In an interview with Sheep Esports, Sentinels CEO Rob Moore outlined their strategy for entering new esports. The American businessman discussed several possibilities, including entrance to Counter-Strike 2 and League of Legends, as well as the strategic goal of entering more new esports.
Moore first emphasised the organisation’s prioritisation of new titles, stating, “When a new title comes out, we try to be the first to go in. That’s what we have done with Marvel Rivals, and the team we built is already one of the most well-known.” The Sentinels are currently competing in Marvel Rivals Ignite Season 1, having won MRC Season 1 to qualify.
The overall strategy seems to be to exploit relatively cheap opportunities to become a dominant name in a market, echoing their success as a forerunner in Valorant, the game that has made them a household name.
Despite that, the Sentinels’ CEO also gave his thoughts on the well-established scenes of CS2 and League of Legends. Revealing that Counter-Strike was the most discussed prospective esport to join internally, stating, “It’s probable that we go in, maybe in 2026 or 2027. But if we do, it will be with a true North American ambition.”
For League of Legends, the original esport of the Sentinels organisation, Sheep Esports states that Moore is “evaluating the opportunities offered by the guest spot,” whereby the Sentinels could enter the LTA without having to pay a franchise fee.
LTA’s guest spots explained
LTA’s North and South divisions each have one guest spot, meaning there is one non-partnered team. Disguised and Isurus Estral (who have since split with Isurus, retaining the LTA South spot) are the initial teams for each division, but they will have to contest a Promotion/Relegation tournament at the end of the year.
The guest spots are some of the few global opportunities to break into League of Legends tier one without paying for a partner spot, making it a relatively cheap pathway to the top of the League of Legends competitive scene.
For that reason, Caedrel has also expressed interest in pursuing the LTA guest spot for Los Ratones, after repeatedly asserting that the org will not pay for a franchise spot.
The downside of that promotion pathway is that any guest team is required to face the potential of relegation. regardless of how well they do in the LTA. The LTA Promotion tournaments are contested between the guest team and four of the top teams of LTA’s regional Challenger Leagues. So while there is no partner fee, there is no guarantee of future LTA participation without a fight.
For Sentinels, they may view that risk as ultimately worth the discount for entry to League of Legends tier one.
Could Sentinels be saviours of North American Counter-Strike?
While Sentinels obviously have enthusiasm for Counter-Strike, assembling a competitive roster will be challenging.
In HLTV’s top 20 players of 2024, only Jonathan ‘EliGE’ Jablonowski represented NA. With NA rosters, without exception, struggling at the recent BLAST.tv Austin Major, there is very little hope in the air for North American Counter-Strike. Frankly, it’s hard to imagine an ambitious American core without breaking the bank on established stars.
The good news is that the Sentinels, as an organisation, have a good basis to enter Counter-Strike from a community perspective. Several of their current and former players are/were Counter-Strike players, including Tyson ‘TenZ’ Ngo, Jordan ‘Zellsis’ Montemurro, and Tarik ‘tarik’ Celik, linking the brand to the game.
tarik especially, as the MVP of the ELEAGUE Boston Major 2018, where Cloud9 won NA’s one and only CSGO major, could be a valuable asset as a co-streamer and promoter of the prospective team.
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Darragh Harbinson is an esports writer specialising in Counter-Strike. He has written for Esports News UK, Esports Insider, UKCSGO, Dexerto, and Rush B Media.
