After a long day of work, where all you want to do is play some ranked, the last thing you’d want to face are VALORANT pros in their natural habitat. Now, take that fear, and add on a TenZ and ShahZaM reunion alongside the core of Paper Rex, and you have a nightmare that recently became a reality.
Due to teams flying over to the United States to compete in VALORANT Champions 2023, lots of foreign talent is grinding ranked alongside the best Americas talent. One of the most notable five-stacks that came out of that scenario includes Sentinels superstar TenZ, his former IGL in ShahZaM, and the core three Paper Rex players: Jinggg, f0rsakeN, and something.
This tweet alongside the cowboy emoji might be the most frightening tweet Jinggg has ever posted online, especially for a player known for his shyness and comedic nature. People grinding high-level ranked games might’ve stumbled onto one of the wildest five-stacks in ranked history, with top talent from both North America and Pacific fighting together.
The first game they played was tracked through VALORANT Tracker, and this Immortal III lobby didn’t know what hit them. Thanks to a one-vs-one clutch from ShahZaM, the first half ended at 10-2 for this multi-regional team. The enemy team surrendered, as something had 17 kills and the team walked away with a 13-2 win. Only one player on the enemy team finished with a positive K/D ratio, going 15/10/2, while the rest of the team weren’t so hot.
One of the most interesting things coming out of this stack are the two NA players, as both are in a curious spot heading into the 2023/2024 off-season. Both TenZ and ShahZaM have the opportunity to join a new roster, but from very different scenarios. TenZ has an expiring contract, with the possibility to re-sign with Sentinels or go somewhere new. ShahZaM was part of G2’s roster, competing in tier two but unable to earn Ascension, and became a content creator for the org after the roster was released. While this reunion for these players might just stay in ranked, there is a chance they could be either playing together or facing each other in 2024.
Related: All contracts expiring in the VCT 2023 off-season
Lastly, the Paper Rex boys are here and looking strong heading into Champions 2023. To no one’s surprise, something is continuing his hot form from regional play, looking to make a strong international debut. The rest of the squad is notably great, as we know from runs like Masters Tokyo earlier this year, but their time to shine is now. They might be on temporary accounts, running ranked games with some of the most popular NA players around, but they might join TenZ and ShahZaM as champions sooner rather than later.
