After over four years of competing in Valorant, three of which spent as the face of Sentinels Sentinels North America Rank #4 N4RRATE Marshall Massey bang Sean Bezerra Zellsis Jordan Montemurro zekken Zachary Patrone johnqt Mohamed Amine Ouarid , Tyson "TenZ" Ngo has announced his retirement. The talent stated that he will be remaining with the organization, albeit not as a player. This change for Sentinels comes after a recent fourth place finish at Champions Seoul, a notable finish to the organization's fruitful year in the VCT.
Among the initial batch of Counter Strike pros to migrate to the Valorant scene back in 2020, TenZ kicked off his new career under Cloud9 Cloud9 North America Rank #7 Xeppaa Erick Bach Rossy Daniel Abedrabbo v1c Victor Truong moose Kaleb Jayne OXY Francis Hoang 's first Valorant roster. In the early stages of the game's development, TenZ was highly-regarded as one of the best Duelist players in the scene. His explosive playstyle allowed his team to make many deep runs in tournaments.
However, TenZ would suddenly retire – for the first time – in early 2021 to pursue content creation, attributing the lack of offline events and unsatisfying tournament results under Cloud9 Blue.
Nearly two months later, Sentinels found themselves in a pinch after star-player Jay "sinatraa" Won was temporarily suspended from competing by Riot, forcing the organization to frantically search for a replacement to assist them for Stage 1 of the 2021 VCT. TenZ was loaned from Cloud9 and returned to the scene just in time to push Sentinels towards the first international event of VCT history, Masters Reykjavik 2021.
The global stage was where TenZ captured the hearts of fans. He fit perfectly into the five-map unit and slotted right into the team Shahzeb "ShahZaM" Khan lead. Ready to showcase their talents to the world, Sentinels dominated Reykavik 2021 without dropping a map and began gaining supporters following their 3-0 over FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #3 Sayonara Ștefan Mîtcu stand-in Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder in the grand finals. From there, TenZ and the rest of North America's best stepped foot on every global stage in the VCT that year.
The first five to ever do it. (Photo: Riot Games/Colin Young-Wolff)
Following a 2021 full of regional domination, Sentinels' dynasty began to show cracks. The next two years would see the North American powerhouse shuffle players around in hopes of making Masters and Champions. Unfortunately, after a 2022 full of lackluster results, the organization would rebuild the roster from scratch, bidding farewell to almost all the former players that once hoisted Reykjavik's trophy. The time prior to the commencement of the franchised system prompted countless teams to conduct roster overhauls, with only the best of the best remaining as star players.
TenZ alone survived the rostermania and Sentinels entered 2023 with a brand-new squad in hopes of finding more success. Once again, however, the team was unable to replicate the highs they once achieved in the VCT and failed to pick up a single win internationally. Once again, the organization made internal changes to prepare for the following year, and once again, TenZ began preparing with his new teammates for the next season.
After two years of beatdowns and upsetting placements, Sentinels finally qualified for their first international event of the season; Masters Madrid. The team upset many fan favorites within the Americas Kickoff to re-establish regional dominance and ignite the engine that would fuel their global run.
While in Spain, Sentinels defeated powerhouse after powerhouse to advance all the way to the grand finals. Throughout it all, TenZ held his own against other household names, even after finding himself in a brand-new Controller role. A 3-1 victory over Paper Rex Paper Rex Asia-Pacific Rank #3 mindfreak Aaron Leonhart Jinggg Wang Jing Jie f0rsakeN Jason Susanto d4v41 Khalish Rusyaidee something Ilya Petrov pitted North America's sole representative in a match against Gen.G Gen.G Korea Rank #1 Foxy9 Jung Jae-sung (정재성) t3xture Kim Na-ra (김나라) Munchkin Byeon Sang-beom (변상범) yoman Chae Young-moon (채영문) Karon Kim Won-tae (김원태) in a bid for the title, which ended in TenZ hoisting his second Masters trophy in three years.
Absolute cinema. (Photo: Riot Games/Colin Young-Wolff)
Despite missing out on Masters Shanghai, the Championship Points accumulated by Sentinels throughout their Kickoff and Madrid runs qualified them to Champions as the fourth seed from the Americas League. A group of death left the team unfazed as they took down FunPlus Phoenix FunPlus Phoenix China Rank #5 Autumn Kale Dunne Life Qu Donghao (瞿东豪) AAAAY Zhang Yang (张杨) BerLIN Zhang Bolin (張柏霖) yosemite Wang Lei (王磊) and Gen.G to qualify for Seoul's playoffs.
In their last run of the year, Sentinels defeated DRX DRX Korea Rank #5 Flashback Cho Min-hyuk (조민혁) MaKo Kim Myeong-gwan (김명관) Athan Na Ha-jun (나하준) freeing No Ha-jun (노하준) HYUNMIN Song Hyun-min (송현민) before falling to the lower bracket courtesy of EDward Gaming EDward Gaming China Rank #1 S1Mon Hsien Meng-Hsun (谢孟勋) ZmjjKK Zheng Yongkang (郑永康) nobody Wang Senxu (王森旭) CHICHOO Wan Shunzhi (万顺治) Smoggy Zhang Zhao (张钊) , the future champions. Poetically, the last match that TenZ would go on to win in his competitive career was against FNATIC, the very team that he once defeated to claim his first-ever trophy.
Unfortunately for Sentinels, their run at Champs would end after Team Heretics Team Heretics Europe Rank #1 MiniBoo Dominykas Lukaševičius Wo0t Mert Alkan RieNs Enes Ecirli benjyfishy Benjamin David Fish Boo Ričardas Lukaševičius shattered their dreams of advancing in a three-map match, closing the chapter on TenZ's competitive journey.
Years of competing amassed TenZ a large following on social media as one of – if not the – most well-known Valorant players. The former pro now takes a rest from competing professionally and will continue creating content with a relaxed schedule.
Sentinels Sentinels North America Rank #4 N4RRATE Marshall Massey bang Sean Bezerra Zellsis Jordan Montemurro zekken Zachary Patrone johnqt Mohamed Amine Ouarid are now: