[VCT NA Masters] SEN TenZ: “The team is making the most of a bad situation.”

When Sentinels announced that Jay “sinatraa” Won was being suspended a few days before the VALORANT Champions Tour NA Masters tournament, fans feared the worst for the team. But then the organization revealed that Tyson “TenZ” Ngo was going to rise the day before his first departure.

VALORANT fans were already excited, as TenZ has been a popular VALORANT streamer for a while, breaking all sorts of North American records in Riot’s tactical shooting game. And now that Sentinels defeated Luminosity 2-0 without much time for scrimming, it seems that there are only major improvements for the talented team.

TenZ talked to InvenGlobal about competing in a big tournament with little practice, which took him to win Luminosity and how long he thinks he’ll be in the squad going forward.

How did it feel to be signed to the main Sentinels list so suddenly before a big tournament?

The Sentinels contacted three days ago. We weren’t sure if I was still allowed to play. The sentries had to get approval from the C9 to lend me. Basically, we finished it like yesterday.

I wanted to play. Playing professional is a lot of 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 kind of relaxed, but it was an opportunity that I didn’t want to pass up.

How long have you known you would play with Sentinels on VCT? Did you have time to practice?

No, we don’t practice anything.

Yes ShahZam basically said that you practiced for a few hours this morning and that’s it!

We arrived at check-in. An hour before the game, I got on a server and they were explaining things to me. But I was very confident. I know that the rest of the team is good. For me personally, I can fit in very easily. I can AWP, rifle, lerk – everything besides calling. I see myself as a very easy piece to fit into a team.

You generally seemed to be on the same page during the game. How was the team’s communication and synergy?

They play very loose. Communications swing back and forth very smoothly. No communication problems. It’s very simple.

What do you think you brought to the squad that helped them succeed?

My ability to click with my head.

Sentinels have been eliminated by Luminosity in the past. What was the team’s game plan for this match?

I know that Shahz watched a lot of team demos before the match. He was explaining to us their trends and what they do. We could see their patterns. For example, they give a lot of peeks. What I was doing was 1×1 who was trying to challenge or find an angle.

You were in the lead on the second map, but Luminosity slowly caught up with you. What made you start to lose your breath?

Split is a very difficult map. It is fundamentally more reliable and you can make forgeries very easily. It was difficult to know what they were doing completely, unless we went ahead and got information. But, for the most part, they were showing up randomly or playing a fake and coming back to the site. Since we had just fit in, we didn’t have the scrims to handle it.

Icebox is all about aggressive play. Do you think you played with the Sentinels’ style of play?

Yes, definitely. The ice box looks like a giant crosshair map. We can play aggressively and get away with it.

How did it feel to win so little time after joining Sentinels?

That is good. I don’t know what else to say because I love to win. I just had a lot of fun.

You started playing VALORANT early and broke many NA records early on. What made you decide to switch from CSGO so early?

For me, I saw that Valve was not listening to the community. They don’t listen to the professionals. It is like a brick wall. I definitely didn’t see the scene – especially with everything online – as sustainable. When VALORANT was launched, everyone was starting at the same level and I started grinding at the beginning.

You have been broadcasting VALORANT for a while. Do you prefer to play competitively?

I really like to play professional, but I also like streaming. I really don’t know which one I would choose over the other. Maybe for now, I would say that I like playing professionally more. But my stream makes me really like the game because I can just relax.

Without speculating on the results of any recent investigations, do you expect to continue with the Sentinels for a long time? Or is this a temporary replacement arrangement?

I believe this is a temporary arrangement for Masters only.

Did the situation with sinatraa seem to distract the team? How did the team look after the sinatraa was suspended?

They were definitely making the most of a bad situation. No one was really upset about what happened. We just have to play our game and do the best we can.