Luminosity Gaming Upsets Sentinels in VALORANT Series
In a surprising upset, Luminosity Gaming defeated Sentinels in the grand finals of the Nerd Street Gamers Winter Championship earlier this month. The VALORANT series went to five matches, with Luminosity ultimately coming out on top and winning $15,000.
Both teams put up a strong fight, with the series even going into overtime on Icebox. However, Luminosity managed to secure the tiebreaker and claim victory.
While some teams might ride this high into the VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT), Luminosity’s Alex “aproto” Protopapas knows that there’s still room for improvement. He recognizes that beating Sentinels is great, but they need to continue to perform well against teams of similar caliber.
Despite their recent success, aproto remains grounded and doesn’t want to get complacent with just one tournament victory. There are still unanswered questions, such as their limited experience as a team and the performance of stand-ins YaBoiDre and moose. They have yet to face some of North America’s strongest teams.
However, Luminosity has been making progress and gaining confidence. Coach Benjamin “trainer” Bravo believes that patching up small mistakes during practice and ensuring players are on the right agents has contributed to their success.
During the series against Sentinels, Luminosity made interesting agent choices, including players taking turns playing Omen. This allowed them to accommodate player preferences and team needs. The coach sees this as a step towards solidifying set agents on every map and further improving their performance.
Communication played a crucial role in Luminosity’s victory, as they made sure to stay connected and focused even when losing. Their mechanics and aim were also on display, with aproto’s impressive play on Ascent’s B site standing out.
With the VALORANT Champions Tour on the horizon, Luminosity knows they have areas to work on, such as consistency and communication. However, as a young team with promise, they are off to a strong start.