Zekken Left Sentinels for a Superteam. It's Starting to Look Right.

MIBR opened Americas Stage 2 by losing to NRG. Two series later, they're the only team besides Leviatán with a perfect week two, both wins 2-0 sweeps, and zekken just dropped a 30-kill game to close one of them out. That's not the story week one was telling.

I wasn't sold on this roster when zekken left Sentinels for it. Three years, a Kickoff title, a Masters Madrid trophy, all traded for a seat next to aspas on a team that's rebuilt itself around him. Superteams are the easiest thing in Valorant to get wrong on paper. Chemistry doesn't show up in a highlight reel, and an 0-1 start to the stage was exactly the kind of thing that lets you keep hedging.

The ENVY Sweep Was the Real Tell

Beating FURIA in overtime is good theater. Conceding seven total rounds to ENVY across two maps, 13-4 on Haven and 13-3 on Sunset, is a statement. That's not a team finding its footing, that's a team that already knows what it's doing to people. zekken wasn't even the loudest name in that series. Mazino and Verno were cleaning up rounds behind him the whole way.

Is FURIA the Bar or the Floor?

FURIA gave MIBR its first real fight of the week, dragging Haven to overtime before folding. zekken's answer was to go off for 30 kills and end the conversation. Is that the ceiling of this roster, or just what a stacked lineup does to a team still finding its Stage 2 legs? I lean toward the second one. FURIA's had a rough stretch, and MIBR hasn't been tested yet by the Leviatáns and 100 Thieves of the region.

Still, 0-1 to a perfect week is exactly the stretch that makes you stop hedging on a roster this loaded. I was wrong to wait this long on it.