After winning their opening playoff game here at the Skyesports Champions Series Chennai LAN Playoff, we had a fantastic opportunity to chat with the owner of Velocity Gaming, Manoj Kasyap, aka VLT Sentinel.
As a huge Keanu Reeves and Matrix fan, Manoj sir chose to go with Sentinel as his in-game nick to play professional CS 1.5, 1.6 back in 2006, which has stuck with him till now.
Initially, Sentinel decided to start streaming. Still, it did not fulfill his cravings. With no support or infrastructure for his professional career, he resolved to create an organization where he would provide his team with proper infrastructure and the support staff a Tier 1 organization should have.
He also resumed streaming, playing Valorant, ensuring he’s always in touch with the current meta, understanding the game and how the agents play, how compositions work, and why they work. This is an excellent initiative by an owner to support his team.
With the organization now completing almost two years, Sentinel has major plans for the organization. They hired content creators with a plan to build a content house that didn’t flourish since the team’s location for the future is uncertain.
Sentinel mentioned they also contemplated having an international roster back in the day but decided to go with an Indian lineup instead. They recently added Indonesian Andi Andana “Sleepy” Bangsawan to get international exposure and an outsider’s perspective.
Commenting on the Indian Gaming Scene, Sentinel commented on how now, with cheaper gaming gear, there has been an influx of exceptional Valorant Talent in the country. With Riot displaying active interest in the region, we need to be patient, and we will grow as a region.
You can listen to the full interview here:
Sentinel also talked about the uncertainty of an Esports Career and advised the upcoming talent always to have a backup plan if they fail to make it in Valorant. While also saying an international win from an Indian Organization would shed light on the whole scene and reduce the social stigma, which would take 5-7 years.
Commenting on the Indian Gaming Scene, Sentinel said, “Given enough exposure, We’d definitely perform.”, This implies that Indian teams would do better at playing and adapting to the teams given enough practice and exposure to international competition.
The teams have already started scrimming against strong SEA teams like AlterEgo, FullSense, Action PH, etc., and Velocity Gaming especially does well in the scrims. They also wish to scrim other strong teams like Paper Rex, Bleed, Crazy Racoons, etc., and eventually face them in an official game and hopefully win.
Talking about the foundation of Velocity Gaming, Sentinel mentioned how he treats the team and the content creators as a family, similar to how S8ul is. He also mentioned how he looked upto Goldy Bhai and Thug from S8ul and had a chat with them while setting up Velocity Gaming.
On asked about who he wants to see in the finals, he wishes it’s them vs. Global Esports. While also said that he’d be happy to see any South Asian team winning and making a deep run in Stage 2 VCT APAC challengers.
In the concluding note, he instructed his team to keep on the momentum and how Skyesports fulfilled his dream of seeing his team on the billboard, making him happy. Today, velocity gaming would have to play Full Power Gaming in an elimination game. Skyesports Champions Series has four days of action remaining, with today being the tournament’s third day.
