2 days before the most important tournament Valorant has had yet, Sinatraa was benched from Sentinels after sexual misconduct allegations from his ex-girlfriend. Former professional player TenZ has replaced him for the duration of the tournament.
TenZ retired from professional Valorant to focus on content creation after a string of losses on Cloud 9 in December last year. The streamer stayed with Cloud 9 as a content creator and is well known for his mechanical skill and Jett plays. Cloud 9 agreed to sell TenZ to Sentinels, confirmed by Sentinels, C9 Jack, and the VCT Masters Twitter accounts.
It is unknown whether TenZ will continue to play on Sentinels after the tournament, or whether he will go back to Cloud 9 as a streamer but given the short space of time Sentinels had to make all this happen, it is likely plans are being made on the fly. Sinatraa's fate lies in the hands of the VCT, who claims to be investigating the allegations made against him.
Despite TenZ’s unquestionable skill, the lack of practice with Sentinels, as well as his shallow Agent pool will hurt the team. TenZ played an offensive, duellist role on Cloud 9, mostly playing Jett and Reyna. This contrasts heavily with Sinatraa’s flexible role on Sentinels, with his most played Agent being Sova. Within the duellist category, the preferences also hold differences with TenZ playing Jett and Reyna, and Sinatraa choosing Phoenix, and Raze.
TenZ does have 17 professional games on Raze, so it’s possible we see him play that role on Sentinels. However, this would likely mean Sentinels do not have anyone to play Sova, which is a key part of most of their preferred compositions, with Sintaraa picking the Agent in almost 50% of his professional matches.
VCT: North America – Masters started yesterday, the 11th of March. Sentinels play today against Luminosity Gaming at 8 pm GMT. Having 4 wins and 6 losses in their last 10 games, Luminosity might be a great opportunity for Sentinels to figure out their line-up and how TenZ fits into the team.
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