?Sentinels will clash with Rise on Wednesday in what promises to be a one-sided affair. Seeing Rise priced as high as $7.90 to cause an upset isn’t too surprising if you consider how dominant Sentinels have been over the year.

Sentinels haven’t placed worse than second in a single tournament so far in 2021. What’s more, they are unbeaten across the last five VCT tournament finals, including a 3-0 sweep of Fnatic at VCT Masters Reyjkavik in May.

Rise have had some success over the year and have done well against other heavyweights, but Sentinels are an entirely different beast and should be too much to handle for Kevin “poised” Ngo and his crew. Take the favourites with a round handicap.

?On Thursday, Team Envy announced the signing of Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker, who should add plenty of firepower to a team that seems to have had everything but that. Yay was the star player on his former roster and was the main reason why Andbox achieved much more than they were supposed to.

TSM have had a very shaky season but showed some life earlier this month when they won VCT 2021 North America Stage 3 Challengers 2. Although on paper that looks a solid showing from James “hazed” Cobb’s squad, we aren’t convinced.

TSM have been mediocre throughout the year, and one good tourney doesn’t change the fact that they’re hardly more than a top-five team in the North American Valorant scene. This should be a closely contested match, and while Envy might edge out a win, we like a bet on over 2.5 maps better.

?XSET enter the playoffs as a team to watch. Although they haven’t won any tournaments of late, they took a map off Sentinels (1-2) last month during the Challengers 1 winner semi-finals and achieved the same feat in the grand finals (1-3).

Luminosity Gaming made one of the biggest roster chances in the region last month when they picked up Joseph “ban” Seungmin and Will “dazzLe” Loafman. The duo quickly found their place in the team, helping Luminosity finish third at VCT 2021 North America Stage 3 Challengers 2.

Luminosity have the potential to be great, but they are still growing into their shoes and are not quite there yet. It won’t be easy, but XSET can get it done in two maps.

?100 Thieves stand out as one of the few North Americans Valorant esports teams that have remained unchanged since early 2021. Their only roster change happened in February when they swapped out Quan “dicey” Tran for Ethan “Ethan” Arnold.

Although the synergy is there, you have to question the consistency of Joshua “steel” Nissan and Spencer “Hiko” Martin. While the esports veterans might struggle to deliver day in and day out, 100T can always count on their star player, Peter “Asuna” Mazuryk.

Much like 100 Thieves, FaZe Clan have the tools to be one of the region’s best Valorant teams, but they lack the consistency to make it to the top. This is a very streaky team, so it might be worth betting on them in the next round if they make it past this stage; however, 100T look too strong heading into this match for us to side against them.