SEN cortezia: "This hasn't been the year I was expecting"

The start of Gabriel "cortezia" Cortez's journey with Sentinels has been far from ideal. After early eliminations from both VALORANT Champions Tour 2026 - Americas Kickoff and VALORANT Champions Tour 2026 - Americas Stage 1, the squad has now missed out on every VCT international event so far this year.

In an interview with THESPIKE Brazil, cortezia opened up about what it's like to go through these difficult moments and shared his frustrations with the team's results, which have fallen well below expectations.

“I think this hasn’t been the year I expected for myself. I really thought this year was going to be… It’s still my goal: to become a champion. And from Kickoff to Stage 1, finishing in tenth place at Kickoff and now going out again without even qualifying for playoffs, missing Masters Santiago, missing Masters London, it’s very frustrating. Really sad too, right? Being left out of the Esports World Cup 2026 roster. It hasn’t been an easy year for me so far. I think that’s very clear, that it hasn’t been easy. But it’s very frustrating, truly very frustrating.”

Sentinels Fail to Live up to Expectations

While the most recent results for Sentinels have been nothing short of disappointing, cortezia's frustrations extend beyond failing to qualify for Stage 1 playoffs. After ending the 2025 season on a very high note, the Controller player expected to have an immediate impact on his new team.

In fact, following in the footsteps of a Brazilian legend like Gustavo "Sacy" Rossi, cortezia explained that his goal when joining Sentinels was specifically to lift trophies. So far, though, things have gone in the complete opposite direction.

"I projected really big things for myself after a very good first year, ending the year as the second-best player in the world in terms of KD, and then joining Sentinels, which is the most decorated champion. We know that Sacy won here, a Brazilian, so I knew it was the place that, if I wanted to be anywhere competing for championships, it was at Sentinels. And it’s been completely the opposite. So I projected a lot of great things for this start of the year and it has literally been the opposite, a lot of low points. So it’s hard, very hard, honestly."

Fresh off the team's early exit from Stage 1, cortezia didn't shy away from how difficult this moment was for him on a personal level: "I’m really trying to find the words right now to express myself properly and give you a worthy interview, but what’s going through my head is very difficult, very difficult."

No changes on the horizon

Despite the poor run of form and a string of early eliminations, Sentinels is not expected to make any roster changes for the time being. According to cortezia, there simply is not enough time for the North American organization to carry out another roster rebuild. And besides, he also feels confident in his belief that it is “only a matter of time” before the current roster is able to find success.

“I believe there won’t be any changes because we have the EWC in such a short amount of time. Thinking about bringing in a new player like that… Sentinels no longer has an Academy team. I think that if they still had the Academy, it would be a much smarter move and something worth considering. But with the tournament being so close, we really are showing improvement, and this time I don’t think changes are going to happen. Not just because of me, but because of the rest of the team. We have a good group, man. It’s a group that likes each other a lot, works very hard, everyone is very hardworking. I honestly think it’s only a matter of time for this Sentinels roster, this current lineup we have, to become a good team.”

After being eliminated from the VCT Americas 2026 Stage 1, Sentinels and cortezia return to the VALORANT server this Tuesday (May 12) for the Americas qualifier for the Esports World Cup 2026. The organization will face Evil Geniuses in their opening match, which is scheduled to begin at 5 pm PT.

You can find the complete video interview with cortezia in the original Portuguese below:

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