qualifier in August.

Sentinels, one of the most popular Valorant teams in the world, has signed former CS:GO pro and world-renowned streamer Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek as their fifth member.

Shroud has been out of the competitive FPS scene since his retirement from CS:GO in 2018 to become a full-time streamer and content creator.

Shroud will replace Sentinels’ flex player, Hunter “SicK” Mims, for the upcoming VCT NA LCQ. According to the team’s in-game leader, Shahzeb “ShaZaM” Khan, SicK is still unable to play after an undisclosed family emergency that occurred in June.



Shroud comes out of retirement to join Sentinels Valorant roster for the VCT NA LCQ

Shroud signs with Sentinels for VCT NA LCQ
Credit: Shroud

Sentinels released a short recorded interview with Shroud explaining how their partnership came about.

The 28-year-old said that he made his decision to join Sentinels Valorant roster in the spur-of-the-moment. “I’m itching to try competing again and Valorant’s something new, and I want to see how I can fair in something new rather than going back to what I already know,” he said.

The way Sentinels played is what piqued Shroud’s interest. “They remind me of my team in Counter-Strike,” he said. “The style and igl-ing that’s done within that team and the way they play together. It just reminds me of how we played. I’d imagine even just their personalities resemble my experience in the past.”

The popular Twitch streamer was referring to his time playing under Cloud9’s CS:GO roster from 2014 to 2017. In his last year of competitive CS:GO, Cloud9 finished as the runner-up at ESL One Cologne 2017. The team included Jordan “n0thing” Gilbert, Tyler “Skadoodle” Latham, Jacky “Stewie2K” Yip, and Timothy “autimatic” Ta.

A year after ESL One Cologne 2017, Shroud immersed himself in PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, which opened the doors to his streaming career. He later became one of the biggest streamers in the world, amassing 10 million followers on Twitch.

Shroud addressed the biggest question on everyone’s mind regarding his return to esports.

“I’m not committing to this LCQ half-assed. I’m going to boot camp,” he said. “I’m going to be playing Valorant every day. I’m not going to be touching anything else. The big one is that I’m going to try my absolute best to not let anyone down, my fans, the Sentinel fans, and I’m just giving my all.”

Shroud also shared that he wants to play the controller role on most maps. But if a teammate is more comfortable playing Viper, he might flex into another role.

The former CS:GO pro’s expectations are to win the VCT NA LCQ, but his personal goal is to just play well and to return to the stage to play in front of a crowd again.

“I would hate to put in all this effort and drop the ball,” he said. “I don’t think I will. It can happen, it could just be a couple of matches and that could be the end of it, but I really don’t want that. I really want to take the LCQ.”



Sentinels Valorant roster

  • Shahzeb “ShahZaM” Khan (in-game leader)
  • Michael “dapr” Gulino
  • Tyson “TenZ” Ngo
  • Eric “Kanpeki” Xu
  • Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek
  • Hunter “SicK” Mims (inactive)
  • Shane “Rawkus” Flaherty (coach)

The VCT NA LCQ will take place in August with the eight North American teams with the most VCT circuit points that are vying to qualify for Valorant Champions Istanbul will compete against one another. The winning team will punch their ticket to Riot Games’ Valorant world championship at the end of the year.

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