Senstinels

this team is not extraordinary, though they are so much popular. why? and who joined the team he gonna be a celebrity. Can you explain the cause?

Masters 1 Reykjavik 2021 win + TenZ

Many hours of streaming

i dont car about overhyped teams like sen. i like to watch good teams playing no trash!!! (no offense)

they had almost like 0 fans before and c9 tenz was rising in popularity as the best valo player so he had like tons of fans he joined them people started supporting sen, they win, people recognise other players on team too, their streams also get popular, yt clips channels won't stfu about shahzam's opinion on everything, they trashtalk with g2 get more popularity coz apparently every region wants to hate each other. tenz no longer performs like he is the #1 but the fans still think he is so they keep supporting them. then shroud joins and they get more popularity

TenZ

They won the first international masters, that was the early days of valorant tournament. so their win lured tons of unattached fans

Sentinels won the first international event in the Valorant competitive scene, VALORANT Champions Tour 2021: Stage 2 Masters – Reykjavík, without losing any map points. They beat Fnatic 3-0, and thats how shit started to snowball.

NA(mostly USA)'s CS GO scene was dead at this point. As Valorant rose in popularity, most fans wanted to figure out who the "best" player is and TenZ was fast becoming the face of Valorant - atleast in NA. When a game starts gaining popularity in USA, and their players start streaming - the word gets out quick and further increases the popularity. You might think, why not teams and players from EU or other regions get that much attention, well it might seem shallow but its all about the $$$. The American audience is what brings in the money, the corporate sponsors and the hype.

Sentinels was in the middle of all this, and they have been very very smart regardless of what the critics on this forum have to say. They understand that although the competition is good and winning trophies is important, nothing beats what gets the money in for Riot and everyone involved - viewership and sponsors. That is why, they bring in people like Shroud who have a lot of fan-base following even if it means they lose the LCQ. Does it work? You know the answer.