Hello! Librarian Husky here. The current meta that’s gaining momentum is becoming incredibly challenging to counter, and players have been grappling with aspects of it for quite some time. This strategy, known as the Turtle Meta or Double Sentinel Meta, is particularly strong, and with the arrival of a new Sentinel, Vice, on the horizon, this composition is only set to grow stronger and more popular among players.

Cypher’s Increasing Power in the Meta

Cypher has seen a significant rise in power in the current meta, particularly on maps like Sunset, where he places tripwires that are incredibly hard to counter unless you walk directly into them. This can be especially frustrating when your team lacks the proper tools or utility to break his traps effectively.

For example, if you have agents like Raze or Sova on your team, they can be extremely helpful in destroying Cypher’s trips, which can clear the way for a site execution.

However, in the chaotic nature of ranked games, it’s not uncommon for your teammates to ignore calls or neglect to destroy the utility, leaving you at a disadvantage. In some situations, your team might even be running a composition that lacks the necessary abilities to handle Cypher’s traps altogether.

Counteracting Cypher’s Strong Utility

If you find yourself up against Cypher’s overwhelming utility, the best approach is to understand that Sentinels, in general, are designed to punish overly aggressive plays. They capitalize on teams that don’t maintain map control effectively, so it’s crucial to keep control over as many angles as possible…

Controlling Mid to Counter Sentinel Setups

Taking control of mid can make a significant difference. It allows you to support your teammates as they push the site, even if they get caught by Cypher’s tripwires. By controlling areas where enemies rely on their utility, you’re able to weaken their setups. This emphasizes the need for a concerted effort to control mid and disrupt the Sentinel’s utility setups.

Avoiding the Trap of Switching Sites

In lower elos, a common mistake is to abandon a site once players encounter a strong Cypher or Killjoy setup. However, this often results in the opposing team reinforcing the other site, creating an even bigger challenge. Allowing a single Sentinel setup to block an entire site hands the enemy team a major advantage they shouldn’t have.

The Importance of Patience

One critical factor when dealing with slow, methodical Sentinel setups is patience. You need to cultivate the right amount of patience to tackle these defensive strategies effectively. Rushing in or getting frustrated will often lead to being trapped, so it’s vital to remain calm and calculated.

Strategies to Break Sentinel Setups

Breaking through a Sentinel setup is challenging, but by carefully identifying key utility positions on the map, you can slowly gain control over other sections. Once you’ve established dominance over certain areas, it’s crucial to execute rapidly, assisting your teammates in escaping from traps or covering them. This coordinated effort is often the key to breaking apart a heavily fortified Sentinel defense.

The Impact of Overcoming Sentinel Utility

When a team demonstrates the ability to overcome the utility of a Sentinel, whether it’s Cypher or Killjoy, it can completely shift the momentum of the game. Successfully dismantling their setups can change the entire landscape of the match, making it easier to gain control.

The Advantages of Breaking Through Sentinel Defenses

Consistently losing to a Sentinel by switching to the other site without trying to challenge them leaves your team at a significant disadvantage. However, once you successfully break through their defenses and capture the site they were guarding, it forces the enemy team to provide additional support there, weakening their hold on the opposite site. This strategic breakthrough can shift the balance of the game in your favor, making your future executes smoother and less contested.

Leveraging Game Sense to Predict Enemy Rotations

Maximizing your advantage requires more than just breaking through defenses—it involves predicting enemy rotations and reading the flow of the game. Knowing when and where enemies are likely to reposition can give you a massive edge. Practicing game sense and studying pro-level strategies are great ways to improve this aspect of your play.

Dealing with Killjoy’s Unique Challenges

Killjoy presents a different challenge compared to Cypher. While Cypher’s traps are very powerful and hard to counter without specific actions, Killjoy’s utility can be dealt with, but it typically comes at a cost—whether that’s time, resources, or even health. Handling her setups can often feel like a steep hill to climb, but it’s crucial to approach them systematically.

Confronting Killjoy Utility Directly

It’s essential to face Killjoy’s utility head-on rather than simply avoiding it by rotating to another site. As mentioned earlier, the key lies in dealing with her turret and other tools. Spending time at the beginning of each round to clear her utility with your team reduces her ability to gather information about your movements, even if your actual intention is to attack a different site.

Forcing Rotations by Destroying Utility

Taking out Killjoy’s utility early in the round not only forces the enemy team to adjust but also gives you more flexibility later. For instance, if you’re playing on Ascent and you know Killjoy is set up on B, you can destroy her turret and utility before rotating off. This limits her influence and puts you in a better position for the rest of the round.

Advantages of Early Utility Destruction

By clearing utility early, you gain more control over the game. Even if your attack on the other site gets messy and you lose players, the absence of Killjoy’s setup on the initial site can open opportunities for those clutch moments when you rotate back. The remaining players won’t have to deal with as much utility, giving you a stronger position to win those critical rounds.

The Core Strength of Sentinel Characters

Ultimately, the true power of Sentinels lies in their setups. Their abilities allow them to stall and control space effectively, but their utility is also what makes them vulnerable if systematically dismantled. Understanding this balance is key to overcoming their stronghold on the game.

Exploiting Sentinel Weaknesses Through Teamwork

One of the major flaws Sentinels have is their lack of effective retake tools. They don’t possess flashes or abilities to isolate players. Instead, their kits rely on stall-based utility, which controls space and slows the pace of the round. If your team can work together to dismantle this utility—whether it’s three, four, or five players focusing on destroying a Killjoy turret—you can minimize damage and clear it efficiently. This forces the opposing team to adjust their strategy, putting them in a more tactically uncomfortable position.

Importance of Dealing with Sentinel Utility Early

Dealing with Sentinel utility early in each round is essential. You can’t afford to get complacent during the initial phase of the round. In the first 10 to 20 seconds, it’s crucial to focus on clearing out their setups. Too many players neglect this process, only to end up consistently walking into predictable traps. When you fail to counter these setups early, you’re essentially losing the round without even being outplayed—just falling into the same strategy repeatedly. It’s not about who has better aim, but about who takes control of the game’s utility management.

Rise of Double Sentinel Compositions

Double Sentinel compositions are becoming increasingly popular, with Cypher and Deadlock being used on maps like Abyss. With the introduction of Vice, we’re about to see even more teams adopt this type of strategy. These compositions revolve around controlling large swathes of space using their utility, much like how Cypher and Killjoy dominate areas of the map.

Trading Utility to Counter Sentinels

Successfully countering Sentinels requires dedication and the smart use of your own utility. It might involve using flashes or other abilities to break through Sentinel traps. However, these trades are often worth it. Exchanging your utility to disable their setups ensures that you get to engage in fair gunfights, rather than being caught by their traps without a chance to respond. Ultimately, trading resources to deny their utility gives you an edge in neutral engagements.

Controlling Mid and Other Angles

Mid control and having access to multiple angles are key to defeating Sentinels. Attacking in a straight line makes it easier for Sentinels to lock you down. But when you attack from different angles, they must either divide their utility between multiple lanes or reposition to more passive spots, reducing their ability to play aggressively. This opens up opportunities for your team to break through at weaker points in their setup.

Summary: Dealing with Sentinel Utility

In conclusion, countering Sentinel utility in the Turtle meta requires strategic use of your own abilities. Don’t approach these setups blindly. Use utility to break enemy utility, and work as a team to systematically dismantle their defenses.

Investing Utility to Destroy Enemy Utility

It’s essential to recognize the value of spending your utility—whether it’s flashes, recon darts, or any other abilities—to clear out enemy setups. Destroying Sentinel utility is often a necessary investment. Coordinating as a team to eliminate these tools will allow your executes to proceed more smoothly. It’s important to have a clear communication plan in place to handle this before engaging in any other strategies.

Fighting for Control of Multiple Areas

Gaining control over different parts of the map is key to weakening the effectiveness of Sentinel setups. By attacking from multiple angles, you force their utility to be less effective, and they will have to spread their resources thin. Demonstrate to your opponents that you’re not afraid to commit to sites, even if a Sentinel has a strong setup in place. This can create pressure and force mistakes.

Exploiting Sentinels’ Weakness to Retakes

One of the most important things to understand about Sentinels is that they are inherently weak during retake situations. If you manage to push them out and force them into a retake scenario, you are already at a significant advantage. Even if both teams have exhausted their utility, the Sentinel’s job of retaking an area is much harder, which tips the scales in your favor.

Investing Utility to Destroy Enemy Utility

Don’t hesitate to use valuable utility—whether it’s flashes, information-gathering tools, or other abilities—to break the enemy’s utility setups. Investing in clearing out traps or turrets is almost always worth it. Make sure your team is communicating effectively, and handle the utility removal before proceeding with any site executes or aggressive plays.

Fighting for Control of Multiple Areas

To effectively counter Sentinels, you need to fight for control across different zones on the map. When you pressure multiple areas, the Sentinel utility becomes less potent as their setup is forced to stretch across a wider area. By doing this, you apply pressure on the enemy team and reduce the effectiveness of their defensive plans.

Exploiting Sentinels’ Weakness to Retakes

Sentinels are generally not suited for retakes. Once they’ve set up their utility, they rely on holding those positions. By forcing them into a situation where they need to retake an area, you’ve already put them at a severe disadvantage. If you’ve depleted their utility or have used your own smartly, their ability to retake becomes even more challenging, giving you a strategic edge.

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