Strange things happen in Valorant e-sports: the real super-star of the team “Sentinels” was involved in a scandal and suspended in the middle of the – Season . As a replacement, the team borrowed 20-year-old Tenz and bought him before the World Cup for a reported $1.25 million. At the World Cup, Tenz finally became the best player in the world.

Why do the Sentinels need a first-az man in the middle of the – Season ? The Sentinels had 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, where he was voted the 2019 Most Valuable Player. When Sinatraa left Overwatch for Valorant, even Blizzard regretted it.

However, with some delay, Sinatraa was caught up in a scandal in 2021: his ex-girlfriend made accusations against him, saying that he had treated her badly in the relationship and manipulated her emotionally. As a result, Blizzard burned all bridges with him; his valorant team, the Sentinels, benched him for the time being.

Riot Games, the makers of Valorant, launched an investigation and ultimately suspended Sinatraa for 6 months for failing to help clarify the facts as he had previously pledged to do.

So the Sentinels needed a replacement.

Player was apparently unhappy with old team, ended career already

That was the drama surrounding the signing: The Sentinels borrowed player Tyson “TenZ” Ngo (20) from direct competitor Cloud9. The Canadian Tenz was an excellent CS:GO player before his career at Valorant. However, like some other CS:GO pros, he had moved to Valorant in April 2020.

However, Tenz had actually said goodbye to professional Valorant in January 2021 and announced that he would become a content creator. Obviously, however, this was due to the team, because he then wanted to play for the Sentinels after all.

Tenz then replaced the suspended Sinatraa at the Sentinels on loan from March 2021. However, Cloud9 still retained the transfer rights to him.

In any case, Tenz then played so well that the Sentinels wanted to sign him permanently. But Cloud9 allegedly only wanted to let him go for a transfer fee of 2 million US dollars.

Expert Doublelift says: Cloud 9 keeps Tenz in a prison

This was the controversy: Twitch streamer and former LoL pro Doublelift was already crying out: You can’t take Tenz hostage like that. He clearly wants to play for Sentinels.

Doublelift said: He was in a “contract prison” and Jack (the boss of Cloud9) didn’t want to let him go.

Doublelift thought this was unfair: the player had signed a contract at 17 to become a professional and now couldn’t play for the team he wanted to play for.

That, he said, was the ugly side of the pro business.

This is the deal now: As it became known now (via esportsobserver), the Sentinels have actually been able to buy Tenz. Allegedly, 1.25 million US dollars were paid – significantly less than the 2 million US dollars that Cloud9 wanted before.

The irony is this: The deal was made before the World Cup at Valorant, which was held in Iceland. At the World Cup, Tenz turned up, dominated the tournament and was voted best player.

The transfer proved to be something of a bargain for the Sentinels.

The “Valorant Chamions Tour 2021 – Stage 2 Masters- Reykjavik took place” from May 24 to 30. The Sentinels won the tournament $200,000 prize money. TenZ was elected MVP on day 7, the final day. Thus, he is unofficially considered the “best player” in Valorant until the next major tournament.

The head of Cloud9 explained, “The deal had already been decided before Iceland (via twitter). It was a dangerous deal for them because they would play the Sentinels in the Iceland qualifier, but it was important for Tenz to be able to play again.

After Tenz and the Sentinels won, the Cloud9 boss tweeted again, “You have a jailbreak,” probably alluding to the accusation that they had taken Tenz into some sort of captivity with the contract.

Maybe the Cloud9 boss is now annoyed after all to have sold Tenz “so cheaply”. Apparently, Tenz was able to increase his market value significantly during the World Cup.

Tenz has drawn attention to himself very early on. We reported on MeinmMO about the unusually talented player already in the early stages of Valorant:

Twitch streamer reaches max rank in Valorant after only 30 hours, plays strong