After nearly two and a half years away from the international VALORANT stage, Sentinels’ lone remaining player from that once dominant era made an immediate impact in their VCT Masters Madrid opening match today.
Sentinels superstar Tyson “TenZ” Ngo got Sentinels fans and the Madrid crowd rocking early with a Classic pistol ace in the first round of Lotus against Team Heretics, adding another chapter to the VALORANT team’s book on how to sell the Sentinels capsule. As the two teams fought over control of the Long A corridor, TenZ put the Sentinels-branded Classic to work, even managing to get the last two kills of his ace with only nine points of health to spare.
The return to the kill feed of an international LAN has been a long time coming for one of VALORANT’s biggest stars. TenZ’s last kill at a qualified international VCT event, not counting the LOCK//IN event all partnered teams were invited to, came during a gut-wrenching loss to KRÜ Esports in the group stage of the first Champions tournament in December 2021. That loss and early exit from Champions was a shocking end to a 2021 season that began with Sentinels picking up TenZ and decimating domestic and international competition throughout the first half of the year.
TenZ, who was originally loaned out from Cloud9 before a full transfer was completed, has been the only constant presence on Sentinels since the start of 2021, staying put throughout two tumultuous seasons in 2022 and 2023. This season, though, TenZ has happily switched to a more supportive role on Omen, with a couple of KAY/O or Yoru games sprinkled in, leading to a VCT Americas Kickoff victory and a long-awaited return to international LAN.
The ace wasn’t the only thing Sentinels fans celebrated today, though, as they ended up winning the opening series against Heretics to move up into the 1-0 field at Masters Madrid.
