Gab Hernandez 
Sentinels nabbed a record-shattering victory at the Madrid Masters VCT tournament by defeating Gen.G.
Valorant has had a great 2024 so far. On top of the release of its latest agent, a supernatural Controller named Clove, Valorant also celebrated record-high numbers in its esports division. The Madrid Masters international tournament kicked off the first of three global tournaments for the 2024 Valorant Champions Tour, with a fan-favorite team scoring an impressive first-place finish.
Masters events are among the most important of the Valorant esports season, second only to Valorant Champions which crowns the world champion each year. Winning a Masters-level tournament pushes a team very close to securing a spot in Valorant Champions and after an incredible performance in Madrid, Sentinels makes its mark on Valorant history.
Sentinels win 3-2 over Gen.G Esports at the 2024 Masters Madrid
In a close game, Sentinels overcame Gen.G Esports at the Madrid Grand Finals and takes home $250,000 as the first-place prize.
Sentinels and Gen.G dominated the Kickoffs, and fans were excited about the matchup between the two skilled teams. Gen.G got the better of Sentinels with a 13-8 win in game one before Sentinels stole a victory in game two on Bind with 14-12 to even the series. Another back-and-forth game saw Gen.G put a 13-8 win in game three over Sentinels on Ascent, but Sentinels forced a game five with a 13-10 win on Split.
The final match took place on Icebox, with the early goings seeing Gen.G and Sentinels neck-and-neck on the scoreboard. After the break, however, Sentinels demolished Gen.G with a 13-6 win, netting Sentinels the Masters Madrid championship. Gen.G took home $100,000 in second place. Meanwhile, the third placer Paper Rex bagged $65,000 and the fourth placer LOUD received $35,000.
It’s the second consecutive international event won by a North American team in Valorant, while Gen.G became the latest Pacific team to fall just short of international glory in a finals loss. No European teams managed to qualify for the event’s four-team playoff bracket, which instead featured two teams from the Americas and two from the Asia-Pacific region.
As the champions, Sentinels took home $250,000. More importantly, the team also earned points toward its qualification to the climactic Valorant Champions 2024event.
Madrid Masters finals breaks Valorant esports viewership records
The Madrid Grand Finals is the most-watched Valorant esports event to date and broke the previous record of 1.5 million from Valorant Champions 2022.
Overcoming a Valorant Champions event in viewership numbers is no small feat, and if the trend continues, Valorant Champions 2024 may beat the record with an even higher number. It didn’t hurt that two popular and credentialed organizations in Sentinels and Gen.G were the final teams standing, but it also shows a positive trend in Valorant esports as a whole.
While League of Legends is still a league of its own, budget cuts and declining interest in some markets makes it unclear what the future holds. Whether Valorant can achieve the same heights as League of Legends is another matter.
