Origin/lore of SEN:
SEN TSM AND T1 WERE THE OG NA valorant orgs that dominated the game during beta and first couple of months. You aint a real fan unless you been there since the beginning of valorant esports. Back then T1 was the original top team in Na valorant scene and pretty much all scene because nonexistent. This was during the beta and post beta stage. Then TSM dominated the scene shortly until the rise of SEN. SEN and TSM rivalry begin and back then tbagging was at its peak. SEN would gain the reputation of becoming the villain team because of their disrespectful and free flowing playstyle. These two teams would bring in the most viewership and most hype both in game and online (twitter wars) as SEN twitter handler is a big memer. After this period SEN became known as the best team due their innovative meta comps and usage of run and gun guns.... stinger/frenzy meta and started crushing every opponent. It didn't matter if its a 2v5 or 3v5 , they would pull off insane clutches to win. Their playstyle was super coordinated and adaptive which makes them a super hard team to beat. At the first international valorant master lan you have the start of the TENZ era where sinatraa got kick and tenz join and SEN won the first ever masters. This is what most fans know SEN for now after Tenz join because he was popular streamer/youtuber known to have insane mechanics bringing new SEN fans. Sad to see that most SEN fans now don't understand the story behind SEN before Tenz. Love them or hate them SEN will go down as the first team that dominated Valorant esports in the history books (oh and 100T won the first strike or first champions technically but its regional competition only so no one really cares about that).
I'd say things such as being from NA count as well considering they speak English and this allows international viewers whose second language is English to view their streams and understand more easily. They were a pretty dominant force in NA itself since the start from pro Val so that would also make them popular from the start, and the acquisition of TenZ, then considered NA's best, would also garner more fans making them more popular. Their flawless win in Reykjavik also counts, as a larger and international fanbase would go on to watch them win and follow them thinking they are one of the strongest teams internationally. So yeah, everything you asked is basically a reason why they are so popular.
easy answer, lots were streamers, and they were best in NA, they were placing first in everything for a time, so they had hype in iceland, then dominated there so it solidified them as the best and added to hype, and the hype helped the streams which helped the hype and the cycle kept going till they lost.
They won masters 2
They have a team of big streamers and Sinatraa being big also helps
They dominated NA VCT for so long
They have Tenz
Tenz being in contract jail for the longest time also helped
Tenz fragging out crazy hard in Masters 2 making him by far the best player at the time
So no fnc probably wouldnt have been as popular considering they doont have half the things that made sen really popular in the first place but they definitely wouldve been really big
Sen was the best in NA for so long early into this game's life. Hence most players gravitated towards them as they were literally NA's best hope, at least that's the way it looked before M3. They dominated Challengers 3 and it wasn't even close.
Sentinels downfall definitely started in M3 though, as even though they were the undoubted best team NA in Challengers 3, they were the 3rd best NA team in Masters 3.
I suspect another weak showing will lead to either Sentinels fans supporting other NA teams or stop watching the pro scene altogether.
Several reasons:
Sinatraa's popularity, being Overwatch World Cup winner and MVP. His move to valorang also brings his "cult" to move as well. Even with all controversies, sinatraa's influence in valorant as a whole is still big.
Sentinels as an org is already big. Its Fortnite division won the world cup with Bugha so at least they have money or sponsors to estabilish their business in esport.
Sentinels' valorant team, as many users already comment, is a powerhouse since ignition series.
Yeah i don't get it either. They won The first international event with 12 teams and then fell down hard. Master 3: a joke, Champions: a joke, Now on qualify: a worst joke. For the time that passed Optic and C9 has shown a better game. This year I hope to see more of these 3 teams: The guard, C9 and Optic.
Well early 2021 was when TSM started to fall off alongside cloud9 (they were never really that amazing but when tenz left that gutted them). I few teams had their 15 minutes of fame like faze for example but the still got outshined by sentinels. 100t wasnt bad but they definitely had a noticeable decline and at the time envy/optic was decent but they weren’t the team we know them as now. So to answer your question, the most beloved NA pro joins an already really popular team while other popular NA teams fell off.
They were already really good and popular along with TSM in the pre-first strike era, and then when they got Tenz all the dickriders made them even more popular, and winning Reykjavik 2021 made them one of the most popular teams in the world, they've just consistently been one of the best teams in NA since the beginning of the game, and when you're good people like you. People also were huge on TSM when they were popping off in the ignition series
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