Sentinels Finalize VCT Roster With “SicKth” Man

Sentinels are the first team to publicly announce their complete, six man roster as required by Riot Games. Read more about the complete 2023 Sentinels VALORANT roster here.

Sentinels Finalize VCT Roster With “SicKth” Man

Despite joining the roster frenzy a bit later than some of the other partnered North American teams, Sentinels are officially the first team to complete their roster. While teams like Cloud9 and 100 Thieves found their five starters weeks ago, Sentinels is the only team to announce a complete, six man roster in accordance with Riot Games guidelines.

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What Are the New VCT Roster Guidelines?

Per Riot’s official Roster Construction Rules, partnered teams are “required to maintain, at all times during the VCT Competitive Season, a total competitive roster of no less than six (6) Team Members.” While the rules go on to include that teams can have a maximum of ten players, the six man minimum sets an unprecedented roster requirement teams have never had to uphold before.

Prior to these rules, no professional VALORANT team has ever had more than five players on their active roster. Teams have not bothered to spend the extra money on a sixth player because the game only allows five players from each team to play at once.

Additionally, the rarity of esports injuries and absences makes signing an additional player of starting-level capability a poor investment. At the same time, finding a player who can compete at the top level of play who would simultaneously agree to sit the bench is very difficult. In the past, teams have resolved absences by purchasing players on loans from other teams. Historically, teams have only taken players out on a loan to play with them for extended periods of time.

While this is not always the case, players on long loan periods tend to join the rosters they are loaned to. Sentinels’s very own franchise player Tyson “TenZ” Ngo, who recently re-signed with the organization for the 2023 season, was originally a part of Sentinels roster through a loan from Cloud9. Once the team made their mark on the VALORANT international scene, Sentinels bought out the remainder of Ngo’s contract with Cloud9 and made him a permanent member of their roster.

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The “SicKth” Man

Despite it being widely known through leaks that he would be joining the team, Sentinels finally announced the last starting member of their roster on October 18th: Rory “dephh” Jackson. The former XSET star joins Ngo, one of his old teammates Zachary “zekken” Patrone, and two of the 2022 VCT Champions champions: Gustavo “Sacy” Rossi and Bryan “pANcada” Luna. With their full five man roster announced, the status of the two remaining players on their roster from 2022, Mims and Michael “dapr” Gulino, was up in the air.

Just one day after announcing Jackson’s signing, Sentinels jokingly posted on their social media pages the following message: “Competitive Update: We will not be fielding a 6th man on our roster for the upcoming VCT 2023 season.”

Of course, with Riot Games’s rules making it very clear that a sixth man was required, Sentinels followed that message with the announcement of their sixth man just hours later. With the status of both Mims and Gulino still unclear, Sentinels settled the dispute by announcing that the sixth—but not necessarily “final”—member of their team would be “The SicKth Man: SicK.”

Despite being absent from the competitive scene for months since his departure for mental health reasons in May of this year, Sentinels have elected to sign Mims as their sixth team member. Although it is unlikely that Gulino will remain with the team as a seventh member, his status remains unknown. Because Riot Games permits up to ten players on a single roster, there is room for him; however, the sixth member of each team will seldom—if ever—play in a match, making the need for a seventh player practically nonexistent.