In eSports, strange things happen in Valorant : The actual superstar of the team “Sentinels” was involved in a scandal and was suspended in the middle of the season. As a replacement, the team borrowed 20-year-old Tenz and bought him before the World Championship for allegedly 1.25 million US dollars. At the World Championship, Tenz ultimately became the best player in the world.
Why do the Sentinels need a replacement in the middle of the season? The Sentinels actually started the Valorant season with an excellent team. Their star player was Jay “Sinatraa” Won (21): He had made a name for himself in Overwatch and was named the most valuable player in 2019. When Sinatraa left Overwatch and transitioned to Valorant, even Blizzard regretted it.
But with some delay, Sinatraa was caught up in a scandal in 2021: His ex-girlfriend made allegations against him, claiming he mistreated her and emotionally manipulated her during their relationship. Blizzard then severed all ties with him; his Valorant team, the Sentinels, initially placed him on the bench.
Riot Games, the creators of Valorant, initiated an investigation and ultimately suspended Sinatraa for 6 months because he could not assist in clarifying the matter as he had previously promised.
So the Sentinels needed a replacement.
Player was apparently unhappy with old team, ended career early
This was the drama surrounding the signing: The Sentinels borrowed player Tyson “TenZ” Ngo (20) from direct competitor Cloud9. The Canadian Tenz had been an excellent CS:GO player before his Valorant career. Like some other CS:GO pros, he switched to Valorant in April 2020.
However, Tenz had actually retired from professional Valorant in January 2021 and announced he wanted to become a content creator. Obviously, it was about the team, because he wanted to play for the Sentinels after all.
Starting in March 2021, Tenz replaced the suspended Sinatraa at the Sentinels as a loan player. However, Cloud9 retained the transfer rights to him.
In any case, Tenz played so well that the Sentinels wanted to sign him permanently. However, Cloud9 allegedly wanted to let him go only for a transfer fee of 2 million US dollars.
Expert Doublelift says: Cloud 9 keeps Tenz in a prison
This was the controversy: The Twitch streamer and former LoL pro Doublelift already shouted out: It can’t be that Tenz is kept hostage like this. He clearly wants to play for Sentinels.
Doublelift said: He is in a “contract prison” and Jack (the head of Cloud9) does not want to let him go.
Doublelift found it unfair: The player signed a contract at 17 to become a pro and now cannot play for the team he wants to play for.
These are the ugly sides of the pro business.
This is now the deal: As has now been revealed (via esportsobserver), the Sentinels were indeed able to buy Tenz. Allegedly, 1.25 million US dollars were paid – significantly less than the 2 million US dollars that Cloud9 previously wanted.
This is the irony: The deal was closed before the World Championship in Valorant, which took place in Iceland. At the World Championship, Tenz stepped up, dominated the tournament and was voted the best player.
The transfer proved to be a bit of a bargain for the Sentinels.
The head of Cloud9 explained: The deal was already agreed upon before Iceland (via twitter). It was a risky deal for them because they would play against the Sentinels in the qualification for Iceland, but it was important for Tenz to be able to play again.
After Tenz and the Sentinels won, the Cloud9 CEO tweeted again: “It’s a prison break,” which presumably refers to the accusation that they had put Tenz in some kind of captivity with the contract.
Maybe the Cloud9 CEO now regrets selling Tenz “so cheaply.” Apparently, Tenz was able to significantly increase his market value during the World Championship.
Tenz has attracted attention early on. We reported on MeinmMO already in the early phase of Valorant about the unusually talented player:
Twitch streamer reaches max rank in Valorant after just 30 hours, plays strong
