When Sentinels announced that Jay “sinatraa” Won was suspended a few days before the VALUING Champions Tour NA Masters tournament, fans feared the worst for the squad. But then the organization revealed that Tyson “TenZ” Ngo would step up a day before his first match.
VALORANT fans were already excited, as TenZ has been a popular streamer of VALORANT for a while, breaking all sorts of American records in Riot’s tactical shooter. And now that Sentinels eliminated Luminosity 2-0 without much time to analyze, it looks like there are only major improvements for the talented team.
TenZ spoke to InvenGlobal about competing in a major tournament with little practice, what it took to beat Luminosity and how long he thinks he will remain on the roster.
How did he feel signed to the main roster of the Sentinels so suddenly before a major tournament?
The Sentinels arrived three days ago. We didn’t know for sure if they would still allow me to play. Sentinels had to get the C9 deal to give in to me. We basically finished it like yesterday.
I did want to play. Playing professional is a lot of fun for me. If he couldn’t play, it wouldn’t have been the end of the world. I could only have watched the tournament and it had cooled me down, but it was an opportunity I didn’t want to miss.
How long did you know you would play Sentinels on VCT? Did you have time to practice?
No, we didn’t practice at all.
Yes, ShahZam basically said you practiced a few hours this morning and that’s it!
We set off on arrival. An hour before the match, I went into a server and they told me things. But he had a lot of confidence. I know the rest of the staff is good. For me, personally, I can insert a kind of slot into it easily. I can AWP, rifle, gandul, all out of calling. I see myself as a very easy piece to integrate into a team.
Looks like you’re usually on the same page throughout the game. How was the communication and synergy of the team?
They play very loose. Communications bounce back and forth very well. No communication problems. It’s pretty simple.
What do you think you have contributed to the list that has helped you succeed?
My ability to click.
Sentinels has been removed by Luminosity in the past. What was the team’s game plan in that game?
I know Shahz saw a lot of team demonstrations before the game. He told us about their trends and what they do. We were able to pick up their patterns. For example, they make a lot of looks. What he was doing was, 1v1, who was trying to challenge or find an angle.
You were at the head of the second map, but the brightness slowly faded. What caused you to start losing strength?
Split is a pretty tough map. It is basically more dependent and you can remove fakes very easily. It was hard to know completely what they were doing, unless we got information. But for the most part, they appeared at random or threw a fake and returned to the site. Since you had only put us inside, we didn’t have the necessary writings to deal with it.
Icebox is about aggressive games. Do you think he touched the Sentinels style of play?
Yes, definitely. Icebox feels like a giant target map. We can play aggressively and get away with it.
How did it feel to win so soon after joining Sentinels?
It feels good. I don’t know what to say, because I like to earn a lot. I just had a lot of fun.
You started playing VALORING soon and broke a lot of NA records at first. What made you decide to change CSGO so soon?
For me, I saw that Valve didn’t listen to the community. They don’t listen to the professionals. It’s like a brick wall. I definitely didn’t see the scene, especially with everything that was online, as something that was sustainable. When it came out VALUING for the first time, everyone was starting at the same level and I started grinding at first.
You were doing a VALORANT broadcast for a while. Do you prefer to play competitively?
I like to play a lot professionally, but I also like streaming. I really don’t know which one I would choose for the other. Maybe for now I would say I prefer to play professionals. But my transmission makes me enjoy the game a lot because I can only relax.
Without speculating on the results of recent research, do you expect to stay with Sentinels in the long run? Or is this a temporary replacement agreement?
I think this is a temporary agreement only for Masters.
Did the situation with sinatraa seem to distract the team? What did the team look like after suspending Sinatraa?
They definitely made the most of a bad situation. No one was really wrong with what happened. We just have to play our game and do our best.