[ad_1]
When Sentinels announced that Jay “sinatraa” Won was suspended days before the VALORANT Champions Tour NA Masters, fans feared the worst for the team. But then the organization revealed that Tyson “TenZ” Ngo would step up a day before their first game.
VALORANT fans were already excited, as TenZ has been a popular VALORANT streamer for quite some time now, breaking all manner of North American records in Riot’s tactical shooter. And now that Sentinels have beaten Luminosity 2-0 without too much time for the scrum, it looks like there are only major improvements to come for the talented squad.
TenZ spoke with InvenGlobal about coming to a major tournament with little training, what it took to beat Luminosity, and how long he thinks he’ll be on the roster in the future.
How did it feel to be put on the Sentinels main roster so suddenly before a major tournament?
The Sentinels contacted three days ago. We weren’t sure for sure if I was still allowed to play. The sentries had to get C9’s agreement to lend me. We finalized it like yesterday.
I wanted to play. Playing pro is really fun for me. If I couldn’t play, it wouldn’t have been the end of the world. I could have just watched the tournament and relaxed but it was an opportunity I didn’t want to pass up.
How long did you know you were going to play Sentinels in VCT? Did you have time to practice?
No, we haven’t practiced at all.
Yeah, ShahZam basically said you practiced for a few hours this morning and that’s it!
We arrived at check-in time. An hour before the game, they walked into a server and they were explaining things to me. But I was pretty confident. I know the rest of the team is good. For me, personally, I can sort of register very easily. I can AWP, rifle, lerk – everything outside the call. I see myself as a really easy part to integrate into a team.
You generally seemed to be on the same page throughout the game. How did the team’s communication and synergy go?
They play really loose. Communications come and go smoothly. No communication problem. It’s pretty straightforward.
What did you think you added to the list that helped you succeed?
My ability to click on the head.
Sentries have been eliminated by Luminosity in the past. What was the team’s game plan for this game?
I know Shahz watched a bunch of squad demos before the game. He explained to us their tendencies and what they do. We were able to discover their models. For example, they throw a lot of stares. What I was doing was 1v1 anyone who was trying to challenge or find an angle.
You were in the lead on the second map, but Luminosity slowly caught up to it. What made you lose speed?
Split is quite a difficult map. It’s more fundamentally dependent and you can shoot fakes very easily. It was hard to fully know what they were doing unless we pushed and got some information. But for the most part they would randomly jump or throw a scythe and go back to the site. Since we had just signed up, we didn’t have the framework to deal with this.
Icebox is all about aggressive games. Do you think this played with the Sentinels playstyle?
Definitely yes. Icebox looks like a giant aiming card. We can play aggressively and get away with it.
How did it feel to win a victory so soon after joining Sentinels?
It feels good. I don’t know what else to say because I really like to win. I just had a lot of fun.
You started playing VALORANT very early on and you beat a lot of NA records very early on. What prompted you to change CSGO so early?
For me, I saw that Valve was not listening to the community. They don’t listen to the pros. It’s a bit like a brick wall. I certainly didn’t see the scene – especially with anything online – as something lasting. When VALORANT first came out, everyone was starting at the same level and I just started grinding at the start.
You were broadcasting VALORANT for a while. Do you prefer to play competitively?
I really like playing the pros, but I also like streaming. I’m not sure which one I would choose over the other. Maybe at the moment I would say I like playing pro more. But my stream makes me really enjoy the game because I can just relax.
Without speculating on the results of recent surveys, do you plan to stay with Sentinels for the long term? Or is this a temporary substitution arrangement?
I think this is a temporary arrangement only for Masters.
Did the situation with sinatraa seem to distract the team at all? What did the team look like after Sinatraa’s suspension?
They were definitely making the most of a bad situation. No one was really disappointed with what had happened. We just have to play our game and do our best.
[ad_2]
Source link