Sentinels’ VALORANT team may have a new coach behind them in time for the North American VCT Challengers One playoffs, according to their in-game leader ShahZaM.

The North Americans have been searching for a new skipper since they parted ways with RawJCs on Feb. 26. Multiple sources told Dot Esports on March 8 the team was practicing with different coaches and that Overwatch player Luis “iRemiix” Galarza Figueroa was one of the candidates.

During ShahZam’s latest VALORANT stream, one viewer asked if the search for a coach was going better than before and the in-game leader was candid about it.

“Hopefully we are locking him in before playoffs,” ShahZam said. “We are trying to lock him in before playoffs. We have a coach, we just couldn’t have him locked in before this match [likely referring to their match against Version1 on March 13].”

RawJCs was Sentinels’ first VALORANT head coach. The organization brought him on loan from FaZe Clan in November 2021 to see if he could help the squad get out of their slump prior to VALORANT Champions in December. The 27-year-old, however, did not have much impact on the team. Sentinels failed to advance to the playoffs after an upset defeat to KRÜ Esports.

The playoffs of NA VCT Challengers One will kick off this Thursday, March 17. Sentinels will play The Guard on Friday for a spot in the upper bracket semifinals. They finished the group stage with a 3-2 victory, with victories over NRG, Knights, and Rise, and losses to OpTic Gaming and Version1.